English

Infinities as natural places

History and Philosophy of Physics 2019-02-14 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

It is shown that a notion of natural place is possible within modern physics. For Aristotle, the elements-the primary components of the world-follow to their natural places in the absence of forces. On the other hand, in general relativity, the so-called Carter-Penrose diagrams offer a notion of end for objects along the geodesics. Then, the notion of natural place in Aristotelian physics has an analog in the notion of conformal infinities in general relativity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1803.07995,
  title  = {Infinities as natural places},
  author = {Juliano C. S. Neves},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.07995},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

12 pages, 2 figures. V2 with minor changes. Published in Foundations of Science

R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:00:36.346Z