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Related Concept Videos

Newton's First Law: Introduction01:17

Newton's First Law: Introduction

Motion draws our attention. Motion itself can be beautiful, causing us to marvel at the forces needed to create spectacular sights, such as that of a dolphin jumping out of the water, the flight of a bird, or the orbit of a satellite. The study of motion is kinematics, but kinematics only describes the way objects move—their velocity and acceleration. Dynamics considers the forces that affect the motion of moving objects and systems. Newton's laws of motion are the foundation of dynamics. These...
Newton's Second Law00:55

Newton's Second Law

Newton's second law is closely related to his first law of motion. It mathematically gives the cause-and-effect relationship between force and changes in motion. Newton's second law is quantitative and is used extensively to calculate what happens in situations involving a force. All external forces acting on a system add together to produce a net force Fnet. A larger net external force produces a larger acceleration. This acceleration is directly proportional to, and in the same direction as,...
Newton's Third Law: Introduction00:58

Newton's Third Law: Introduction

Whenever one body exerts a force on a second body, the first body experiences a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, to the force that it exerts. For instance, when a person pushes on a wall, the wall exerts an equal and opposite force towards the person. This brings us to Newton's third law of motion. Newton's third law represents a certain symmetry in nature: Forces always occur in pairs, and one body cannot exert a force on another without experiencing a force itself. This law...
Newton's Law of Gravitation01:15

Newton's Law of Gravitation

Our everyday observation tells us that all objects close to the Earth naturally tend to fall to the ground. Early philosophers assumed that this downward force was unique to Earth. By the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) put forward the heliocentric theory, which suggested that Earth and other planets orbited the sun, while the Moon orbited the Earth. However, it was Isaac Newton (1642-1727) who linked these two motions together in the 17th century. He reasoned that the force of...
Newton's Law of Gravitational Attraction01:24

Newton's Law of Gravitational Attraction

Sir Isaac Newton established the universality of the law of gravitational attraction based on empirical evidence and inductive reasoning. He published his work in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("the Principia") on July 5, 1687.
Newton's law of gravitational attraction is a fundamental law of physics that governs the attraction between objects. It states that the magnitude of the gravitational force between any two objects is proportional to their masses and inversely proportional...
Gravitation01:16

Gravitation

In the years before Newton, a general belief prevailed that different laws governed objects in the sky than objects on Earth. When Kepler wrote down the three laws of planetary motion, explaining in detail the geometrical properties of the planetary orbits around the Sun, there was no immediate idea to discern their connection with more fundamental laws. It was Isaac Newton who, in 1665–66, figured out the connection between planetary motion, the motion of the moon around the Earth, and the...

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Related Experiment Video

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Assaying Locomotor Activity to Study Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Parameters in Drosophila
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Sir Isaac Newton Stranger in a Strange Land.

Bruce J West1

  • 1Office of the Director Army Research, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.

Entropy (Basel, Switzerland)
|December 8, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Newtonian physics is ending, challenged by chaos theory and fractional calculus. These new frameworks explain complex systems in life and social sciences, moving beyond classical determinism and absolute space-time.

Area of Science:

  • Physics
  • Complexity Science
  • Mathematics

Background:

  • Newton's worldview, based on absolute space and time, has long dominated science.
  • The emergence of chaos theory, stemming from Poincaré's work on the three-body problem, introduced sensitive dependence on initial conditions, challenging classical determinism.
  • Stochastic processes and probability calculus have increasingly replaced deterministic models.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To argue that the era of Newtonian physics is nearing its end.
  • To highlight the role of chaos theory and fractional calculus in this paradigm shift.
  • To demonstrate the incompatibility of complexity theory with Newtonian concepts of absolute space and time.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of Poincaré's work on the three-body problem and its connection to chaos theory.
Keywords:
chaoscomplexityfractional calculussubordination

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  • Examination of the application of fractional calculus in social and life sciences to model probability density functions (PDFs).
  • Utilizing exact solutions from Fractional Kinetic Theory (FKT) to analyze allometry relations and system complexity.

    • Main Results:

    • Chaos theory demonstrates the unpredictability of particle trajectories due to sensitive dependence on initial conditions.
    • Fractional differential equations are replacing traditional ones for modeling probability density functions in complex systems.
    • Allometry relations are shown to arise from system complexity, explained by Fractional Kinetic Theory (FKT).

    Conclusions:

    • Newton's scientific worldview is being superseded by new theories.
    • Chaos theory and fractional calculus offer more robust frameworks for understanding complex phenomena in diverse scientific fields.
    • Complexity theory fundamentally conflicts with the Newtonian concepts of absolute space and time.