27. A critique of Newton’s law of universal gravitation
There is an article at Shores of Dirac Sea about the universal law of gravitation which is a good example of the standard physics mythology repeated by physicists as true history of their profession.
Newton’s status in physics today
Before looking at the equations let me note a few observations about Newton’s status in physics today. It’s not surprising that Newton as the founder of physics has acquired the same kind of mythological status of any founder of a long-lasting organism, e.g., George Washington. Politicians name capital cities after founders, physicists name fundamental units after their founder.
Newton and Principia have become ceremonial
The article reveals that Newton the historical person who founded the physics profession and his book the Principia have become ceremonial entities not taught as physics and not read as physics. Physicists cannot understand the Principia because they are only familiar with legal equations with units and constants used in physics while Newton used only proportions. In other words, the Principia has been superseded by Newtonian catechism physicists call “Newtonian mechanics”.
Polemical constants as substance
Physicists no longer read, teach or understand the fundamental book that started it all. Principia has become irrelevant. But not in totality. Physicists will still repeat Newtonian cliches found in the easy to read philosophical commentary Newton inserted as Scholia. No need to read the Principia to state that “Newton believed time and space was absolute.” This has become a legal polemical constant of physics and has as much weight as a physical law. In other words, mathematics of Principia has become irrelevant but its scholastic substance is enshrined in physics as polemical constants.
Force is veiled in mythology
Physics harbors many urban myths about true nature of force. The fundamental quantity of the physics business is veiled in mythology and practicing physicists do not know the true historical facts about force. But despite the legends and hearsay and mythology around force physicists never doubt that Newton discovered the force. Furthermore, even though Einstein showed that force was unphysical, Newton is still celebrated for allegedly discovering this unphysical occult quality.
A statement is true if no physicist objects to it
This is similar to the polemical constant “Newton’s magnum opus Principia is the greatest scientific treatise ever written.” Physicists repeat this polemical constant with great authority but they never read the Principia. How do they know that Principia is the greatest scientific treatise ever written? They don’t. But what harm is there to assert that the book written by the founder of the profession was the “greatest scientific treatise ever written?” No physicist will object to such a statement and therefore “Principia is the greatest scientific treatise ever written” is a true physical statement.
Physics is a legal system
These observations strengthen the thesis that physics is a legal system just like law. Only legal physics statements, whether in the form of polemical constants or legal mathematical forms are considered to be true by physicists. Critical historical skepticism is not considered physics. Anything outside of legal physics is dismissed as metaphysics, philosophy or mere history.
Physics equations contain non-quantitative decorative terms
This anti-historical culture of physics gives rise to legal equations that contain non-quantitative decorative symbols that exist only to be eliminated. And 
is the proof of this.
Physicists believe that Newton discovered force
This is a widespread physics mythology repeated by physicists as truth:
What is true however is that Newton had some hint of using a central force to explain the motion of the planets from Hooke. However Hooke could not solve the problem, and Newton had to invent calculus and differential equations to really solve this problem.
Three questions:
- Could Newton have solved the central force problem without differential equations and calculus?
- Did Newton use differential equations and calculus to solve central force problem?
- What is central force problem?
Today we know that central force problem is bogus. Newton stated the orbit problem as central force problem to justify his dynamical hallucinations. As physicists tell us, Newtonian force has been shown by Einstein to be unphysical.
Why are physicists still celebrating Newton for discovering the universal law of gravitation and for explaining central force problem with it?
This doesn’t make sense. If force is shown to be unphysical then force must be removed from physics. If force is unphysical Newton did not discover it. It’s about time to call Newton’s bluff.
There is no central force problem because orbits are not explained and cannot be explained by using force. Orbits are described by Kepler’s rule and more precisely by theory-agnostic numerical integration.
What is in Newton’s Principia cannot be changed by physics mythology. The following are historical facts:
In his calculations of astronomical quantities Newton did not use
- calculus
- differential equations
- force
- Newton did not know and did not use units and constants named after him
In his calculations of astronomical quantities Newton did use
- Kepler’s rule
Physicists may deny these historical facts and accept the legal physics mythology and continue to revere Newton almost a century after his force and his system of the world has been shown to be bogus. If boilerplate Newtonian mythology is so strong that they overrule historical facts . . . This fact proves once again that physics is the cult of Newton impersonating science.
Doing physics with slogans
The idea that the laws of motion that govern the planets are the same as the laws of motion that pertain to us has become a standard definition of what physics is about: the laws of physics are universal and should apply to everything and everyone all over the known universe. We have a lot of evidence that this is so. That whatever can happen here, given the same circumstances, will happen elsewhere in pretty much the same way.
This quote reveals how physicists confuse slogans with laws.
Physicists assume that nature is a legal system that is legislated by Newton’s laws. So it sounds natural for a physicist to use “the laws of motion” as if this were an explanation.
Planetary motions are not “governed” by “the laws of motion” (a euphemism for Newton’s equations of motion which are nothing more than Kepler’s rule written with Newtonian constants and units) but orbits are described by Kepler’s rule.
Terrestrial and celestial realms are unified by Kepler’s rule
I don’t see anything extraordinary about the slogan that “the laws of motion that govern the planets are the same as the laws of motion that pertain to us.” The earth is a planet. If Kepler’s rule describes the motion of planets it will also describe the motion of the planet earth.
The author draws the wrong conclusion from the observation that Kepler’s rule describes planetary orbits including the orbit of the earth.
Physicists repeat the buzzword “unification” of the two realms but do not yet understand the implications of this unification.
Galileo’s time squared law is wrong
Physicists still teach Galileo’s time squared rule as if it were correct. Galileo’s time squared law is an earth specific rule. It denies the unification. So why do physicist still teach Galileo’s wrong law? Because physicists never question legal physics slogans and mythology, they teach legal physics as is.
Any physicist who even thinks about questioning Galileo’s law will be dubbed a crackpot and terminated if he doesn’t have tenure. Physicists with tenure don’t bother with Galileo.
On the other hand, someone who understands that Kepler’s rule explains planetary motions including the earth’s motion realizes that a freely falling stone is in orbit therefore its motion is described by Kepler’s rule and not by Galileo’s time squared law.
Galileo’s rule is approximately true near the surface of the earth but it is conceptually wrong, nevertheless physicists keep teaching it as if it were the absolute truth only because Galileo’s law is a legal law of physics.
Once again, we see that in physics precedence is sacred. Physicists turned Galileo into a Newtonian demi-god and closed Galileo’s work to further investigations. This is the sign of a legal system. It is the sign of a cargo cult. Academic physics has yet to reach the level of a critical science where everything is open to scientific questioning.
Physics laws are eternally true
Let’s get back to the original quote. The conclusion this writer draws from the fact that Kepler’s rule explains planetary motions including the earth’s motion is wrong. He reasons as follows:
- Newton used Kepler’s rule to compute a half a dozen planetary quantities
- Since the Earth is a planet Kepler’s rule applies to earth as well
- Therefore the laws of physics are universal and should apply to everything and everyone all over the known universe.
Number 3 does not follow from 1 and 2 according to standard logic used in other scientific fields.
But it is true that the laws of physics are universally valid as this writer asserts. How? By definition.
Physicists assume that laws of physics are universally valid by definition and if they are shown to be not valid they are amended to save the new observations and consequently physics laws remain eternally valid.
The eternality of physics laws in time and in space is a polemical and political statement because no one can test or verify or falsify such a claim. It is a useless statement that serves no purpose except as a professional propaganda.
But this is not accepted by physicists. Physicists must make the claim that they have “physical” evidence that physics laws are eternally true. Of course, such a claim lowers physics to the bottom of academic fields and outside of scientific disciplines beyond polemical philosophy and into the land of religion and cults such as Pythagorean and Platonic brotherhoods.
We have a lot evidence that this is so.
So I’ve anticipated the writer. He is indeed claiming that there is evidence for the eternality of physical laws. A claim with no scientific basis unless, of course, if, as physicists do, you defined 
.
That whatever can happen here given the same circumstances will happen elsewhere in pretty much the same way.
Ah, I totally misunderstood him! This is different than what he said above. “Given the same circumstances” is the spoiler.
It is true that a system obeying Kepler’s rule here will obey Kepler’s rule elsewhere and everywhere.
Who can argue with this tautology? It is true. Tautologies are always true. But this has nothing to do with physics laws. Given a pattern A – and Kepler’s rule is a pattern – it will be pattern A everywhere because if it weren’t it wouldn’t be pattern A.
The eternality of physical laws is a propaganda and it is unnecessary and useless but its mere repetition endows the repeating physicist with authority by association. Who wouldn’t want to be a practitioner in a profession whose laws are respected all over the universe by everybody and by everything? Physics as the academic superpower of the universe!
Newton’s method of marketing new physical quantities
So, we recognize the local to total routine that Newton introduced to physics and made legal. Newton told his followers “do as I do, always project local to total by authority, no one can check it. Just make sure you have enough authority.”
As anything else in physics the method of local to total too was invented by Newton. Newton did half a dozen planetary computations using Kepler’s rule and defined his computations as the universal force permeating the universe. From local to total, from solar system to totality just by Newton’s authority.