A New Theory for Systems That Defy Newton’s Third Law

https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-theory-for-systems-that-defy-newtons-third-law-20211111/

26 15 5 years ago

sfifs• 5 years ago

I really couldn't figure out what on earth the article is talking about? Where is flocking patterns of bitds even in the scope of Newton's third law? The article reads like pseudo-science.

Eelongate• 5 years ago

The article is crackpot nonsense:

But many systems exist and persist far from equilibrium. Perhaps the most glaring example is life itself. We’re kept out of equilibrium by our metabolism, which converts matter into energy.

Our metabolisms convert matter into energy? Lmao I think not, our metabolisms are chemical processes, not nuclear. Making and breaking chemical bonds is NOT converting matter into energy. The author is nuts, I thought Quanta was better than this but I guess they're on my shitlist now.

angelzen2• 5 years ago

They had to build a fleet of robots to study emergent behavior?! Have they heard of this amazing tool that can simulate pretty much any physical behavior for pennies on the dollars called "computer"?

narrator• 5 years ago

Stephen Wolfram did this emergent behavior stuff with a computer in his book "A New Kind Of Science."

akyu• 5 years ago

Considering that the next figure is a computer simulation from the same citation, yes I believe they have heard of such an amazing tool.

I chalk up the physical robots to a bit of a PR stunt. Cool little robots is quite a bit more endearing than arrows on a computer screen. But that said, implementing such a system in physical robots could also be a kind of sanity check to ensure you aren't cheating the simulation by some kind of fault in your simulation. It's quite easy to share information between agents that you don't want being shared without realizing it. Something as simple as being a little careless with global variables could spoil the whole thing.

I wouldn't get so worked up about it.

angelzen2• 5 years ago

Ha. I stopped at the gif with rotating robots.

bodhiandphysics3• 5 years ago

Newton’s third law is just the conservation of momentum... and lots of interesting systems don’t conserve momentum!

nextaccountic3• 5 years ago

But closed systems?

bodhiandphysics3• 5 years ago

Sure! A ball in a box is a closed system the doesn’t conserve momentum.

quantum_state• 5 years ago

The author did not know what he or she was taking about, let alone Newton’s third law. Quanta usually publishes great pieces but once in a while it gets entangled …

bmer• 5 years ago

What was the issue?

aarobot• 5 years ago

Just another 'theory' to seek massive funding for..

A New Theory for Systems That Defy Newton’s Third Law

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