Virtual-Reality graph visualization based on Fruchterman-Reingold using Unity and SteamVR

The paper describes a method for the immersive, dynamic visualization of undirected, weighted graphs. Using the Fruchterman-Reingold method, force-directed graphs are drawn in a Virtual-Reality system. The user can walk through the data, as well as move vertices using controllers, while the network display rearranges in realtime according to Newtonian physics. In addition to the physics behind the employed method, the paper explains the most pertinent computational mechanisms for its implementation, using Unity, SteamVR, and a Virtual-Reality system such as HTC Vive (the source package is made available for download). It was found that the method allows for intuitive exploration of graphs with on the order of [Formula: see text] vertices, and that dynamic extrusion of vertices and realtime readjustment of the network structure allows for developing an intuitive understanding of the relationship of a vertex to the remainder of the network. Based on this observation, possible future developments are suggested.

Underlying variables in the understanding of movement in engineering students

This article describes the understanding of motion by active students taking Newtonian physics for engineering, supported by active learning, during the pandemic due to COVID-19; in addition, an unsupervised predictive model of learning achievement was constructed from variables identified using the principal component analysis technique on the responses. the instrument used is the modified test of understanding graphs-kinematics comprehension. students from two universities in Bogotá, Colombia participated. The results show a lower level of accuracy in students in remote face-to-face mode, compared to the reference group of physical presence; by way of reflection, the forced educational experiment implies resizing the teaching activity in the teaching and learning of movement.

Visual Perception of Apparent Motion Abides by Minimization Principles of Geometry

Apparent motion is a robust perceptual phenomenon in which observers perceive a stimulus traversing the vacant visual space between two flashed stimuli. Although it is known that the “filling-in” of apparent motion favors the simplest and most economical path, the interpolative computations remain poorly understood. Here, we tested whether the perception of apparent motion is best characterized by Newtonian physics or kinematic geometry. Participants completed a target detection task while Pacmen- shaped objects were presented in succession to create the perception of apparent motion. We found that target detection was impaired when apparent motion, as predicted by kinematic geometry, not Newtonian physics, obstructed the target’s location. Our findings shed light on the computations employed by the visual system, suggesting specifically that the “filling-in” perception of apparent motion may be dominated by kinematic geometry, not Newtonian physics.

Science and Social Reform in the Age of Reason

The idea of progress, the creation of the social sciences, and the cause of social reform became entangled with the power of reason-based natural science to reveal reality. This was coordinate with the spread of Newtonianism, an eclectic fusion of the physics of Newton, Descartes, and Leibniz. Although that physics was deterministic, the creators of the social sciences—sociology, economics, political science, and psychology—supported platforms of reason-based reforms of society, challenging authority and tradition-based social institutions that empowered the Church, monarchy, and aristocracy. A number of dramatic events reinforced the idea that scientific reasoning revealed truths about reality, which seemed to confirm the connection between Newtonian physics and reality. Meanwhile, opposition to the hegemony of reason in human affairs emerged in the form of a nascent Romantic movement whose champions, most notably Jean-Jacques Rousseau, held that feeling and will, rather than reason, were central to human affairs.

KEPLER – NEWTON – LEIBNIZ – HEGEL

Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion (following the Copernican revolution in cosmology), according to Leibniz and his follower Hegel, for the first-time in history discovered the keys to what Hegel called the absolute mechanics mediated by dialectical laws, which drives the celestial bodies, in opposition to finite mechanics in terrestrial Nature developed by mathematical and empirical sciences, but that are of very limited scope. Newton wrongly extended and imposed finite mechanics on the absolute mechanics of the cosmic bodies in the form of his Law of one-sided Universal Gravitational Attraction, by distorting and misrepresenting Kepler’s profound laws and in opposition to Leibniz’s more appropriate “Radial Planetary Orbital Equation”. The still-prevailing error by Newton (notwithstanding his well known manipulation of science for selfish ends), not only shows the limitation of mathematical idealism and prejudice driven modern cosmology in the form of Einstein’s theories of relativity; but also, have made gaining positive knowledge of the cosmos an impossibility and has impaired social/historical development of humanity by reinforcing decadent ruling ideas. Hegel’s Naturphilosophie is not only a protest against the misrepresentation of Kepler’s Laws in particular; his Enzyklopädie der Philosophischem Wissenschaften is the negation and the direct rebuttal of Newtonian physics and Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in general. Modern natural science ignores Leibniz and Hegel at its own peril! Kepler’s phenomenological laws of planetary motion and the dialectical insights of Leibnitz and Hegel opens the way for gaining positive knowledge of the dynamics, structure and the evolution of the cosmic bodies and other cosmic phenomena; without invoking mysteries and dark/black cosmic entities, which has been the pabulum of official astrophysics and cosmology so far.

What is Structure? Why Care about It?

This chapter explains the notion of structure that will be the focus of the book and illustrates it by means of examples drawn from mathematics and physics. The discussion begins with a simple example of the structure of the Euclidean plane, and goes on to explain how similar ideas apply to physical theories such as Newtonian physics and special relativity. Taken together, the examples illustrate that this notion is implicit in many aspects of our theorizing in physics and mathematics. The chapter also discusses the idea of allowable coordinate systems and reference frames; contrasts the relevant notion of structure with other related notions, including invariance, symmetry, and objectivity; and explains how to compare different types and amounts of structure.

Consistent description of microscopic phenomena by macroscopic observers in quantum theory

Quantum mechanics is the foundation of modern physics that is thought to be applicable to all physical phenomena, at least in principle. However, when applied to macroscopic bodies, the theory seems to be inconsistent. Wigner's friend and related thought experiments demonstrate that accounts by different observers described by the rules of quantum mechanics may be contradictory. Although still highly debated, such experiments seem to demonstrate an incompatibility of quantum mechanics with the usual rules of logic. Alternatively, one of the hidden assumptions in the thought experiments must be wrong. For instance, the argument is invalidated if macroscopic observers cannot be considered as physical systems described by the rules of quantum theory. Here we prove that there is a way to apply the rules of quantum mechanics to macroscopic observers while avoiding contradictory accounts of measurement by the observers. The key to this is the random noise that is ever present in nature and that represents the uncontrollable part of interaction between measured system and the surroundings in classical and quantum physics. By exploring the effect of the noise on microscopic and macroscopic bodies, we demonstrate that accounts of Wigner, the friend and other agents all become consistent. Our result suggests that the existing attempts to modify the Schrodinger equation to account for measurement results may be misguided. More broadly, the proposed mechanism for modeling measurements underlies the phenomenon of decoherence and is shown to be sufficient to explain the transition to Newtonian physics in quantum theory.