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I remember a quote, I think it was from Asimov, that really enlightened me. He explains that before Newton's law of gravity, we had ways to calculate orbits and
by Iv 8y ago
I remember a quote, I think it was from Asimov, that really enlightened me. He explains that before Newton's law of gravity, we had ways to calculate orbits and planets positions. It involved complex abacus but a model existed. The fact that he worked so hard, trying to find a simpler model was, according to Asimov, an essential act of faith in "the intelligibility of the universe". He argued that this was a principle of faith held by many fundamental researchers.
- tensor 8y agoI'm pretty sure that the previous methods were imperfect, so it wasn't simply that we wanted a "simpler" method, but one that would stand the test of time.
- Custardian 8y agolv is citing an Asimov quotation on Newton's actual motivations, not the motivations Newton plausibly had or you think Newton had. Trying to infer the motivation from the result is exactly what aakilfernandes's quotation is referring to! (Whether Asimov had done his research on this is another matter.)