AlexMennen comments on Edward Nelson claims proof of inconsistency in Peano Arithmetic - Less Wrong

13 Post author: JoshuaZ 27 September 2011 12:46PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (115)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: AlexMennen 29 September 2011 02:26:02AM *  0 points [-]

My previous attempt at a reply didn't make much sense. And this is deep enough into the thread that I won't bother with rot13.

Let's try again: The description given by Thomas accurately models how each individual particle accelerates (towards the origin). It thus also accurately models how the center of mass accelerates in the non-limiting case.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 29 September 2011 02:54:04AM 0 points [-]

I think Richard Kennaway's answer is correct and it seems to me to be opposite to your original answer. The non-limiting case is not interesting. The question is whether there is a coherent extension of Newtonian mechanics to infinitely many particles. It does cover this case and the center of mass still works.

Comment author: AlexMennen 29 September 2011 03:18:49AM *  0 points [-]

The question is whether there is a coherent extension of Newtonian mechanics to infinitely many particles.

I think this paradox shows that the answer is no.

It does cover this case and the center of mass still works.

I can't figure out what this sentence was intended to mean.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 29 September 2011 03:23:39AM 1 point [-]