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