Naive physics

Naive physics studies the untrained human perception of basic physical phenomena and the simple models of physics understood by non-specialists, including, for example, software engineers or animators, whose models of physical reality are often much simplified compared to a physicist's.

Some simple models include:

• Galileo's study of gravitational acceleration, using inclined planes
• Isaac Newton's study of the spectrum of visible light, using a hole in the curtain of his room
• Albert Einstein's motivation, as a boy, for studying relativity. See Abraham Pais' biography, Subtle is the Lord
• Michael Faraday's Natural History of a Candle
• Feynman diagrams, a bookkeeping device in particle physics

See also: folk mathematics, weak ontology, perceptual psychology, Cartoon Laws of Physics, Occam's Razor

This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by fixing it.