🚀 go-pugleaf

The file PHYSCSXA.ZIP which was recently uploaded to SIMTEL in the
msdos/education directory is supposedly a tutorial on physics.
It is in fact a forum for the propagation of some rather unorthodox
theories (I'm being kind) of the author's construction.  Going through it
brought to mind a remark once made by the famous physicist Wolfgang Pauli:
"It isn't even wrong"!

A sampling of the contents:

On Charge and Length:  

  Charge and length are intimately bound together.  A fundamental length
  can be associated with a unit charge.  The separation between charges
  is always a multiple of this length.  The charges seem to be "creating"
  length in multiples of "charge-lengths" or arranging themselves along
  harmonic nodes in space.  Charges seem to move in discrete steps, perhaps
  displacing zero charge entities as they do.

On Length:

  Space between interacting bodies seems to be harmonic multiples of
  FACTOR ENTITY diameters.  Space appears to have three mutually
  perpendicular length-like components ...  Finer measurements, in
  the future, might reveal differences in each of the space components.

On Energy:

  An isolated, homogeneous body cannot possess energy, EVEN IF IT HAS MASS.
  Energy can only exist when there are multiple bodies separated by distance.

I must admit I found it hard to keep a straight face while reading this.
I'm not inclined to get drawn into a debate over these ideas, but I
would like to make these points:

*  Physics is an empirical science.  Most of the armchair philosophers
   who rail against "traditional" physics seem to forget this.  As a
   result, their "alternatives" are generally constructed in complete
   disregard for observation and experiment, and make no tangible new
   predictions.

*  Before new ideas in physics (and all other sciences for that matter)
   receive wide circulation, they are generally subjected to the peer
   review process.  This scrutiny ensures the integrity of the scientific
   method and of a minimum standard of competence. 

*  If I were to write a mathematics tutorial program which claimed that
   1 + 1 was really 3, should I be able to get it installed on various
   sites and distributed over a worldwide computer network?  (And if so,
   then should it have a warning label:  "The contents of this tutorial
   could be dangerous to your mind --- exercise extreme caution!"?)