The Rubber band and the Ruler
Abstract
In this short presentation, we address two somewhat separate issues. The first one deals with the establishment (vs discovery) of what we call "physical laws". The discussion runs on a "successive approximations" approach, suited to our own thinking process, and aiming at the "simplest \emph{possible} formulation ", as opposed to the idea of pre-existing laws to be discovered. In the second part, we review briefly an approach to the (observed) metric originating from a short distance fractal structure, and remind how a symmetrical situation can arise from mere re-summations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1605.02568,
title = {The Rubber band and the Ruler},
author = {Jean-Marie Frère},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1605.02568},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
2 parts -- (i) provocative but pedagogical evocation of the establishment and nature of a physical law, (ii) discussion of the rise of a continuous-looking metric from a fractal ----- presented at "Spindel Fest", in honour of Philippe Spindel, Mons, June 2015