For the polybutadiene chain in 1,4-dioxane, define from the negative end charge toward the positive one. The electric dipole energy is , so the force conjugate to end separation is , even though the two endpoint forces are opposite. Balancing it against the entropic spring force gives
Numerically,
The zero-field rms of just the component is , a different comparison. The mean extension is still much smaller than the contour length , consistent with the Gaussian ideal chain force law. This is an end-charged ideal polymer in an electric field; the direct endpoint Coulomb interaction is omitted as stipulated.
A covalent bond is stabilized by shared electronic states extending across neighboring atomic nuclei. In a simple two-centre description, combining comparable atomic orbitals produces a bonding state with enhanced electron density between the nuclei and an antibonding state with a node there. For equivalent normalized orbitals with real overlap ,
Their energy ordering follows from the molecular Hamiltonian; constructive interference and reduced gradients help explain why the bonding combination can be lower. Opposite-spin electrons can occupy the bonding orbital together. The familiar molecular-hydrogen bond is a basic example, while extended covalent networks form solids such as diamond. Orbital shape and hybridization make covalent bonding strongly directional and constrain bond angles. Occupying antibonding states reduces the net bond strength.
Ionic bonding instead emphasizes electric charge transfer and the electrostatic attraction of the resulting oppositely charged ions. Removing an electron from one atom costs ionization energy and adding it to another gains electron affinity; these isolated-atom terms alone need not favor transfer. In a crystal, the electrostatic lattice energy can stabilize the ionic arrangement. For a schematic lattice of singly charged ions at nearest-neighbor distance ,
where the geometrical Madelung constant sums attractions and repulsions throughout the lattice. Short-range overlap repulsion prevents collapse and gives an equilibrium separation. Sodium chloride is an example of an extended ionic crystal, rather than isolated NaCl molecules in the solid.
Figure 1.
Original schematic covalent electron sharing and the extended charge arrangement of an ionic crystal
. Details.
Ideal ionic bonding is comparatively nondirectional, so packing, ion sizes and electric charge balance strongly influence coordination. ions cannot freely migrate in the ordinary solid; melting or dissolution can make ionic electric charge transport possible. Covalent materials do not obey one universal electrical conductivity rule: their electronic bands and filling determine whether mobile electronic carriers are available.
The two descriptions are limiting models, not a sharp classification of every bond. Unequal electronegativities can produce polar covalent bonds with partial electric charge transfer, and a material may contain both covalent groups and ionic interactions between those groups. Chemical bonding reflects a balance of electronic kinetic energy, electron-nucleus attraction, electron-electron repulsion and nuclear repulsion; it cannot be reduced to a force between two assigned point charges in every material.
The Drude model treats mobile electric charge carriers as independent particles with density , signed electric charge , isotropic mass , and momentum relaxation time . In uniform steady fields,
At zero magnetic field the drift velocity is , giving electrical conductivity and electrical resistivity
The electrical conductivity is positive for either carrier sign. Scattering dissipates directed drift energy into the environment; a finite steady electric current is compatible with a short-lived drift momentum. The independent-carrier relaxation-time approximation omits detailed band anisotropy, quantum interference and microscopic collision correlations.
For electric current along and magnetic field , the magnetic force deflects carriers toward one side of the sample. electric charge accumulates until a transverse Hall field cancels that force in an open transverse circuit. With , , so
Electrons have negative in this convention, whereas positive carriers have positive . For a strip of thickness along , the magnitude of the Hall electric potential difference across its width is . Thus Hall measurements determine carrier sign and, within this one-carrier model, density, while combining with determines charge carrier mobility .
Keeping both in-plane electric current components, the resistivity tensor is
This fixes the off-diagonal sign convention and shows that inversion is not componentwise reciprocation. Under the Hall boundary condition , the ideal one-carrier isotropic model gives , independent of magnetic field: there is no ordinary longitudinal magnetoresistance in this minimal model. Multiple carrier types or anisotropic bands can change both this conclusion and the simple inference. Their electrical conductivity must be added before inverting to obtain the total electrical resistivity.
Direct exchange is a quantum-mechanical spin-dependent energy arising from the Coulomb interaction and the required antisymmetry of a two-electron state. It requires spatial overlap of the relevant orbitals. It is not the classical magnetic dipole force between two small magnets, and it can be much stronger than that force.
For an explicit fixed-orbital illustration, take orthonormal spatial orbitals . Orthonormality means ; it does not require their spatial densities to occupy disjoint regions. The normalized spatial states are
The symmetric spatial state combines with the antisymmetric spin-one-half singlet state, and the antisymmetric spatial state combines with a symmetric spin-one-half triplet state, so that the complete fermionic state is antisymmetric.
For Coulomb potential , distinguish the direct electrostatic integral and exchange integral:
The Coulomb exchange splitting of two orbitals gives
The repulsive Coulomb potential makes in this model. Thus the triplet is favored when the orbitals have nonzero exchange overlap. Its antisymmetric spatial wavefunction suppresses close electron encounters and reduces their repulsion. Since the Coulomb interaction contains no explicit spin operator, the spin dependence enters through the allowed spatial symmetry.
For dimensionless spin operators , whose pair eigenvalues are in the triplet and in the singlet, the same splitting is represented by
This explicitly states the sign convention: positive here favors parallel spins. A convention would instead have .
In a crystal, direct exchange therefore depends sensitively on orbital extent, overlap and interatomic spacing. It often decreases rapidly as localized orbitals separate. The fixed-orbital example does not prove that every material must be ferromagnetic: orbital rearrangement and competing kinetic or virtual-hopping processes alter the singlet-triplet balance. In particular, antiferromagnetic superexchange through an intermediate ligand is a different mechanism and should not be confused with direct overlap exchange.
In a deterministic local hidden-variable model, write or without an argument for the remote splitter setting. That omission is the parameter independence assumption: the local response for a fixed complete hidden state does not change when the other wing changes its apparatus. Measurement independence also requires the hidden-state ensemble to be independent of the freely selected settings, allowing the same assignments to be compared across configurations.
The zero probabilities derived above then constrain those assignments, apart from sets of hidden states of zero measure:
  • Case requires .
  • Case requires .
  • Case requires .
For a trial with , the last two implications force , contradicting the first condition. Thus these deterministic local assignments predict zero probability for the double- event, whereas quantum theory predicts . This is Hardy's paradox, an inequality-free ideal contradiction. With imperfect apparatus the zero-event conditions become small nonzero rates and require a statistical inequality rather than declaring a contradiction from one imperfect detection.[ref]
The logical contradiction combines counterfactual hidden-variable assignments; it does not assign simultaneously observed path properties to a quantum state. Nor does it allow a message to be sent by changing a distant splitter: the observable local marginal obeys quantum no-signalling. For example, fixing the plus-side splitter to gives for either minus-side setting in the results above.
photon orbit and the Newtonian limit. Write and . For a timelike circular Schwarzschild geodesic,
The denominator tends to zero at , so the energy per unit rest mass diverges as a massive circular orbit approaches that radius. The corresponding local orbital speed measured by a static observer satisfies and tends to one. This suggests a null circular orbit, but one must not simply insert into a massive-particle formula. For a photon, the radial effective potential is proportional to ; its derivative vanishes at and its second derivative there is negative. Thus the photon sphere is at , and its circular null orbits are unstable.
At , expansion gives
The second term is the total Newtonian circular-orbit energy, kinetic plus potential; the relativistic energy also includes rest energy. Here is the conserved energy referred to a stationary observer at infinity, not the local kinetic energy.
The stable inner edge. At fixed angular momentum, write . The timelike radial geodesic equation can be written
The circular condition gives . Substituting into the second derivative taken at fixed gives
Timelike circular orbits exist for ; they are stable against radial perturbations for and unstable for . Therefore
The boundary orbit is marginally stable. Differentiating also gives a minimum there, consistently with this fixed-angular-momentum stability calculation.
accretion efficiency and black-hole spin. Matter supplied slowly from far away initially brings rest energy . A radiatively efficient, zero-inner-torque thin disk releases the binding energy down to the innermost stable circular orbit; the remaining energy is carried into the hole during the plunge. Thus
Here denotes the efficiency called in this question. The ideal relation assumes negligible additional dissipation during plunge and neglects photon capture and advection. A hot radiatively inefficient flow need not have this efficiency.
For a Kerr black hole, an equatorial prograde disk has a smaller innermost stable circular orbit and greater binding-energy efficiency than the Schwarzschild value; a retrograde disk has the opposite trend. The formal extremal prograde limits are and . These are ideal limiting values, not a universal realized efficiency. photon capture and the accretion geometry affect the achievable black-hole spin and escaping radiation.
radiation force and the limiting luminosity. For isotropic luminosity , the outward radiation momentum flux at radius is . In fully ionized hydrogen, Thomson scattering acts mainly on the electron, while electrostatic coupling makes the electron and proton move together. Neglecting the electron mass, one electron–proton pair experiences
Equating them yields
This Eddington luminosity uses electron-scattering opacity, spherical or isotropic force balance and negligible relativistic corrections at the force-comparison radius. Composition, other opacity, anisotropy and photon trapping can change the relevant limit.
Exponential growth and doubling. Distinguish rest-mass supply from black-hole mass growth :
At the Eddington limit,
Using the printed scattering cross section gives . The Salpeter time is an e-folding time; the Eddington-limited doubling time is
for the Schwarzschild thin-disk efficiency. If one approximates , the factor is dropped and the estimate is about . The retained-energy version is the mass-conserving expression.
The efficiency bound. A growth factor requires e-folds. Eddington-limited accretion is the fastest growth allowed by the adopted luminosity bound at fixed efficiency, so growth within a time requires
This efficiency upper bound from Eddington-limited growth is an upper bound: higher efficiency radiates more of each supplied rest mass, and the luminosity ceiling therefore allows less mass to enter per unit time. A duty cycle below unity or sub-Eddington luminosity tightens it. The approximate convention would instead give ; both figures refer to the same effect, with different treatment of the radiated mass deficit. Mergers, super-Eddington growth or a different seed history would change the premises.
Coherent prograde accretion spins up the hole, moves the inner edge inward and increases . For fixed the mass-growth e-folding time then grows, so the logarithmic growth curve becomes less steep; one cannot simply retain the initial Schwarzschild efficiency throughout. Episodic misaligned accretion can have a different black-hole spin history. In general,
energy available to affect the galaxy. Let denote galaxy mass, keeping it distinct from black-hole mass. At constant efficiency, negligible seed mass and no merger contribution, the emitted energy in building is
For and the nonspinning efficiency this is approximately . The common small-efficiency approximation gives , and a fiducial would give about with retained mass included. These differences do not alter the conclusion: the available accretion energy substantially exceeds the stated galactic binding-energy estimate.
Only a coupling fraction of order one percent would then be energetically sufficient to affect the gas strongly. radiation, winds or jets can heat gas, drive outflows and suppress further cooling and star formation, providing active-galactic-nucleus feedback and possible self-regulation of black-hole growth. energy availability alone does not prove that the whole galaxy is expelled: most radiation can escape, jets can be collimated, heated gas can cool, and collisionless stars couple differently from gas.
Figure 1.
Original comparison of Eddington-limited growth at fixed efficiencies, including the radiated mass deficit
. Details.
For geodesic motion of uncharged dust, use the pressureless stress-energy form, and . stress-energy conservation expands to
Contracting with kills the second term, since . Hence , and wherever ,
On a flow line , so this becomes . Each relativistic dust element therefore follows a timelike geodesic with proper time as an affine parameter. pressure gradients or external nongravitational forces would add an acceleration term.
inertial mass sets the response to force, . Passive gravitational mass sets the response to a given gravitational potential, ; active gravitational mass describes a body's gravitational sourcing. Universality of the passive-to-inertial mass ratio makes freely falling trajectories independent of composition. torsion balance comparisons and differential free-fall experiments test this weak equivalence principle by searching for composition-dependent acceleration, with environmental forces and instrumental asymmetries controlled.
The Einstein equivalence principle further says that local nongravitational experiments in a freely falling laboratory obey special relativity, independent of the laboratory's location and velocity. A local inertial coordinate system can remove Christoffel symbols at one event, but cannot remove a nonzero Riemann tensor throughout a finite region. Relative acceleration of separated freely falling particles reveals tidal gravity. Thus a uniformly accelerating laboratory in flat spacetime can mimic a local gravitational field, while extended tidal measurements distinguish genuine curvature. Equality of the measured mass responses does not make every gravitational field globally equivalent to acceleration.
Use coordinates , signature , and the convention , . The antisymmetric electromagnetic field tensor combines six field components:
It transforms as . Lowering indices changes the time–space signs: , while . The covariant tensor instead uses the inverse coordinate Jacobian on each lower index.
For a frame moving with velocity relative to the original one,
Electric and magnetic fields therefore mix under a boost; they are frame-dependent parts of one tensor. For example, a purely transverse electric field acquires a magnetic field in a boosted frame. The electromagnetic field invariants and restrict which fields can be eliminated by a frame change. The covariant force law guarantees consistent particle dynamics in all inertial frames.
The weak equivalence principle states that freely falling, sufficiently small test bodies have the same motion in a given gravitational field irrespective of composition or mass, neglecting their own gravity and nongravitational forces. In the Newtonian limit, makes this universality equivalent to a universal gravitational-to-inertial mass ratio, conventionally set to one.
The Einstein equivalence principle adds that local nongravitational experiments in a freely falling, nonrotating laboratory have the laws of special relativity, independent of the laboratory's position and velocity. At an event one can choose a local inertial frame with and . A freely falling observer feels no supporting force, while a supported observer can model a locally uniform gravitational field by an accelerated laboratory. This explains why freely moving particles follow timelike geodesics and light follows null geodesics when other interactions are negligible.
The locality qualification is essential. The Riemann curvature tensor generally remains nonzero; separated freely falling bodies have tidal relative acceleration, measured by geodesic deviation. A finite-size experiment can therefore distinguish a curved gravitational field from a merely accelerated coordinate description of flat spacetime. Equivalence alone also does not select the complete Einstein field equations.
A useful weak-field consequence is the upward photon shift over laboratory height . In an upward-accelerating laboratory the receiver gains recession velocity during the light flight, giving the same leading redshift. The Pound-Rebka experiment tested this with resonant absorption of 14.4-keV gamma rays over about 22.5 m. A controlled source velocity calibrated the Doppler sensitivity; interchanging source and absorber reversed the gravitational contribution while retaining an intrinsic source–absorber offset. Monitoring their temperature difference was essential because lattice-motion shifts could mimic the small signal.[ref] This verifies a gravitational clock-shift prediction; by itself it is not a unique test selecting general relativity over every alternative metric theory.
Use signature , coordinates and four-velocity normalized by . The derivative is the metric-compatible Levi-Civita connection. Fix the curvature sign by . Then the required contractions are
With , the contracted Bianchi identity gives . The Einstein field equations , with constant , therefore require covariant conservation of stress-energy. This is a consistency relation between geometry and the total matter/field source. It does not mean in arbitrary coordinates, nor guarantee a global conserved energy in an arbitrary curved spacetime. The geometric identity alone, without the field equations or matter dynamics, is not an equation of motion for a freely specified material source.
For relativistic dust, is proper rest-mass density, measured in the fluid rest frame, and is its timelike four-velocity with the normalization above. In a local Cartesian inertial frame , so
Accordingly is momentum density and is energy flux in direction . The equality of momentum-density and energy-flux components after the appropriate factors of reflects the symmetry of the stress-energy tensor. In the comoving frame the spatial stress is zero, as required for pressureless matter.
Expand the dust conservation equation by the product rule:
Contract with . metric compatibility and constant normalization give , leaving . Substitute this rest-mass continuity law back and divide by nonzero :
This proves geodesic motion of uncharged dust along each fluid flow line. pressure forces or another exchange of momentum would change the argument; at zero density there is no dust worldline to constrain.
The electromagnetic field tensor is antisymmetric and has six independent components. In the stated local inertial coordinates choose and , giving
The fields are those measured by that local observer; changing observer mixes them through the Lorentz transformation of . With and , two independent quadratic contractions are
The second is a pseudoscalar: it is invariant under proper Lorentz transformations and changes sign under an orientation reversal. Opposite choices for the orientation tensor change its written sign. A nonzero null electromagnetic field can have both contractions zero, so the two numbers do not determine whether the tensor itself vanishes.
For charged relativistic dust, insert into the force-density equation:
Contraction with again gives the continuity law, because by antisymmetry. After removing the continuity term,
In a local inertial frame the spatial components reduce to and the temporal component gives . This is the relativistic Lorentz force, with gravity represented by the connection. The force is orthogonal to and preserves the rest-mass normalization. Matter alone now exchanges energy and momentum with the electromagnetic field; adding the field tensor's stress-energy restores zero divergence of the combined source.
Local equivalence and tides. In Newtonian mechanics, inertial mass measures the response to a force, whereas passive gravitational mass couples to an imposed Newtonian gravitational field. A freely falling body obeys
The observed composition independence of free fall says that this ratio is universal. With a common choice of units it is one. This is the Newtonian content of the weak equivalence principle for test particles; it does not by itself specify all nongravitational physics.
The Einstein equivalence principle further says that local nongravitational experiments in a sufficiently small freely falling laboratory have the form predicted by special relativity, independently of the laboratory's location and motion. In such a local inertial frame, the metric tensor is locally the Minkowski metric and the Christoffel symbols vanish at the selected event. The strong equivalence principle extends the universality claim to local gravitational experiments and bodies with significant gravitational self-energy. None of these statements removes measurable tidal forces across a finite apparatus.
In an ideal small freely falling lift, a released ball initially floats relative to the cabin, because both undergo the same free fall. Two separated balls, however, need not retain their separation: they sample different parts of the gravitational field. For a point source, linearizing across a small separation gives the tidal tensor prediction
A radial separation stretches with coefficient , whereas a transverse separation is compressed with coefficient . Initially parallel velocities therefore develop relative motion even though the individual bodies experience zero proper acceleration.
The relativistic statement is geodesic deviation. With the Riemann curvature tensor convention
a connecting vector between neighboring freely falling worldlines satisfies
Here is the covariant derivative along the reference geodesic, and its four-velocity. Curvature can be nonzero where the Christoffel symbols have been made zero. In the weak, static, slow-motion limit this equation reduces to , recovering the tidal tensor above. A finite falling lift can detect gravity through these relative accelerations; local equivalence does not imply a globally uniform field.
Weak-field connection and potential. Take and the metric signature. There is an index error in the printed formula for the Christoffel symbols: its first differentiated metric component must be , not . The correctly contracted expression is
The offending term vanishes under the stipulated time independence, so this correction does not change the intended calculation. Write and treat both and its derivatives as first order. To that order , , and . A stationary metric tensor gives
For the temporal component the inverse-metric coefficient is already first order, so
For a spatial component the zeroth-order inverse metric contributes:
The time component of the approximate geodesic equation says that is constant to the retained order. In its spatial component, convert the proper time derivatives to coordinate-time derivatives and cancel :
Comparison with the Newtonian equation identifies . For an isolated source, choose the gravitational potential to tend to zero at infinity and normalize the time coordinate there, giving . Thus
The quantity is the Newtonian gravitational potential, or gravitational potential energy per unit mass, in . For a point source, . A static clock has , connecting the Newtonian limit with gravitational time dilation.
Frequency of the orbiting source. Treat the gas blob as a test particle on a timelike circular Schwarzschild geodesic, with pressure and other nongravitational forces negligible. Treat our very distant location as infinity, so the observer's own gravitational potential is negligible. These are the assumptions that make a unique answer in terms of possible.
Put and use a local static observer at the emission point as an intermediate measuring frame. The remote observer lies on the symmetry axis of the orbit. A ray arriving on that axis has zero conserved axial angular momentum, so its local direction is perpendicular to the emitter's azimuthal velocity. Bending within a meridional plane does not alter this orthogonality. The transverse relativistic Doppler effect therefore gives
where is the orbital speed measured by that local static observer. The gravitational redshift between static Schwarzschild observers then gives
A gravitational circular orbit has in the weak-field limit, so . Expanding both factors,
Solving for the emitted frequency gives
The gravitational part is and the transverse kinematic time dilation contributes another ; the absence of line-of-sight motion does not remove this second effect.
As an exact check, the local speed on a timelike circular Schwarzschild geodesic satisfies , where . Therefore the face-on frequency shift of a circular Schwarzschild source is
whose expansion agrees with the boxed answer. If the gas is supported or accelerated by pressure or magnetic stresses rather than following a geodesic, its orbital speed is not fixed by the mass and radius alone; the appropriate first-order result is instead , with supplied independently.
A high-numerical aperture objective focuses a laser to a steep intensity gradient. For a transparent particle with higher refractive index than its surroundings, refraction transfers photon momentum to the particle, giving a optical gradient force towards the intensity maximum. A forward scattering force pushes along the beam; a stable single-beam optical trap requires the restoring axial optical gradient force to exceed that push. In the small-particle limit, the same result follows from the induced-dipole potential energy, proportional to minus the local squared electric field. Close to the trap centre,
An optical tweezers experiment can attach a bead to one end of a DNA molecule, hold the other end fixed, and obtain its force-extension relation from the bead displacement and calibrated trap stiffness. The measurement must distinguish the restoring force from Brownian motion and account for heating or optical damage.
The Scientific Revolution is a useful name for linked transformations in European natural philosophy during roughly the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, rather than a single event with an agreed beginning or end. Its strongest scientific content is a change in how motion, the heavens and natural phenomena were represented and investigated: increasingly mathematical accounts, new instruments, controlled experiments and public argument altered what could count as a persuasive explanation. The conventional span from Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543 to Isaac Newton in 1687 captures important developments, but excludes relevant earlier work and later consolidation.
In astronomy, the heliocentric model changed the arrangement of the planets without initially discarding all older mathematical devices. Johannes Kepler's elliptic orbits and empirical Kepler's laws of planetary motion then displaced uniform circular motion as a universal premise. Telescopic observations associated with Galileo Galilei, including the phases of Venus and satellites of Jupiter, challenged specific inherited cosmological claims. Their significance depended on arguments that the telescope reliably revealed celestial phenomena, not simply on looking through an uncontroversial window.
In mechanics, idealized mathematical treatments of falling bodies and projectiles helped establish quantitative relations between motion and causes. Newton's laws of motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation linked terrestrial falling bodies with celestial orbits in a single framework. The importance of this synthesis lay in detailed quantitative problems, such as the relation between inverse-square force and planetary motion, not merely in announcing that mathematics applied to nature.[ref]
Experimental practices changed alongside theory. Air-pump work associated with Robert Boyle made carefully described apparatus, witnessed trials and replication central to disputes about air and the vacuum. Francis Bacon promoted organized inquiry, while René Descartes pursued a mathematical and mechanical account of nature; their differences caution against inventing a single timeless “scientific method”. Scientific societies, correspondence, printed diagrams and journals helped stabilize results and reputations beyond an individual's laboratory.
The term remains selective. Mathematics, craft knowledge, instruments and observations had long histories, including substantial contributions beyond Europe. Older and newer explanatory styles coexisted; natural philosophers did not suddenly become present-day professional scientists. Religious, courtly and commercial settings often supported the same work later narrated as a victory over tradition. The Scientific Revolution therefore describes a consequential reorganization of scientific questions, practices and authority, while requiring care about geographical scope, continuity and the uneven pace of change.
Doubt was reasonable if it concerned the physical cause or unlimited extrapolation of Newton's law of universal gravitation; wholesale dismissal of the quantitative evidence was harder to justify. Early eighteenth-century investigators had to distinguish the success of an inverse-square force law in explaining observations from the claim that every material body directly attracts every other one without a mediating mechanism.
The strongest case for Isaac Newton's framework was its unification of phenomena previously treated separately. Kepler's third law and nearly elliptic orbits could be connected to an inverse-square central force. Comparing terrestrial gravity with the centripetal acceleration of the Moon supported continuity between falling bodies and celestial motion. The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton also developed treatments of interacting bodies, tides and the Earth's figure. These were substantive tests and organized a research programme capable of producing further quantitative comparisons.[ref]
There were nevertheless rational reservations. A law proportional to inferred from accessible bodies and distances did not logically establish unrestricted universality. Individual celestial predictions involved uncertain observations and approximations to difficult many-body classical mechanics. The Moon's motion and the Earth's shape were demanding tests whose successful treatment was not complete at the beginning of the century. A dissenter could question auxiliary assumptions, numerical accuracy or the inference from special cases without denying every success.
A deeper objection concerned explanation. In traditions requiring contact mechanisms, unexplained attraction across empty space appeared to reintroduce an occult quality. René Descartes's vortices supplied a mechanical alternative, though they faced their own serious dynamical difficulties. Newton himself separated a mathematically established pattern from a claimed cause of gravity; the 1713 General Scholium by Isaac Newton declined to invent an unsupported physical mechanism. Treating every criticism of action at a distance as a failure to understand evidence would therefore misrepresent the available positions.[ref]
Later confirmations cannot be counted as evidence already possessed by an early-eighteenth-century critic. Subsequent geodetic measurements, improved lunar theory and successful comet predictions helped shift the balance, but their timing matters. Nor did retaining a mechanical alternative remain equally reasonable after every failed prediction: responsible doubt required comparative assessment and willingness to revise it. The balanced conclusion is that selective, explicit scepticism about universality or cause was defensible, while the breadth of Newtonian mechanics' quantitative achievements already imposed a substantial explanatory burden on rival accounts.
Let the step be . Forward Euler method gives , . Applying the same map with gives , which generally differs from . It is therefore not its own inverse under time reversal.
A kick–drift–kick leapfrog integrator instead has
The step first recovers , then , then , so . This assumes a position-dependent force and the same fixed step. Newtonian mechanics is reversible; respecting that structure helps avoid artificial directional bias and often improves long-term qualitative behaviour. The usual leapfrog also has a structure preserving symplectic geometry, which supports bounded oscillatory energy error, but reversibility by itself does not imply exact conservation of energy. Adaptive stepping requires special care to preserve these properties.
Suppress primes on the angular velocity while retaining rotating components. The canonical momentum is . Varying with respect to position and applying the Euler-Lagrange equations gives
The terms are the physical force, the velocity-dependent Coriolis force, the outward centrifugal force, and the Euler force caused by changing angular velocity. The common origin is inertial; an accelerating origin would introduce another translational apparent force.
At latitude , the Earth's angular velocity in east–north–up coordinates is . Assume a small horizontal patch, constant , negligible vertical velocity, and a vertical constraint balancing effective gravity. Absorb the steady centrifugal force into that effective gravity. With and physical horizontal force per unit mass , the Coriolis force gives
Large-scale atmospheric and oceanic flows deflect to their right in the northern hemisphere and left in the southern hemisphere; their balance with a horizontal pressure gradient produces geostrophic flow. A Foucault pendulum has an oscillation plane that precesses relative to the ground at angular rate . Both effects vanish at the equator within this horizontal approximation.
Let be the particle number density, the conservative potential energy and the applied force. In the overdamped regime a viscous drag coefficient gives drift velocity . Combining this drift with Fick's first law gives the number flux
At thermal equilibrium, the Boltzmann distribution is , so . Setting its net flux to zero yields
This is the Einstein diffusion relation. The derivation assumes a dilute equilibrium suspension, uniform temperature, linear drift response and a well-defined long-time diffusion coefficient. With a nonzero conservative force, the full transport equation includes drift; the force-free equation in the next section describes spreading without that drift.
Newton's first law says that a body retains uniform rectilinear motion, including rest as the zero-velocity case, unless impressed forces change that motion. Its physical content includes the existence of a common class of inertial frames: free bodies do not each require an unrelated frame chosen just to straighten their own trajectory. Uniformity refers to the inertial time parameter, and straightness to the spatial structure of those frames. Everyday slowing under friction is compatible with this claim because it involves an interaction, not an exception to inertia.
Newton's second law relates the impressed resultant force to change of momentum. In modern continuous-force notation,
so for constant mass it becomes . An impulsive version is . The change is directed along the impressed resultant, not necessarily along the body's current velocity. The original wording concerns change of quantity of motion; the differential equation is its modern continuous-time formulation.[ref]
These are substantive physical claims only when mass, interactions and the inertial structure are constrained independently. If “force” merely abbreviates whatever equals in any arbitrarily chosen coordinates, the second law by itself predicts nothing. Actual applications combine the law with independently testable interaction laws, vector addition of forces, initial conditions and a specification of the inertial frames.