[Physics] Tesla and his nonsense

[Thomas Goodey]

On 5 Nov 2016 at 12:00, Doug wrote:

> Really, your going to insult Tesla, such sacrilege : )

I call it how I see it.

> Tesla's point is perfectly valid; space, emptiness,
> nothingness, these are all words to describe "a lack of
> properties"...

No, they are not.

> ... the only attribute of the words "empty space"
> by definition is that it has no properties (and that is
> without even considering a 4th dimension of time) if
> language and words are to have any meaning, i.e. the
> "properties of empty space" is an oxymoron. All Tesla is
> pointing out is the literal contradiction in terms; as soon
> as you say that empty space has properties, like
> permittivity and permeability, then it is no longer
> "nothing", it is now "something". Modern physics contains
> many such contradictions in terms, and these should be cause
> for concern, because besides everything else that is wrong
> with it, it is a misuse of language.

No, your very description shows that Tesla's point is null. 
It's a mere perversion of words. If the term "empty space" 
is used to mean something (actually not a thing) that has 
no properties whatever (except this meta-property), 
INCLUDING NO METRIC PROPERTIES, then no example of it can 
be found in our universe (indeed by definition it could not 
be found). So talking about it would be an utter waste of 
time. Also no term would remain for what the normal man 
currently calls "empty space": for example, what we find 
(to a high approximation) between our galaxy and the 
Andromeda galaxy. That thing has metric properties and has 
a geometry as well as a permittivity and a permeability, 
and it's perfectly legitimate to argue about what geometry 
it has, and to say that it is curved and so on.

It is generally considered reprehensible to use the term 
"white" for what other people refer to as "black". So I 
cannot accept Tesla's idea that the phrase "empty space" 
should be used in the way you suggested. Apart from being a 
completely useless locution because not corresponding to 
anything, it also would run completely against general 
scientific usage.

Thomas Goodey
****************** 

But remember, please, the rules by which we live. 
We are not built to comprehend a lie. 
We can neither love, nor pity, nor forgive. 
If you make a slip in handling us you die.  

Rudyard Kipling, 'Secret of the Machines'