Swerve
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
When atoms move straight down through the void by their own weight, they deflect a bit in space at a quite uncertain time and in uncertain places, just enough that you could say that their motion has changed. But if they were not in the habit of swerving, they would all fall straight down through the depths of the void, like drops of rain, and no collision would occur, nor would any blow be produced among the atoms. In that case, nature would never have produced anything. --De rerum natura describing clinamen, Lucretius, tr. from Brad Inwood, L. P. Gerson, (1994) |
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
To swerve is to stray, to wander, to rove; to go out of a straight line, to deflect; to wander from any line prescribed, or from a rule or duty; to depart from what is established by law, duty, custom, or the like; to deviate; to bend; to incline; to climb or move upward by winding or turning; to turn aside or deviate to avoid impact; of a projectile, to travel in a curved line.
See also
- The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
