You don't need general relativity to go to the moon. Newtonian physics is more than good enough.Of course, the second thing that's important is that this is not just a mathematical equation.
dimensions and you know they stretch our puny little brains past the breaking Newtonian words have acquire new meanings and they're specific mathematical meanings but they bleed
region outside the black hole where not even light can escape but there's a very interesting uh origin to that idea so in Newtonian in the Newtonian Universe uh he believed Newton believed that light was made of particles these cuscal sothere was a very interesting uh scholar man of the cloth of John Mitchell who was in Cambridge who then cleverly came
conversation about what do you want us to do about it. And they'd say, "Well, we have photos." And they'd say, "Well, what are the photos of? Well, we've got a photo of his black eye." And I'd say, that Newtonian counter reaction thing again, right? In other words, what you mentioned, there's almost a human need for some of this stuff. And I'm going to break it down to personality types.
The easiest thing, number two, is that it came as a surprise, but it came as a surprise just because we were used to Newtonian science. It was discovered with quantum mechanics that we cannot predict the future exactly, even if we have maximal information about something, right?
of modern physics, not the more ordinary. Newton's Newtonian physics describes the everyday world. And so if you're learning about billiard balls, you're not really learning anything new.
And then I read about quantum physics, which is this amazing sect of physics, which is basically, I think, queer physics. So it's like Newtonian physics is like metronome activity. Quantum physics is a queer theory, in the sense that, whereas Newtonian physics is looking for fixed, universal formulae and principles,
And, in fact, the cover of the book, you look at it, it's a Newton's cradle in an impossible position. Because in the Newtonian theory of trends here, these trends can ebb and flow. So what are some major trends and counter trends today?
which is he came up with some of the most radical ideas in physics in the last 100 years um uh without a doubt um and you know reconceptualized Newtonian gravity and the theory of general relativity the photo electric effect you know quantum mechanics I mean he's just made so many contributions but he's notorious for one thing which is when the implications of his own ideas get
beyond the regime of general relativity because we see nice classical capillarian uh orbits here right so we you know with just Newtonian understanding we can figure out the mass of the object which is shown as a star and that's where the 4 million uh 4 million times mass of the solar masses comes from from that measurement and so this is just to show you where we are in
uh that was supposed to Define reality from the bottom up and I think it still you know Newtonian physics it was all linear direct line This movement moves that moves that but now when we we know
That's a very strange theorem. And in Newtonian mechanics that was true.
That's a very strange theorem. the greatest expert on Newtonian mechanics said in several different places that if an Intelligence--
That's a very strange theorem. And therefore in Newtonian mechanics-- if we suppose the Big Bang known at the time of Newtonian mechanics-- it would be true
Here's another breakthrough. This is Newton's cradle, basic understanding of how physics works, Newtonian mechanics. Everyone familiar with Newtonian mechanics, vaguely? Basically, if you hit one ball to another, it moves.
And it's that before Einstein, everyone shared the same reference frame. So in a Newtonian universe the speed of light is instantaneous, which means everyone sees the same thing. So everything's invariant. And in Einstein's universe this is no longer true.
That's the idea of a horizon. You do Newtonian physics in high school, and then it's not until-- if you did physics in college, you'll start to get into relativity and quantum
David Lieber: Yeah. Rahm Emanuel: David Lieber: There you go. You reference Newtonian physics and we actually had some questions around that. Rahm Emanuel: Well I'd better call my older brother who's the smart one in the family.
The problem was that Einstein wanted to reproduce what Newton had done. Relativity was a replacement for the Newtonian picture of absolute space and time. And remember, when Newton wrote his book, the very first thing he did was say, and the force of gravity acts in this way.
I think his big lesson was that Newton was an ass. He didn't care for Newtonian physics. I didn't either, to tell you the truth.
If I pick up an object and I throw it to anybody who's out there in the audience, they'll know how to put their hand and catch it because we have Newtonian physics in our bones. You don't have to calculate trajectories to figure out where to put your hand.
The problem is that, even though this is consistent with certain pieces of data, it can't be true as the final answer, at least, according to the standards of classical Newtonian mechanics because these electrons zooming around in orbits should be emitting electromagnetic waves. When you take a charged particle like an electron, and you shake it in any way, it has an electric field radiating
Does it defy the laws of Newtonian physics, the laws of thermodynamics?
For every trend there is a counter trend. I call it the my Newtonian law of trends. Now, the difference between me and Newton is that in Newton every trend had to have an opposite and equal reaction.
know how to pick out the signal so this is you must have all seen this was just incredible I really did not imagine it oddly that value that's in the Newtonian context whereas if you contct if you compute it in the framework of general
Now these things we know better than Newtonian mechanics.
That's a very strange theorem. That's the property of Newtonian mechanics.
It's true also in Newtonian gravity.
I introduced an elder justice bill 'cause some lady told me how her father got beat up at a nursing home and President Obama signed it. These aren't gonna solve Newtonian physics or macroeconomics, but people give you stories and some way you can make their lives a tad easier or solve a problem for others. But Jeremy came up with an idea that figured out in my view somethin' that President Clinton taught me very importantly. With opportunity, after school program, comes responsibility
any of these activities, but the reason we have one of the highest sales taxes in the country is working people are bearin' the burden alone. And folks, that ain't right. And also it won't solve Newtonian physics but people in this city are gettin' nickeled and dimed by taxes all the time. And one of the reasons is because we got this thing turned upside down. We're puttin' too few people paying on too few items when a lot of other people are gettin' a break.
conversation about what do you want us to do about it. And they'd say, "Well, we have photos." And they'd say, "Well, what are the photos of? Well, we've got a photo of his black eye." And I'd say, words, you get that Newtonian reaction again. And what's so sad about that is it stops us from noticing something that is unabashedly happening, which is Rodney King is getting the hell beaten
conversation about what do you want us to do about it. And they'd say, "Well, we have photos." And they'd say, "Well, what are the photos of? Well, we've got a photo of his black eye." And I'd say, the empathy so that you can see the Newtonian thing happening, then maybe we stand a chance to nip the next Newtonian counter-reaction in the bud, but you know what's going to happen, and you
So there was a huge prestige associated with Newtonian physics for good reason.
And what you notice is the actual mass of the thing falling appears nowhere in this equation. If you're going to believe this story about Newtonian gravity, heavy objects don't fall any fast or any differently than light objects. If you drop a hammer and a feather, they should fall at exactly the same rate.
these are the things that excite your imagination. And so Stephen wasn't thrilled learning about the Newtonian physics. It also sounds like in college, he was a bit lonely at times.
a bunch of particles there, et cetera. You can move up a level to the Newtonian level, and talk about motion and momentum and all those aspects of physics. And what I found fascinating about looking at it from that perspective is that, as you go up the levels of abstraction, that's
And I can't remember from is that related to Newtonian physics or ??
You wrote down some axioms, and then you proved some theorems. And then you want to relate that-- following being inspired by the Newtonian example, you want to relate that to mass, which means,
And it's going to have kind of a texture of a non-Newtonian fluid, where it'll kind of settle back
general relativity, to banish the Newtonian law on locality that had been there.
So the question is, do you find the Newtonian explanation of elliptical orbits more satisfying than the Schelling explanation of racial segregation?
conversation about what do you want us to do about it. And they'd say, "Well, we have photos." And they'd say, "Well, what are the photos of? Well, we've got a photo of his black eye." And I'd say, some people thought, "So this is what I mean about that Newtonian thing and having empathy." If we could somehow merge those, a combination of having the empathy and realizing that you have
It's not just, there was one time I exerted a force on something, and it accelerated. This says every time in the universe that you exert a force on something, if Newtonian physics had been exactly correct, which it's not quite, but to the extent that it's accurate, that thing will accelerate in a way that obeys this equation.
It's made by atoms, whatever you want. It's just the kind of interaction, the kind of Newtonian interaction term that is in play that determines which quantities are realized in an interaction.
But right now, I'll jump back to his life before ALS a little bit. It sounds like-- well, let's first talk about how he learned about Newtonian physics and how it applied to billiard balls. What lessons did he take from that?
Why is that the case? 100,000 generations of our forebears, those who had Newtonian intuitions survived. Those of our forebears who sat down on the African savanna and said, let me think about Schrodinger's equation, they got eaten.
And as you note, there is a long-standing and continued discussion or debate about the degree to which these kinds of behaviors may have been seeded by the same kind of seeding that gives us Newtonian physics intuition. Could it be the case that we tell stories-- I mean, what happens?
Why does the universe know to respect relativity, to respect Newtonian mechanics, to respect electromagnetism?
It's a belief. We don't have to bring Newtonian physical evidence to illustrate it.
even light would escape and you would get a dark star so this idea of a Dark Star a point of a place of no return even for light was proposed not in terms of general relativity but it really in a Newtonian universe and um the actual astrophysical use of this term uh was promoted by John