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The Logical Impossibility of Collision

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

A. David Kline  and
Carl A. Matheson
A. David Kline
Affiliation:
Iowa State University Of Science And Technology
Carl A. Matheson
Affiliation:
Iowa State University Of Science And Technology
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Extract

Absolutely no one still believes that every physical interactionconsists of material bodies bumping into each other. Those who have tried to work out a completely mechanistic physics have been unable to explain common phenomena like liquidity, gravitation and magnetism. In fact, there is great reason to doubt that such a physics could ever account for attractive forces in general.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 62 , Issue 242 , October 1987 , pp. 509 - 515
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1987

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References

1 See P. C. W., Davies, Space and Time in Modern Physics (Cambridge University Press, 1977), 137-138.Google Scholar

2 See C. A., Hooker, ‘The Metaphvsics of Science’, International Logic Review 5, (June 1974), 114.Google Scholar

3 Of course, closed objects would be able to interact with open objects. The union of (0,0-5) with [0-5,1] is both seamless and without overlap. There is no way for a closed object to meet another closed object without overlap. But, barring action at a distance, how would such objects be kept from colliding? Could our topological distinction provide an explanation for certain selective interactions in physics?

4 The same response can be given to those who make use of the infinitesimal which has been revitalized in the field of non-standard analysis. If objects rebound when they are an infinitesimal distance apart, how do they detect this distance?

5 We wish to thank our colleague, William Robinson, for his resistance.