Explaining Laws in Special Relativity
Wesley Salmon has suggested that the two leading views of scientific explanation, the “bottom-up” view and the “top-down” view, describe distinct types of explanation. In this paper, I focus on theoretical explanations in physics, i.e., explanations of physical laws. Using explanations of E=mc2, I argue that the distinction between bottom-up explanations (BUEs) and top-down explanations (BUEs) is best understood as a manifestation of a deeper distinction, found originally in Newton’s work, between two levels of theory. I use Einstein’s distinction between ‘principle’ and ‘constructive’ theories to argue that only lower level theories, i.e., ‘constructive’ theories, can yield BUEs. These explanations, furthermore, depend on higher level laws that receive only TDEs from a ‘principle’ theory. Thus, I conclude that Salmon’s challenge to characterize the relationship between the two types of explanation can be met only by recognizing the close relationship between types of theoretical explanation and the structure of physical theory.
The two leading views of scientific explanation, Salmon’s “bottom-up” view and the Friedman-Kitcher “top-down” view, give what appear to be prima facie incompatible characterizations of scientific explanation. According to the bottom-up view, we explain a given phenomenon when we uncover the underlying causal mechanisms that are responsible for its occurrence. The top-down view, on the other hand, maintains that we explain a phenomenon by deriving it from the general principles or laws that best unify our knowledge. In this paper, I focus on theoretical explanations in physics, i.e., explanations of physical laws. I first show that, as Salmon suggests (1989, p. 180-182), it seems promising to treat these two approaches not so much as different views about explanation but rather as descriptions of two distinct types of scientific explanations; there are clear cases of laws that have bottom-up explanations (BUEs) while others receive only top-down explanations (TDEs). I then argue, using explanations of mass-energy equivalence in Special Relativity (SR), that this disparity (why should some laws receive only TDEs after all?) is best understood as a symptom of a deeper distinction, first introduced by Newton, between two levels of physical theory. At one level, there is the collection of general principles and definitions of physical terms, i.e., a theoretical framework, from which one derives general constraints for all physical processes. At a lower level, there are laws that identify and describe specific physical interactions like gravitation and electromagnetism.
Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity has had a colossal impact on the world and is the accepted physical theory reg...
Observations (page 26) are only clues to a mystery. The schema created by the observer can affect the results. "Therefore, observations like those discussed in the preceding sections could be collected and put in systematic form by men whose beliefs about the structure of the universe resembled those of the ancient Egyptians" (page 26).
To begin, the concept of unification is essentially the idea that scientific explanations should provide a unified account of a range of different phenomena. In other words, the best theories are those that can explain the most phenomena in the simplest way. This is why in the history of scientific explanation, we preferred Newton’s theory of motion over the more specific theories of Kepler and Galileo that preceded it. Because Newton’s theory was able to “unify” the observational data of his predecessors, as well as explain other...
With the common core standards students now will be able to transfer schools and understand what is going on because the Common Core Standard provides a clear understanding to all students of what they are expected to learn. It will provide all of the students with an equal opportunity to learn same curriculum no matter which school they are going to. These standards will not limit the students with different level of achievement among students; instead they will ensure a more consistent exposure to materials and learning experience though instructions and teacher preparation. However, two c...
Greene continues with his explanations of the special theory of relativity.Chapter 3: Of Warps and Ripples Green begins the chapter by describing "Newton's View of Gravity" and continues by discussing the incompatibility of Newtonian Gravity and Special Relativity. The author also talks about how Einstein discovered the link between acceleration and the warping of space and time. Greene also discuses the basic aspects of General Relativity. He later points out how the two theories of relativity effect black holes, the big bang, and the expansion of space.Chapter 4: Microscopic Weirdness This chapter describes, in detail, the workings of quantum mechanics.
This physiologically affects the reduction in the functional volume of the stomach, and the response to food. There are several variations of gastric bypass.
“College education is only a mere rite of passage these days and a capstone to adolescent party time” (Henry). This is one of the things William A. Henry had to say about College Education, especially community colleges. William A. Henry was a critic, columnist and an author. In his career he received several prizes including the Pulitzer Prize as a drama critic for Time Magazine. He also wrote several books including his final and controversial book In Defense of Elitism which he talks about the tension America always had between elitism and egalitarianism. In those terms he sheds some light on education. Stanley Fish who published an article Colleges Caught In a Vise stating that colleges are offering an inferior product, in other words- an education that isn’t worth anything. Stanley Fish is a literary theorist, scholar, author, and was a professor in several Universities but now a Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School and a dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois. What these two authors had to say about college raises a question whether community colleges should exist anymore. William A. Henry even states that community colleges should be closed and the number of high school graduates that go on to college should be reduced by about fifty percent. I agree with William A. Henry that the number of community colleges should be reduced down in our education system because first: a community college certificate has no value and oversupply of college graduates is affecting the economy. Second, community college tuition and expenses are climbing and in result continuing to offer cheaper education. I will analyze what community colleges are currently doing wrong, why they should be closed, and r...
As a conclusion to the whole essay, aspartame is a food additive embedded with unfavorable effects. It seems as a good product to the economy and to the environment, but speaking of its human physiological effects, it is adverse to the development of good health.
In a present day conference on whether physics can provide valuable, genuine knowledge of the world, two people sit, listening attentively. Both people are deep in thought about their own theories on the subject. One, David Hume, shakes his head in outright denial. While most those in the conference are in agreement that physics can, indeed, provide genuine knowledge, he contends that physics and mathematics provide nothing at all. In fact, he thinks to himself, only things that can be divvied up into various sensory impressions provide genuine knowledge and, since mathematics and sciences cannot (particularly because they rely on causal relationships) they are essentially a waste of time.
The Common Core has been a highly debated educational initiative based in the United States that provides children of all race, religious denomination, and socioeconomic background the same educational path from kindergarten through senior year of high school or the 12th grade. The Common Core provides six standards on its website that serve as its oath. “The standards are: 1. Research- and evidence-based. 2. Clear, understandable, and consistent. 3. Aligned with college and career expectations. 4. Based on rigorous content and application of knowledge through higher-order thinking skills. 5. Built upon the
However, by making the assumption that all statements are universally either “true” or “false”, he dismisses perfectly logical scientific explanations which are merely outdated. Specifically, he is saying that explanations that were previously accepted by the scientific community but are no longer due to “ampler evidence now available...was not-and had never been-a correct explanation” (138). This is simply not true, as the “correctness” of an explanation is not binary; that is, there may exist some explanations which provide partial explanations which may be perfectly accurate in some contexts, but misleading or even wrong in others. I will refer to this as the context dependency of scientific laws. A good example of such a phenomenon with more than one correct explanation is how electricity is produced. Electricity can be explained as the motion of electrons, which are subatomic particles that circulate around the nucleus of an atom. The Bohr model gives this explanation, claiming that an atom looks akin to our solar system. Recently, more accurate models like the Schroedinger model have come through to state that the Bohr model is not entirely accurate, and that the existence of electrons around atoms in certain places is based on probabilistic models. Despite this new information, the Bohr model can still be used to explain electricity and the motion of
In 2013, the world went through a huge unusual climate change. With for example, the typhoon
There are many studies have conducted on the Common Core issue. I am interested in reading and knowing this topic, the Common Core Standards in the American perspective. According to State Standards Initiative, the Common Core State Standards established curricula for English language arts and literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects “the Standards” are the peak of a prolonged effort to carry out the charge supplied by the states to build the generation of K-12 standards to help guarantee that all learners are college and occupation ready in knowledge at the end of high school. (Schutz, n.d.).
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...
“How can we understand the world in which we find ourselves?” In The Grand Design, a 2010 book written by theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, two authors claim that they have found a philosophical approach – Model Dependent Realism (MDR) – as the solution to this fundamental question of philosophy. Combining the ideas raised from methodology of mathematics and Physics, MDR leads a possible path to reconcile the uncertain nature of modern science and the idealistic pursuit of absolute truth – perhaps the theory of everything (TOE).