At the heart of the issue is Newton’s use of Kepler’s rule. What did Newton do to Kepler’s rule? There are two versions describing Newton’s actions. One is the official physics mythology. The other is the historical record.
Maybe the way I described these two versions is biased. I called the physicists’ version to be the mythology of Newtonian physics. And I called my own version the historical record. I believe this description to be true. Let me describe them both and you decide.
1. Origin of Force: Physics Mythology
The official physics version says that Newton discovered the underlying cause hidden in “Kepler’s laws.” This hidden cause turns out to be a new quantity in Nature. According to physics mythology Newton discovered the universal cause in nature and he called it force. The true orbits are caused by force and must be computed by using Newtonian mechanics. Kepler’s rule is nothing more than a geometric simulation.
So according to physics mythology there are two rules:
- Kepler’s rule
- Newton’s rule
Newton’s dynamical rule is the true rule or the true law of nature.
The physics version says that Newton looked at Kepler’s laws and realized that something he called force was the cause of Kepler’s laws’ existence. This is how I understand the official physics version. Corrections are welcome.
1.1 Properties of force
What are the properties of this force? Force has two types of properties.
- In physics force is mathematical and it is a legal physic.
- In nature force is occult and it does not exist.
For me, the fundamental property of this force is that it is occult. Newton’s force is the new name of the old scholastic concept of soul. The occult nature of force manifests itself by its supposed action between matter without passage of time.
Force = instantaneous action-at-a-distance
Is there an agreement on the fact that force is occult?
If there is, then, there is no need to study this force further. [Occult mantra] This brings us to the next physics mythology regarding force.
1.2 Dynamical orbits
According to physicists, force is mathematical. Force is useful to compute mathematical orbits. It has no other property.
Physicists say, following Newton, that
this force may or may not be occult, we don’t care, what we know is that, it works. We use Newtonian mechanics to compute orbits and the results agree perfectly with observations. Therefore, the question of whether or not force is occult and or if it exists or not is no concern of us.
So, again, in physics force is mathematical, not natural, and its existence is legal, not quantitative.
In nature, force is occult and it does not exist.
But I question physicists’ claim that they use force to compute orbits. Physicists and astronomers do not use Newton’s force to compute orbits. So someone is lying.
1.3 No conspiracy
Can there be such a huge conspiracy? Imagine what this conspiracy would entail. First, Newton himself must have lied. Newton would be lying if he used geometric methods to compute orbits but then claimed to have used force.
Then thousands of Newtonian physicists and astronomers who practiced their trade after Newton must have lied as well. Then in our own day not only practicing physicists but institutions such as NASA and JPL must be lying to uphold Newton’s authority. A huge conspiracy involving thousands of otherwise decent people conspiring across generations and nations and universities . . . Such a conspiracy is impossible.
Therefore, can we conclude that Newton’s force cannot be occult? That there is no conspiracy does not mean that Newton’s force is not occult and it does not exist.
There is no conspiracy. And the force is occult and it does not exist.
To resolve the issue let’s go to the source and indeed look at Newton’s Principia.
2. Origin of force: Historical record
So what does the historical record say? First, let’s look at Book III, Proposition 41. This is the famous computation of the return of Halley’s comet. This proposition indeed proves to us that Newton is lying about how he computes orbits. Because Newton uses a geometric method to compute the orbit of a comet by fitting the observations into a parabola but claims to have computed the orbit by applying his dynamical methods.
Therefore, it is a physics myth that Newton and Halley used “Newtonian dynamical methods” to compute the return of a comet.
Newton and Halley were so successful with their propaganda that the comet is now known by Halley’s name.
2.1 Newton is lying
When we look at other propositions where Newton computes astronomical quantities we see that in those propositions too Newton uses Kepler’s rule.
Please take a look at Newton’s calculations and let me know if you agree with my assessment that Newton is using geometrical methods to compute astronomical quantities but markets his results as dynamical calculations.
Therefore, we know that Newton was lying.
Is this a lie? If so how can Newton get away with it? Newton gets away with it because he successfully branded Kepler’s rule as Newton’s laws. Calling Kepler’s rule Newton’s laws is a well established professional habit that acquired a state of absolute truth.
Bureaucracies have habits that are much more invincible than human habits. In physics these bureaucratic habits are called derivations.
But, more importantly, how come force works?
2.3 Force does not work
Because force is not included in the effective formulas used to make the actual computations. It’s not surprising that effective formulas are free of force terms.
By definition force is occult and has no place in formulas. [Occult mantra]
I went through Newton’s computations and wrote down what I think is their essence. Please review them and let me know if you agree that Newton is lying that he is using dynamical force in his computations.
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