From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Tue Feb 24 1998 - 10:12:11 MST
At 11:07 AM 2/24/98 -0500, Ian Goddard <igoddard@erols.com> wrote:
>>My weight presses on the floor. The floor exerts a normal force on me.
>>Both are true, but they are NOT the same fact.
>
> ...I received several interesting
> examples of cases where A <=> B but
> not A = B. But I'm not sure that I
> agree with the example you cite. If
> X exerts force upon Y, then Y will
> exert an equal but opposite force
> upon X. I believe that this state
> of symmetrical force is the same
> fact. In short, Newton's third
> law describes one fact. No?
Newton's Third Law covers both facts. In this case,
it is much simpler to talk in terms of Newton's Third
Law, instead of mentioning both forces. However,
the case in point can be split into those two forces.
The fact of them is no less real because of this,
no more than we can talk of a house being made
of wood or of atoms. Neither is false; both are
true. Nor does one contradict or exclude the
other. Both are true, but both are not exactly the
same.
Daniel Ust
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