Should Text books warn inform readers Gravity is only a theory?

Question

It explains what we need to know, but should every text book state

“This textbook contains material on Gravity. Universal Gravity is a theory, not a fact, regarding the natural law of attraction. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.”?

http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/p67.htm

Answer 1

Not really, unlike evolution, which no one believes the fact that your grandfather is a monkey, but gravity can be proven: if you jump off the Sears Tower 1,000 times, you'll hit the ground 1,000 times.

Answer 2

It's not necessary - when used with most scientific terms. Possible warnings are needed in controversial social issue theories, however, when the "proof" is biased by moral or religious convictions.

The word "theory" really has a couple of distinct interpretations - the first is trivialized and used in general conversation, i.e. "I have a theory about why the Pats won't go to the Super Bowl this year." This casual use of the word certainly doesn't apply to gravity - or in a scientific venue at all.

In science, a theory is any phenomenon that we can't empirically prove beyond any doubt and there can be absolutely no exceptions to the theory if it is to remain a theory.

It remains a theory until an opposing example or experiment proves it otherwise. Ex. Electricity, despite the complex and various applications we use in our daily lives, it remains a theory. This is because it is based on atomic models and electro-magnetism which are in themselves theories.

Should we warn people majoring in electronics or electrical engineering that they're only studying a theory?
Or tell structural engineers that "straight lines" "points" and "planes" are all terms that don't exist in reality - only arbitrary, man made mathematical terms and theories?
Some of our greatest achievements and most complex endeavors are all built upon theories.

Answer 3

Durn right they should warn us. I mean I was walking on a cloud the other day and read the theory of gravity and I started to fall but when I saw that warning I did not think it was fact so I got back up on that cloud.
Actually on a serriuse note. is anything not a theory? I mean Math is a theory. Electicity. Chemistry. All these things are a point of view of a person that say something and that is all they are.
P.S. No the warning is not needed. If people are actually studing they should know this not be spoon feed it.
Well just needed one more point for level two
hope thsi helps
-David-

Answer 4

Well if you want to get technical in Biology when they say something is Theory they actually mean Law. As to physics and the theory of gravity since it is a universal theory and has been proven many times they consider it a law, it may just mean that they-the scientific community-haven't gotten around to changing that one little word, especially if they are still debating about changing the word Theory to Law in Biology.

Answer 5

many everyone seems to be below the fake impact that a concept is a few thing that's no longer shown and a regulation has been shown. at the same time as this is in part real it fails to furnish us a broader or deeper awareness of those 2 words. A concept is a few thing supported by employing substantial evidence, archives or learn. An hypothesis is an informed guess yet is finding for evidence to help it. A guess is only that and of direction on the backside point is the WAG (Wild A__ guess!) A regulation is a few thing supported by employing consistent effects repeatedly back. there's a regulation of Gravity as nicely to the belief of gravity. the belief is extra approximately the way it works. The regulation predicts what is going to take place to any given merchandise in the presence of a gravitational field (something with mass) that demonstates a gravitational consistent (the value of falling). The "regulation" of gravity is actual present day technique some basic thinking superb now by way of fact the region of the Pioneer area craft do no longer tutor themselves to be the place they'd desire to be in accordance to calculations. the subject with evolution as a concept is that it conflicts with the thought gadget of Biblical literalists. the belief of evolution is supported by employing super quantities of learn in countless scientific disciplines yet does cave in in some exciting tactics. the belief of evolution (like each stable theories) differences over the years. Biblical literalists might by employing necessity state that the solar travels around the Earth by way of fact it 'actually' states this in the Bible various circumstances. What they are no longer thinking is the reasoning that the persons who acquire the observe of God are viewing issues and expressing issues in the context of their awareness. A hermeneutic attitude consistent with se.

Answer 6

The truth is it really is a theory, We do not yet posses a complete understanding of nature and its laws. The graviton is thought to transmit the force of gravity.

Once we have a more complete understanding of the fundamental laws of nature (physics) we will be at a better position to postulate on the nature of gravity.

Thus: yes! it is a goo idea for books to tell it like it is and clarify that gravity is a theory.

Answer 7

The answer depends on when a theory is dependable enough based on observation and testing to be considered a fact.
For example, string theory is accepted as fact by many physicists, but it is untestable and rejected by quite a few others; it should probably be accompanied by a disclaimer like the one you list above. The same could probably be said for the theory of evolution.
On the other hand, the "theories" of gravity and relativity have been supported by testing to the degree that almost all physicists agree with them; they are so widely accepted as fact that I don't think they need any such disclaimer.

Answer 8

In the sense you mean, EVERYTHING we are taught is a theory. A "law" then is merely a theory (like evolution) which is has been supported by a enormous number and wide range of observations from many diverse fields (geology, physics and biology to name just a few) over a long period of time and is EXTREMELY unlikely to be supplanted or contradicted.

Answer 9

The moon isn't the only thing with it's own gravitational field, there are undiscovered galaxies and planets that can act on an object. It will just take some time to do an exact experiment to find G.

Answer 10

While Newton was able to formulate his law of gravity in his monumental work, he was deeply uncomfortable with the notion of "action at a distance" which his equations implied. He never, in his words, "assigned the cause of this power". In all other cases, he used the phenomenon of motion to explain the origin of various forces acting on bodies, but in the case of gravity, he was unable to experimentally identify the motion that produces the force of gravity. Moreover, he refused to even offer a hypothesis as to the cause of this force on grounds that to do so was contrary to sound science.

He lamented the fact that "philosophers have hitherto attempted the search of nature in vain" for the source of the gravitational force, as he was convinced "by many reasons" that there were "causes hitherto unknown" that were fundamental to all the "phenomena of nature". These fundamental phenomena are still under investigation and, though hypotheses abound, the definitive answer is yet to be found. In Newton's 1713 General Scholium in the second edition of Principia:

I have not yet been able to discover the cause of these properties of gravity from phenomena and I feign no hypotheses... It is enough that gravity does really exist and acts according to the laws I have explained, and that it abundantly serves to account for all the motions of celestial bodies. That one body may act upon another at a distance through a vacuum without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one another, is to me so great an absurdity that, I believe, no man who has in philosophic matters a competent faculty of thinking could ever fall into it.↑

These objections were mooted by Einstein's general relativity theory in which gravitation is an attribute of curved spacetime instead of being due to a force propogated between bodies. However, there is now the question of why mass and energy curve spacetime.