18 DOWNFALL OF CLASSICAL PHYSICS 



wise self-consistent, although it is inconsistent with the 

 original one. Having any number of these systems of 

 location, or frames of space, we can no longer pretend 

 that each of them indicates "just where things are". 

 Location is not something supernaturally revealed to the 

 mind; it is a kind of conventional summary of those 

 properties or relations of objects which condition certain 

 visual and tactual sensations. 



Does not this show that "right" location in space 

 cannot be nearly so important and fundamental as it is 

 made out to be in the Newtonian scheme of things? 

 The different observers are able to play fast and loose 

 with it without ill effects. 



Suppose that location is, I will not say entirely a 

 myth, but not quite the definite thing it is made out to 

 be in classical physics; that the Newtonian idea of 

 location contains some truth and some padding, and it 

 is not the truth but the padding that our observers are 

 quarrelling over. That would explain a great deal. It 

 would explain, for instance, why all the forces of Nature 

 seem to have entered into a conspiracy to prevent our 

 discovering the definite location of any object (its posi- 

 tion in the "right" frame of space) ; naturally they 

 cannot reveal it, if it does not exist. 



This thought will be followed up in the next chapter. 

 Meanwhile let us glance back over the arguments that 

 have led to the present situation. It arises from the 

 failure of our much-trusted measuring scale, a failure 

 which we can infer from strong experimental evidence 

 or more simply as an inevitable consequence of accepting 

 the electrical theory of matter. This unforeseen be- 

 haviour is a constant property of all kinds of matter and 

 is even shared by optical and electrical measuring devices. 



