The Symbolic Force

I don’t know if this is a thing, so I thought I would describe it and wait for the internet to tell me otherwise.

Due to Medium not supporting font colors, the original meaning may have been lost in translation.

Newton’s three laws of motion state that:

1. an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless it is acted upon by an external force
2. the rate of change of momentum of an object is directly proportional to the force applied, or, for an object with constant mass, that the net force on an object is equal to the mass of that object multiplied by the acceleration
3. when one object exerts a force on a second object, that second object exerts a force that is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first object

Newton’s apple and the inspiration for gravity

The legend is that Newton discovered Gravity when he saw a falling apple while thinking about the forces of nature. Whatever really happened, Newton realized that some force must be acting on falling objects like apples because otherwise they would not start moving from rest.

But consider the following scenario:

What force stopped the car? What force started the car?

• The driver always applies the accelerator
• When the stoplight is red, the driver applies the brake

What force is stopping the car? What force is accelerating the car? The car? The driver? The stoplight? How do we measure the change in the system? How do Newton’s three laws apply to the change in the system? What happens if we remove the stoplight? What changes?

The problem is the driver, a participating observer who is interpreting symbols that are unknowable to the system except to be measured and observed to create an applied algorithm.

We could measure the velocity of the car in both states:

1. Without the stoplight
2. With the stoplight

Without the stoplight, V= Vo + at.
With the stoplight? V= Vo + at + signalAlgorithm

In the stoplight scenario, it appears that there are two groups of forces: the fundamental forces and symbolic forces.

We know that a symbolic force exists within this system because we introduced it and can read the symbol.

It is the stoplight. But only when red.
But it’s the driver too.

How has the driver been interpreting red? How have you been interpreting red?

Fundamental forces are independent.
Symbolic forces are dependent upon an interfering observer interpreting signs.

The only way to identify a symbolic force is measuring and identifying when an interfering observer misinterprets a symbol.

Otherwise, a symbol interpreted with perfect accuracy would be observed to have no interfering observer.

Due to Medium not supporting font colors, the original meaning may have been lost in translation.