From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!uwvax!doug
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Re: Rotating Ants Spin the Universe
Article-I.D.: uwvax.520
Posted: Sun Aug  1 11:38:38 1982
Received: Mon Aug  2 04:29:05 1982
References: houti.132

In answer to the question posed:

	Why does an ant feel forces while spinning on a table in
the absence of a universe to make reference to?  (I think that is
a fair restatement of the question).

Let me quote from "Space and Time in the Modern Universe" by P.C.W.
Davies of King's College, London:

"What is the origin of these inertial forces?  Newton attributed them
to the space in which the acceleration was taking place.  If this is
correct, then even if all the contents of the universe are removed
except for the roundabout, the centrifugal forces would still appear
when the roundabout is rotated relative to the surrounding space.  The
existence of intertial forces could therefore be taken as a refutation
of the relationist position and the establishment of the physical
reality of space."

	Of course Newton believed, as did most physicists until
the beginning of the century, in the existence of the ether.  In
the modern view, even though the presence of the ether has been
carefully disproven, the fact that space has structure has been
experimentally verified.

	Space is not just an abstract, collection of geometric
points into which the universe fits.  Space is a physical entity
itself, which physical properties.  One of these properties is
that objects which spin relative to space experience inertial
forces.

Doug Lerner
doug@uwisc