Scientific ideas often initially imply conclusions that seem implausible or incorrect when first proposed, and resolving these apparent contradictions sometimes requires abandoning earlier assumptions rather than simply fixing the theory, as demonstrated by heliocentrism (which faced objections about stellar parallax) and Newton's theory (which seemed to require action at a distance).

factualpending

Speaker

Terence Tao

Evidence Quote

Leibniz would chide Newton and disagree with Newton's theory of gravity on the basis that it implied action at a distance, and they didn't know the mechanism, and Newton himself was sort of stunned that inertial mass and gravitational mass were the same quantity. All these things later were resolved by Einstein.

Source

Terence Tao – How the world’s top mathematician uses AIDwarkesh Patel
Created: 8/12/2026, 6:05:48 PM

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