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Theory of Knowledge Writing Assignment
“Nothing can be known with certainty'; Is this statement true? Are you certain? In this essay I plan to show that nothing can be known with certainty, I will examine the truth and certainty of life and of humans, and prove that nothing can be known for certain.
Sir Isaac Newton came up with many theories of time and space. Euclid said that there can be a concept of a straight line but Newton said nothing could ever travel in a straight line, see illustration below.
It shows that in this spherical universe one can go straight but never for very long. If you are certain you are going in a straight line think again. But these facts are known, if not by the general public then at least by mathematicians. However Max Born states the theory only holds water if the exact sphere of reference is specified, if nothing is certain then the sphere of reference can never be known to a point where there is no question as to it being perfect, therefore a basic theory of motion is null and void. The statement “nothing can be known with certainty'; holds true to the vast unending universe all the way down to the tinniest subatomic particle. Everything is moving; nothing can be studied to so exactly that there is no question about the object, because the act of studying an object changes the object.
I am not saying that Newton’s and other theories like it are wrong, I am saying that we put too much faith in something that is not absolute, unfortunately we have no other choice.
When I sat down to write this essay I decided to look for the easy way out. In Microsoft Word 97 there is a feature where you can ask the computer a question and it will answer it to the best of its knowledge. If computers are as powerful as man created them, then my state of the art machine with its state of the art word processor should have no problem answering the question, “Why is nothing ever certain?'; When I hit enter to ask the machine the question I was bombarded with a multitude of answers but none of which fit the question. The computer could show me how to print multiple copies of this essay, and how to get this essay on to the Internet where mathematicians and artists alike could see it.
The theory of relativity is the basic theory about space-time continuum and gravitation which was mainly established by the greatest theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. According to the areas it aims to describe, Einstein’s theory of relativity can be classified into special relativity (space-time) and general relativity (gravitation) 1. The theory of relativity, as do quantum mechanics, brought a revolutionary impact on the foundation of modern physics, and thus had an impact on modern technology. And it impacted the “common sense” understanding that people had of the universe by its new concepts such as four dimensional spaces and curved space.
What was General Relativity? Einstein's earlier theory of time and space, Special Relativity, proposed that distance and time are not absolute. The ticking rate of a clock depends on the motion of the observer of that clock; likewise for the length of a "yard stick." Published in 1915, General Relativity proposed that gravity, as well as motion, can affect the intervals of time and of space.
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician ho discovered that planetary motion is elliptical. Early in his life, Kepler wanted to prove that the universe obeyed Platonistic mathematical relationships, such as the planetary orbits were circular and at distances from the sun proportional to the Platonic solids (see paragraph below). However, when his friend the astronomer Tycho Brahe died, he gave Kepler his immense collection of astronomical observations. After years of studying these observations, Kepler realized that his previous thought about planetary motion were wrong, and he came up with his three laws of planetary motion. Unfortunately, he did not have a unifying theory for these laws. This had to until Newton formulated his laws of gravity and motion.
Sir Isaac Newton, the man that helped people figure out why things move and how they move, had a very interesting life. In the beginning of his early life, he dealt with hardships, and progressed to be an extremely inspiring man later in his life. In college he had many breakthroughs with his scientific works, including the laws of physics that we still use today. His life has answered many of people’s scientific questions that are still being asked today in physics’ classrooms all around the world. His discoveries have helped people for over 350 years to know and understand why things move the way they move, and stop the way they stop. Newton’s works comprise of the Principia and many other important publishing’s that he started when he was just in college. Newton’s life was full of discoveries, from his life as a minor to the years later in his life when he became an important individual in the government and changed the world, as we know it today.
The Theory of Relativity, proposed by the Jewish physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) in the early part of the 20th century, is one of the most significant scientific advances of our time. Although the concept of relativity was not introduced by Einstein, his major contribution was the recognition that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant and an absolute physical boundary for motion. This does not have a major impact on a person's day-to-day life since we travel at speeds much slower than light speed. For objects travelling near light speed, however, the theory of relativity states that objects will move slower and shorten in length from the point of view of an observer on Earth. Einstein also
Isaac Newton’s story of how an apple falling from a tree that hit his head inspired him to formulate a theory of gravitation is one that all school children grow up hearing about. Newton is arguably one of the most influential scientific minds in human history. He has published books such as Arithmetica Universalis, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, Methods of Fluxions, Opticks, the Queries, and most famously, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia MathematicaHe formulated the three laws of gravitation, discovered the generalized binomial theorem, developed infinitesimal calculus (sharing credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz, who developed the theory independently), and worked extensively on optics and refraction of light. Newton changed the way that people look at the world they live in and how the universe works.
Issac Newton was a great contributor to the mathematics and physics we use today and he is a well respected man.
Copernicus was a scientist and philosopher whose theory proposed that the sun was stationary, and the heavens orbit around the sun. Galileo tried to convince the Church not to abolish the Copernican theory but was told that he was not to entertain such thoughts with others.... ... middle of paper ... ...(n.d.).
Isaac Newton and Aristotle both conjectured how motion of bodies work by offering their own explanations. Aristotle wanted to answer the question of why a ball tossed into the air will seemingly always stop at some point, so he conjectured that it is a natural tendency (i.e. a general law) for all objects to want to come to rest (Smoot). As Newton comes along, he suggests that objects will always travel in a straight line at a constant velocity, and that the existence of friction (or some other outside force) is what causes objects to stop at some point. While these statements may seem contradictory, as the Bohr Model and more recent models may also seem contradictory, it is natural to assume that at least one of these statements must be false. However, making such a claim again ignores the physical context in which the phenomenon resides. Aristotle’s conjecture is true, as long as the ball is always thrown on Earth where there is an atmosphere. Therefore, it can be seen that the truth of a general law is dependent on what one means by the word always. Newton’s laws may be more true on a broader level, but even they fail when an object is moving near the speed of light. Hence, Newtonian mechanics is only true if one assumes that the
If Newtonian physics is so flawed, then why is it still used today? The answer is very simple. When traveling at speeds that are far from the speed of light i.e. speeds typical of human experience, effects such as time dilation and length contraction are so minute, it’s not practical to use Einstein’s more complex equations of Special Relativity in place of Newton’s for these motions. The fastest a human being has ever gone in a spacecraft in space is nowhere remotely near the awesome speed of light. Perhaps in the future, when spacecraft capable of traveling just under speed of light is developed, will we encounter this phenomenon in a substantial quantity.
One of the theories that I agree with the most is Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. This theory implies that time and space are relative rather than absolute. This is said to hold true only with the absence of a gravitational field. Without Einstein’s theory of relativity the accuracy of the global positing system would drift more than seven miles every day.
The basics of the theory can be explained with reasonable simplicity, in that essentially, all of the current and past substance in the universe came into existence at the same time. At one point about fifteen billion years ago, all known matter was concentrated into an extremely small ball, that had infinite density and intense heat, known now as a singularity. It is this that began to expand and cause the being of the universe. Like with all theories the specifics of this have developed over time, and there have been many advances from the first proposal made by Belgian priest, Georges Lemaître in the 1920’s which stated that the universe began from a single primordial atom. (Chow, 2011) (Coffey, 2010) (Robbins, 2006)
In The Quantum Enigma, Rosenblum and Kuttner address the impact of the “Newtonian worldview” on our ability to understand and explain the phenomena of the physical world. Science has been able to greatly advance our knowledge of the natural world over the last several centuries largely due to this worldview. In this paper, five tenets of the Newtonian worldview will be summarized; two of these points—those found to be the most and least defensible—will be discussed in greater detail. As a final point, a discussion will be laid out regarding which of the five precepts, if rejected by modern physics, would be the most disturbing to give up.
Moritz Schlick believed the all important attempts at establishing a theory of knowledge grow out of the doubt of the certainty of human knowledge. This problem originates in the wish for absolute certainty. A very important idea is the concept of "protocol statements", which are "...statements which express the facts with absolute simplicity, without any moulding, alteration, or addition, in whose elaboration every science consists, and which precede all knowing, every judgment regarding the world." (1) It makes no sense to speak of uncertain facts, only assertions and our knowledge can be uncertain. If we succeed therefore in expressing the raw facts in protocol statements without any contamination, these appear to be the absolutely indubitable starting points of all knowledge. They are again abandoned, but they constitute a firm basis "...to which all our cognitions owe whatever validity they may possess." (2) Math is stated indirectly into protocol statements which are resolved into definite protocol statements which one could formulate exactly, in principle, but with tremendous effort. Knowledge in life and science in some sense begins with confirmation of facts, and the protocol statements stand at the beginning of science. In the event that protocol statements would be distinguished by definite logical properties, structure, position in the system of science, and one would be confronted with the task of actually specifying these properties. We fin...
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition for certainty is “known or proved to be true”. But can something ever truly be certain? . There is always something that could occur that could derail something from happening. However, there is sometimes a sense of certainty that one has, and this sense, whether true or false, can create a strong feeling of confidence in someone or something. An aspect of certainty that is commonly overlooked is that in certain situations, thinking something is certain can inspire hope in someone. This notion of having confidence can play a unique role on one’s mind and thought process. A feeling of certainty can inspire hope in someone, believing that something is set in stone, and this feeling acts as a driving force in the attitude of that one person. Another important way in which certainty can affect someone is through someone’s decision-making. When something, usually a situation, is seen as “certain”, this feeling can bring about a gargantuan deal of confidence, and confidence is also a very influential force. Confidence often kickstarts someone, lighting a fire beneath them, and driving them to reach their goal or