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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 3578697" data-attributes="member: 7240">Doug, you have offered two different definitions just in your reply.I'm working with the wikipedia definition here and not the second definition.What RC and I are stating is that if one "discovered and characterized the universal laws" of a D&D world, these laws would be different from the physical laws governing our world. If you tried to discover and characterize the laws of a D&D world, the "ordered picture of nature in agreement with experience," would not be the same as the physics of our world. If "nature" is different in a D&D world, it therefore follows that the physics of that world cannot be the same as the physics of our world. A "logically ordered picture of nature in agreement with experience" would need to agree with the following experiences in a D&D world, for example:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">dragons' breath weapon attacks</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">spells</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">elementals</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">psionics</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">multiple gods who answer prayers</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">magic items</li> </ul>Because both nature and experience are different in D&D worlds because they must include those things, the physics of a D&D world cannot be the same as the physics of our world.You see: this model of physics is consistent with the nature of our world and people's experiences in it. But it is not consistent with the nature of a D&D world or people's experiences therein. Would you have been taught exactly the same model if people were able to cast Fireball in this world? No. The rules of heat would be amended based on empirical investigation of how people cast Fireball. "Physics" is not inflexible and universe-spanning. The local definition of "physics" is dependent on what phenomena it is seeking to explain. If local definitions did not vary by universe, the global definition that requires physics to be in accord with nature and experience would not hold true because nature and experience are not identical in all fantasy universes.</blockquote>

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