Confusions & Origin
Theoretical physics is something of a scientific mess. It has lost its way on all of the normal principles of theoretical science, and as a consequence has become both bizarre and contradictory.
Modern physics is confused on all of its important ideas: the nature of light; the existence or non-existence of a background medium or a preferred frame of reference; what ‘relativity’ actually means; how to overcome fundamental incompatibilities within and among its core theories.
There is also an unscientific and wholly unacceptable lack of clarity in its explanations and teachings.
The key confusions are introduced here, and are intimately bound up with its origins.
Scientific principles and practices were developed by physics.
Modern physics has become confused over its commitment to scientific practices and principles.
Those principles are detailed here.
The development of successful theoretical science since Copernicus is detailed here.
The origins of modern theory are important to understanding the theories themselves and their continuing attraction. These origins lie in the late nineteenth century, in the work of Michelson and Maxwell, in the negative result of Michelson’s search for the background medium for the propagation of wave light and equally in the theoretical failure of Maxwell to describe that background coherently.
The origins of twentieth century theory are detailed here.
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