4 ms·
There is actually a subtle point on why the question of "physicists don't really know on a fundamental level why magnets repel each other" is nonsense ultimate
by d0mine 7y ago
There is actually a subtle point on why the question of "physicists don't really know on a fundamental level why magnets repel each other" is nonsense ultimately which doesn't stop physics from producing useful or interesting in some other way models.
Those who think that a textbook explanation could have been the answer are missing the point: it is not about magnets—it is about what it means to know anything in terms of anything else.
There is no need for useful models to form a nested hierarchy converging to a single "reality" i.e., it is not necessary for a model to be more fundamental than another model even if they relate to what we observe as the same phenomenon.
- foldr 7y ago>it is not about magnets But he was asked a question about magnets...
- d0mine 7y agoHe might have been asked "why a kilogram is green" the right answer is that the question is nonsense, and not that we can get a kilogram of cucumbers (we can but it is not the point)
- foldr 7y agoI don't think you can seriously be comparing "Why do magnets repel each other?" to "Why is a kilogram green?".
- d0mine 7y agoBoth question can have trivially true answers (a textbook one for magnets, cucumbers for the green kilogram), both are nonsense if you dig deeper.
- foldr 7y agoWhat physics textbooks say about magnetic attraction is very far from being "trivially" true. It's a wealth of utterly non-obvious information resulting from centuries of scientific research. Also, "cucumbers" is not an answer to the question you posed.
- d0mine 7y agoSo you are telling me, you know the answer to my own question better then its author :) I'm curious why do you think magnets repel? What terms would you use to describe it? How these terms are defined? What terms in turn are used in these definitions? How these terms are defined in turn? etc.