Re: A. Einstein and science-fairs

[Maurice Barnhill <mvb@UDEL.EDU>]

Bob Sciamanda wrote:
> There is nothing (outside of logical consistency and usefulness -
> certainly not "correctness") to be checked about a definition, even by
> God!  If God were to  "alter the value of the speed of light in m/sec" he
> will not thereby have altered our definition of the speed of light (unless
> he has indeed interfered with our "free will decision") , he will rather
> have altered the definition of the meter and/or the second.
>
> Bob

True, but if we suddenly found that the radii of all atoms were suddenly
shrinking by the same fraction each year, we would no doubt decided that
the definition of the speed of light as a constant was no longer useful
and abandon it -- one changing quantity is simpler than hundreds of
them.  Whether or not a definition is useful can depend on whether or
not our understanding of Nature is correct.

--
Maurice Barnhill, mvb@udel.edu
http://www.physics.udel.edu/~barnhill/
Physics Dept., University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716