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Classical Physics

Now there shall be three fundamental laws of classical mechanics, known as Newton’s laws of motion. And they shall govern the movement of macroscopic bodies.
     Now the First Law shall say the following. Unless acted upon by an external force, an object at rest shall remain at rest. Or, if in motion, an object shall continue in that motion in a fixed direction and with a constant speed. And the First Law shall have a name. And the law of inertia shall be its name.
     And the First Law shall reflect the inherent and natural "laziness" of things. Inanimate blocks and objects shall lack the will to act. Why change if one is not compelled to change? Thus any body, be it alive or dead, shall want to be infinitely lazy in its behavior under Nature.

Why flap thy wings? Why walk the desert sand?
Why raise thy arms to heaven?
Why strive to strive to do such things?

     Now acceleration shall be the change in speed or the change in the direction of an object. Thus acceleration shall be modification of a motion. Thus acceleration shall represent a "lack of laziness." And it shall indicate motivation and desire for a change.

Chapter II: The Second Law

Now the Second Law shall say the following. The acceleration of an object shall be proportional to the external force on it. And the acceleration of an object shall be inversely proportional to an object’s mass. And this law shall be called F=ma, or the law of force.¹⁸⁰
     Thus forces shall create the motivation for change in motion, while mass shall measure "laziness." And heavy objects shall be very lazy, resisting change: They shall react to forces slowly. And light objects shall be less lazy: They shall react to forces quickly.
     And if thou push a half-ton rock with all thy effort, shall not the rock but hardly move, if it move at all? But if thou push a book lying on a table with the same great effort, shall not the book fly off?

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     Thus the Second Law provides a reason for the seemingly random motion of a body. When a naturally lazy body speeds up or slows down, or swerves to the right or left or turns up or down, then it does so not on its own volition but because it was compelled to do so by a force. So when a coin is tossed up, turns over and falls to the ground, it does so because there is a force. And in this case, the force is gravity. Thus bodies that accelerate do so because of forces. And it is as though Nature mechanically compelled bodies to change behavior. Thus forces are the embodiments of natural commandments.
     Now the First Law follows from the Second Law, for, if there be no force acting on an object, then no acceleration shall there be. And by definition, without acceleration, the speed and the direction of motion do not change.

Motion without forces shall be free.

Now the Third Law shall say the following. When two bodies interact in isolation, the force that each exerts on one another shall be of the same strength, but opposite in direction. And this shall be the law of action and reaction.
     And this law shall represent fair play among all heavenly and earthly bodies. And for example, if you hold a partner’s hands and pull, you will move toward your partner, but your partner will also move to you. Hence you cannot exert a force on your partner without having a force exerted on you too. The push you give is the push he gives. The pull you tug is the pull he tugs. Thus the two forces shall be of equal strength. And this is fitting and is fair.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

     When push comes to shove, neither push nor shove shall win.
     And for example, when you push on the surface of a wall, the wall pushes back. And this is why the wall does not move. And it shall seem as if the wall has hands.

Chapter IV: Gravity

Now the law of gravity shall say the following. The force of gravity between two bodies shall be proportional to the product of their masses and weaken with the distance squared. And the force shall be attractive and directed along a straight line between the bodies. And this shall be Newton’s law of gravity.

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     And what shall it mean for the force to weaken with the distance squared? It shall mean this: If the distance between the two objects is doubled, the force grows weaker by four times. And if the distance is tripled, the force grows weaker by nine times. And if the distance is quadrupled, the force grows weaker by sixteen. And so on. Thus only relatively nearby bodies feel the force of gravity. Thus the Moon is attracted to the Earth. And the Earth and Moon are attracted to the Sun. But the Earth and Moon feel a miniscule force from the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, because it is forty-trillion kilometers away.
     And what shall it mean for the force to be proportional to mass? It shall mean this: If, for example, the mass of Earth were doubled, then Earth’s gravity would double. In this hypothetical situation, thou would feel twice the pull beneath thy feet; thy weight, as measured by a weighing scale, would double. And if the mass of Earth were tripled, Earth’s gravity would triple. And if it were quadrupled, the strength of gravity would likewise increase four times. And so on.
     And a fundamental parameter shall control the strength of gravity. And it shall be the gravitational constant, also known as Newton’s constant. And it shall be 6.67 x 10^-11 Newtons meters-squared per kilogram-squared. And because it is so small, gravity shall be significant only if a body has huge mass. Thus the Earth, Sun and Milky Way shall produce a sizeable gravity, but rocks, bricks and blocks shall not.
     And gravity shall be the universal and obligatory "love" among all massive objects. All massive bodies shall feel a great attraction to each other. And it shall be mutual and unisexual – there shall be no female and no male mass, for there shall be one and only one type of mass.

The command from Heaven did in ancient times descend:
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Thou shalt love thy enemy as thy friend.

     Now the weak equivalence principle shall be inherent in Newton’s law of gravity. It says that the mass in Newton’s Second Law shall be the selfsame mass in Newton’s law of gravity. Thus there really shall be one and only one type of mass.
     Now the force of gravity can be understood as though there be a holy presence – a massive object shall create an aura all around. And this aura shall have a name – the gravitational field shall be its name. And a second object, in the presence of the first, shall feel the aura of the first. And the aura shall draw the second to the first.

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Chapter V: Planetary Motion

Now the movements of the planets around the Sun shall be explained by Newton’s laws of gravity and motion. These four laws shall integrate to yield three lesser rules called Kepler’s laws. Now the first rule says that a planet shall move in an ellipse around the Sun and that the Sun shall be at one of its two foci.¹⁸¹ And the second rule says that a straight line drawn between the Sun and a planet shall sweep out equal areas in equal times. And the third rule says that the period squared shall be proportional to the mean distance cubed. Now the period shall be the time it takes for a planet to go once around the Sun, while the mean distance shall be the average of the perihelion and the aphelion.¹⁸² And what shall it mean for the period squared to be proportional to distance cubed? If the distance is increased four-fold, then the period grows by eight. And if the distance is increased nine-fold, then the period increases twenty-seven times. And if the distance is increased sixteen-fold, then the period becomes sixty-four times bigger. And so on.
     Thus the planets farther from the Sun take longer to go round the Sun. And Saturn is an example. Saturn, which is about nine times farther from the Sun than Earth is, shall take roughly twenty-seven times as long to go around the Sun. And since the Earth circles the Sun once a year, it shall take Saturn about twenty-seven years to go round the Sun.
     Now Kepler’s laws, which are derivable from Newton’s laws, shall be universal rules. And so asteroids and comets shall also follow Kepler’s laws. And these rules shall apply to any two-body system bound by gravity, such as the Moon and Earth.

Chapter VI: Gravity on Earth

Now gravity shall govern the fall of objects at the surface of the Earth. And it shall make golf balls and basketballs come back to Earth. And what first goes up shall then come down. Now when air friction is insignificant, all bodies, independent of their mass, shall fall the selfsame way. And for example, a feather and an iron paper-weight fall in a vacuum chamber at precisely the same rate. And the distance that an object falls, when released from a tower or a cliff, increases with time squared. And in one second, five meters shall a body fall. So in two seconds, four times farther, or twenty meters, shall it fall. So in three seconds, nine times farther, or forty-five meters, shall it fall. And so on. Now projectile motion shall be the motion of any object, such as a spear, a ball or missile, through the air. The horizontal and vertical motions shall be independent. And for example, a projectile shall move horizontally with constant speed. But it shall move vertically with constant downward acceleration, falling five meters in the first second. And the acceleration shall be created by Earth’s gravity, which shall draw all objects toward the center of the Earth.

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¹⁸¹ An ellipse, or "stretched circle," has two points called foci adjacent to its center.
¹⁸² The perihelion is the shortest distance between a planet and the Sun during the planet’s orbit around the Sun. The aphelion is the opposite; it is the farthest distance.

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Chapter VII: Momentum

Now momentum shall be the amount of push a moving body can deliver on impact. More mass means more momentum. Given a truck and a leaf moving at the same speed, the truck has more momentum. Likewise, more speed means more momentum. A bullet from a gun has more momentum than a penny tossed into the air.

Chapter VIII: Energy

There shall be two kinds of energy: kinetic and potential. Now kinetic energy shall be the energy of motion. When any object moves, it has kinetic energy, and the faster it moves, the more it has. Now potential energy shall be energy stored by a body in an interaction. A ball on a table has a certain gravitational potential energy; a ball on the floor has less. And when a ball falls, it picks up speed, as potential energy is converted into energy of motion. Objects shall continually trade kinetic and potential energy, but total energy shall be conserved, which means it shall remain the same.
     Energy is like unto emotion. Kinetic energy is like unto outright agitation, the jumping up and down in a fit of rage. Potential energy is like unto pent-up emotions, where the outrage they will cause has yet to be released.

Chapter IX: Angular Momentum

Now angular momentum shall be rotational momentum. Spinning tops and skaters have angular momentum, but a sprinter running in a line has none. Now angular velocity shall be the rate at which a spinning body turns. More angular velocity shall mean more angular momentum.

Chapter X: Special Motions

A vibration shall be a movement back-and-forth. An example shall be the motion of a leaf on an autumn windy day. Harmonic motion shall be a repetitive and smooth vibration, like a guitar string that’s been plucked. Circular motion shall be motion in a circle, such as the turning of a Ferris wheel or the motion of the Earth around the Sun.

Chapter XI: The Electric Force

Now the electric force shall be like gravity except that charges shall play the role of masses. But unlike mass, of which there is only one type, there shall be two types of electric charge: positive and negative. And unlike mass, which may have any value, electric charge shall come in quantized bits. Thus there shall be a minimal and fundamental charge. And the proton’s charge shall be this fundamental unit – one-sixth of one-billionth of one-billionth of a Coulomb, a very small amount of charge. And on an electron shall also be the fundamental unit, but negative shall be it.

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     Now let the law of electric force be known: The force between two charged bodies shall be proportional to the product of their charges and weaken with the distance squared. And for example, if the distance between two charged objects is doubled, the electric force grows weaker by four times. And so on.¹⁸³ Now if the charges are of opposite sign, the force shall be attractive. And if the charges are of the same sign, the force shall be repulsive. And the force shall be directed along a straight line between the charges. And this electrostatic law shall have a name – Coulomb’s law shall be its name.
     Now a fundamental parameter, called Coulomb’s constant, shall control the strength of the electric force. And it is nine-billion Newtons meters-squared per Coulomb-squared. And because it is so big, the electric force shall be quite strong. Thus it shall be difficult to separate charges that are positive from charges that are negative, so that matter shall usually contain equal amounts of positives and negatives – matter shall normally be neutral.
     And the electric force shall be like a universal and obligatory "love" and "hate" among charged objects. All charged bodies shall feel a great attraction or repulsion to all other bodies that are charged. It shall be as if there is female charge and male charge. And as females are attracted to males, so shall charges that are positive be attracted to charges that are negative. And as males are attracted to females, so shall charges that are negative be attracted to charges that are positive. And as for like-signed charges, positives shall be repelled by positives, and negatives shall be repelled by negatives.
     Now the electric force can be understood as if there be a holy presence – a charge shall create an aura all around. And this aura shall have a name – the electric field shall be its name. And a second charge, in the presence of a first, shall feel the aura of the first. And if the aura is compatible then the second charge shall be attracted to the first. And if the aura is incompatible then the second charge shall be repelled.
     And the electric force shall be available to mankind for its benefit or loss. And man will use it to make electrons move through wires to create electric flows. And these electric flows will supply the world with power.

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¹⁸³ For more examples on the strength of the force versus distance, see the case of gravity in Chapter IV, which is the same.

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Chapter XII: The Magnetic Force

Now some materials such as iron shall be magnetizable. And when such a material is magnetized, it shall become a magnet. Now magnetization shall be a consequence of circulating charge. And when such currents flow in random ways, no magnetism shall be present. But when, like marching soldiers, the currents circulate in an ordered manner in the same direction, the material shall magnetize, and a magnet shall it be.
     And a magnet shall have two poles: a north pole and a south pole. Now when soldiers march in rows there is a front row and a rear row. And the front row is like unto the north pole of a magnet, whereas the rear row is like unto the south pole. And if one separates these marching soldiers into two new groups, then the first group will have a front row and a rear row. But the second group will also have a front row and a rear row. And the strength of each group, as determined by the number of troops, will be divided into two. Now magnets are like unto marching soldiers. And so when a magnet is broken into two, each piece obtains both a north pole and a south pole. It is impossible to have a magnet with a north pole only. Likewise, it is impossible to have a magnet with a south pole only. Thus the breaking of a magnet into two shall not isolate the north pole from the south pole but shall create two magnets, each with north-south poles and with half of the original magnetic strength.
     And like the electric force, the magnetic force may be attractive or repulsive. And if the north pole of one magnet is directed at the south pole of a second magnet, then the magnets shall attract. But if the north pole of one is pointed at the north pole of the other, or, if the south pole of one is pointed at the south pole of the other, then the magnets shall repel.
     Now the magnetic force can be understood as if there be a holy presence. A magnet shall create an aura all around. And this aura shall have a name – the magnetic field shall be its name. And a second magnet, in the presence of a first, shall feel the aura of the first. And, if the aura is compatible, the second magnet shall be attracted to the first. And if the aura is incompatible, then the second magnet shall be repelled.
     And the magnetic force shall be available to mankind for its benefit or loss. And, among things, magnets will make most motors work.
     Now the magnetic and electric auras shall interact: A changing magnetic field shall create around it an electric field. And a changing electric field shall create around it a magnetic field.¹⁸⁴ And for example, a highly changing electric current will create a changing magnetic field, which, in turn, will create an electric force that can drive a second electric current. And this effect will make transformers work.

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¹⁸⁴ The effect of changing magnetic fields creating changing electric fields and of changing electric fields creating changing magnetic fields is the basis of electromagnetic waves.

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Chapter XIII: Electromagnetism

And the relation between electric and magnetic forces shall be a fundamental fact of Nature. The two shall be manifestations of one principle and four equations. And the principle shall be called electromagnetism. And the equations shall be Maxwell’s equations.

Chapter XIV: Determinism

Now at the end of the nineteenth century, it was thought that if Nature’s forces were all known, then Newton’s laws could be exploited to determine all. So if thou knew the classical macroscopic forces, then thou, like a prophet, could foresee the future – thou would know all. And thou, like a prophet, could predict the motion of anything and everything.
     Thus the goal of nineteenth century science was to determine the macroscopic forces, such as the friction between two objects in contact, the tension in strings and cables, the support forces of solids that prevent an object from penetrating them, the elastic forces in the compression or stretching of springs, the forces in collisions arising when objects bump, and the cohesive forces causing things to stick. And the goal was to understand the gravitational, electric and magnetic forces, which made Newton’s apple fall, compelled lightning to flash and caused compass needles to deflect.
     And it was thought that if ye knew and understood these forces, ye, like the gods, could foresee all things.
     And in the late nineteenth century, it was known that, of the macroscopic forces, only two were fundamental: the electromagnetic force and gravity. And all other forces, such as cohesion, tension, friction, forces in springs, in supports, and in collisions, were consequences of the electromagnetic force at a microscopic level.
     So it was thought that if ye knew and understood gravity and electromagnetism, ye, like the gods, would be clairvoyant – ye could see the future.

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     Now by the end the seventeenth century, Newton had determined and had understood the law of gravity. And in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Coulomb, Ampère, Faraday, Biot, Savart, Lorentz and Maxwell had determined and had understood electromagnetism. And with the knowledge of these forces, the mystery of macroscopic motion seemed to disappear. And it was thought that all was known, that the golden age of omniscience had arrived. But Nature’s laws had been indelibly engraved in sacred stone. And they were more subtle than what nineteenth-century man had thought. And no one, neither scientists, nor philosophers, nor holy priests could alter Nature’s laws. And in the early twentieth century, new fundamental forces were uncovered which were microscopic and not understood. And special relativity was then discovered, rendering Newtonian gravity incompatible. Next quantum mechanics was discovered and was understood. And for man’s mind did it create new puzzles. And uncertainty and chaos so ensued. And hope for omniscience was consequently lost.

Predicting the future was no longer a question of information.
Classical mechanics was inexact and sometimes inappropriate.
But classical mechanics was often still a good approximation.

And after the Planck time when the wings of quantum gravity ceased to flap, and after the Big Bang aftermath when subatomic particles self-annihilated or combined, and after nucleosynthesis when subnuclear forces began to play a lesser role, and after Recombination when atoms formed, and after other quantum fluctuations began to wane, and after hundreds of thousands of years when matter had spread thinly, then did Nature’s classical laws and forces take control. And the Universe became somewhat predictable. And "F=ma" became the most important rule. And the three laws of Newton almost determined all. And macroscopic forces controlled the macroscopic motions. And gravitational collapse made giant structures in the Universe such as galactic clusters and great voids.