RichardKennaway comments on Rationality Quotes May 2014 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: elharo 01 May 2014 09:45AM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 10 May 2014 04:23:54PM *  2 points [-]

It takes more than an hour to teach a child that objects don't fall because they are heavy but because of gravity.

"Because of gravity" isn't any better an explanation than "because they are heavy". Why does "gravity" accelerate all masses the same? Really thinking about that leads to general relativity, so it actually takes many years to explain why things fall, and it can't be done without going through calculus, topology, and differential geometry.

Cf. Feynman on explanations (07:10–09:05).

Comment author: ChristianKl 10 May 2014 06:14:09PM *  0 points [-]

Just being able to recite "because of gravity" is not enough for many purposes. I myself did well in physics at school and finished best in class in it but I haven't studied any physics since then and I'm well aware that I don't understand advanced physics.

"Because of gravity" isn't any better an explanation than "because they are heavy".

It's not perfect but it is better. Airplanes fly well based on Newtonian physics.