2008-09-10

everything is an approximation

One of the main things I emphasized in today's class (computing a trajectory in gravity near the surface of the Earth with no air forces) is that every calculation in physics is an approximation. The parabolic trajectory near the surface of the Earth is an approximation to the tip of a very eccentric ellipse, and the eccentric ellipse comes out only in the Newtonian approximation to GR, and even that only holds if there are no other forces acting (and there always are). There are also small adjustments for reduced mass, and if the object has non-trivial extension. Crazy! And in high school this is all taught like it is exact: Just plug numbers into the equations!

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