Because Newton Said So!

I was recently debating with my friends about the various laws of science (one of my favorite topics), when one of them quipped in

“Every point mass attracts every other point mass by a force pointing along the line intersecting both points. The force is proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the point masses”.

This is the law of universal gravitation set forth by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687. I always had great difficulties remembering laws word to word, and was happy for him. But still not giving up, I asked him the obvious question – ‘Why?’

And pat was the reply “Because Newton said so!”

That left me dumbfounded. I was wondering if he was more interested to listening to Newton, than follow his own ideas! As usual, this led to a series of freaky thoughts in my mind, and here they are.

Since the advent of civilization, Man has applied his brain to find answers for many questions, starting from our existence to inventing really stupid items. According to the saying ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, he has spent a lot of efforts, mental as well as physical to reach the level at which we are now. Nature too has helped us in our adventures, but the main ingredient to this success is – our imagination. Our imagination, which has transformed us from ‘cavemen’ to modern ‘guys and gals’ of today. And this imagination is slowly dying now. Why?

To keep a track, of our progress scientists published many scientific papers and made sure that they got updated whenever possible. New theories were put forward and were replaced by newer and better ones. But slowly this thinking is reaching stagnancy and we try to find solace in old theories rather than trying out something new.

There was a time when numbers were considered unlucky, and some really absurd theories were put forward (like earth shaped as a flat plate and the sun revolving around it). But we soon found out that these were just superstitions and we found out different facts, and proof to go with it. In time to come, we’ll find that theories we’re relying on have become outdated and need to be replaced or modified. But for this we need imagination.

Imagine a fish living inside water. Its life cycle is simple enough. It comes out of an egg to form a larva. As it grows, it learn what other objects in the water are good for it, and what are not. Also learns which fish it can eat and which it can get eaten by. It grows into a young fish, mates with another and gives eggs. These eggs give rise to new larvae. This life cycle goes on again and again. Thus life of these fish is quite secure. Humans undergo a similar life cycle but it is more complicated. Apart from a few differences, we are not much different from other animals.

What will happen, if a fisherman manages to get one of the above fish entangled in his net? This will be a new experience for the fish. It’ll surely understand the implications, and try to get out of it. But, the fisherman being cleverer will get the better of it. The same can happen to us as well.

Similarly, we humans too have created the sense of security around us and have managed to ‘rule’ the world. Dinosaurs too managed to do a similar stint, but were gradually wiped out from the face of this planet. So, we should not consider our race, immortal and keep on thinking and preparing ourselves for all seen and unseen dangers that we may face. And the only way to do so is by using what we have in abundance compared to other animals – Our imagination. Or some other specie will become smarter than us and wipe us out similarly.

Michio Kaku one of the pioneers of the string theory has accused us humans of not being able to visualize the fourth dimension due to the same reasons in his article on Hyperspace.

So the next time you are asked a scientific question, answer it using your understanding, rather than ‘Because Newton said so’

Thank you for reading this post. Your comments, pingbacks, ratings, reviews and any other contributions are greatly appreciated.