A term for people spontaneously understanding the workings of the physical world. Contrary to scientific physics, folk physics is based on immediate human understanding of the nature of physical objects and intuitive human prediction of physical events in nature. It can be seen as a naïve or common sense approach to human environment. Human interaction with the physical environment is normally based on habits and practical understanding that are very different from the theoretical approach of scientific physics. Thus, insights gained by folk physics are often characterized as contrary to those of scientific physics, and are therefore deemed wrong and misleading with respect to a scientific understanding of the physical world.
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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Rosfort, R. (2013). Folk Physics. In: Runehov, A.L.C., Oviedo, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_200274
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_200274
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