MOTION MOUNTAIN

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290 9 concepts, lies and patterns of nature Challenge 298 s Challenge 299 s Challenge 300 s Challenge 301 e Challenge 302 s Challenge 303 e Challenge 304 e ∗∗ ‘This statement has been translated from French into English.’ Is the statement true, false or neither? ∗∗ Aeroplanes have no seat row 13. Many tall hotels have no floor 13. What is the lie behind this habit? What is the truth behind it? Once the author asked a singer in Napoli to sing ‘Fenesta che lucive’, a beautiful song performed by Enrico Caruso and many others since. The singer refused, explaining that the local public would run out in rage, and that the owners of the place would be forced to clean the whole place with salt, to get rid of bad luck. Many superpositions are found across the world. ∗∗ For about a thousand years, certain people pretend that they have been stigmatized, i.e., that they have ‘miraculously’ suffered wounds that are similar to those of Jesus’s crucifixion.Howcanoneprove by a one-secondobservation that all of these people, without exception, produced the wounds by themselves? ∗∗ ‘In the middle age and in antiquity, people believed in the flat Earth.’ This is a famous lie that is rarely questioned. The historian Reinhard Krüger has shown that the lie is most of all due to the writersThomas Paine (1794) and Washington Irving (1928). Fact is that since Aristotle, everybody believed in a spherical Earth. Is the term ‘multiverse’, a claimed opposite to ‘universe’, a lie or a belief? ∗∗ ∗∗ The following is not a lie. A good way to suppress curiosity in children is used in many environments: let the child watch television!killing curiosity whenever it wants. Do it for a few weeks and you will not recognize the child any more. Do it for a few years, and its curiosity will not come back at all. The internet and smart phones have the same effect. ∗∗ How would you show that ‘Earth rays’ are a lie? ∗∗ How would you show that the statement ‘the laws of nature could change any time’ is a lie? ∗∗ ‘I can generate energy from the vacuum.’ Show that this is a lie. ∗∗ ‘Not everything that exists can be measured.’ Show that this frequent statement is a lie – without exception. Motion Mountain – The Adventure of Physics copyright © Christoph Schiller June 1990–November 2015 free pdf file available at www.motionmountain.net
concepts, lies and patterns of nature 291 Challenge 305 e ∗∗ ‘Not everything is known.’ This statement is quite interesting: modern physics indeed claims the opposite in many domains. For example, all forms of energy are known; so are all forms of moving entities. In short, even though this statement is correct – indeed, not everything is known – it is often used by liars. Be careful when you hear it; if the statement is made without evidence, it is made by a crook. ∗∗ Here is a lie that uses mathematics, from a journalist: ‘Your university exams treat women applicants worse than men; your statistics show that only 41 % of all female, but 57 % of all male applicants are admitted.’ The university is small and has only two faculties; so it checks its numbers. Faculty 1 admitted 60 % of all males (60 of 100 applicants) and 65 % of all applicant females (13 of 20 applicants). Faculty 2 admitted 30 % of all males (3 of 10 applicants) and 32 % of all females (16 of 50 applicants). In total, the university thus admitted 63 of 110 male applicants (or 57 %) and 29 of 70 female applicants (or 41 %). In other words, even though in each faculty the percentage of admitted females was higher, the total admission percentage for females was lower. Why? In fact, this is a true story; in this version, the numbers are simplified, to make the situation as clear as possible. But a large university once got in trouble with journalists in this way, despite preferring women in each of its departments. Some journalists are excellent liars. ∗∗ A domain in which lies are common is the food industry. It is now possible to buy artificialeggs,artificialtomato,orartificialshrimps.Manybreadproductscontaincysteine; for decades, cysteine was extracted from human hair! In Europe, most food products also do not tell the country of origin or the content of genetic engineering. Most Bavarianpretzelsaremadein China, for example. ∗∗ A famous lie: genetically engineered crops are good for the food supply. In fact, they increase the use of pesticides, have reduced fertility, cost more and increased food problems.Biofuelforcarshasproducedthesamedisastrouseffects. ∗∗ ‘X is the oldest science.’ Such statements, with X variously taken to be metallurgy, astronomy,geography,mathematicsorsomeotherfield,areregularlyheard.Obviously, all are both lies and nonsense. ∗∗ Physicists have helped to reveal that many common statements are lies. Examples are: “astrology holds” – “creation did occur” – “perpetuum mobiles are possible” – “vacuum is an energy source” – “lightning is thrown by Zeus” – “certain actions bring bad luck” – “energy speeds faster than light exist” – “telepathy is possible” – “more than three spatial dimensions exist” – “there are things that cannot be measured” – “miracles con- Motion Mountain – The Adventure of Physics copyright © Christoph Schiller June 1990–November 2015 free pdf file available at www.motionmountain.net
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ChristophSchiller MOTION MOUNTAIN t
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Editiovicesima octava. Proprietassc
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DieMenschenstärken,die Sachenklär
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8 preface PHYSICS: Describing motio
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10 preface Your donation to the cha
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12 contents Do we see what exists?
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Light, Charges and Brains Inourques
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16 1 electricity and fields F I G U
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18 1 electricityandfields F I G U R
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34 1 electricityandfields F I G U R
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42 1 electricity and fields Oersted
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44 1 electricity and fields Vol. IV
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48 1 electricity and fields Ref. 24
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Vol. IV, page 231 Chapter 2 THE DES
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Chapter 3 WHAT IS LIGHT? Ref. 57 Pa
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106 3 what is light? Fre - Waveleng
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108 3 what is light? Challenge 110
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110 3 what is light? incoming light
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112 3 what is light? Ref. 70 Challe
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114 3 what is light? F I G U R E 69
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116 3 what is light? light Ref. 72
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Chapter 4 IMAGES AND THE EYE - OPTI
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142 4 images and the eye - optics 2
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144 4 images and the eye - optics C
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Chapter 5 ELECTROMAGNETIC EFFECTS R
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236 7 the story of the brain F I G
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362 bibliography 10 Thiseffect hasf
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366 bibliography M.B. van der Mark
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CREDITS Acknowledgements Many peopl
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NAME INDEX A Abbott A Abbott,T.A.37
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404 name index Z Zybin Motion Mount
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406 subject index A units 328 Aplys
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412 subject index F finite finite 2
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426 subject index W Wien’s Wien
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