Mysteries in Classical Physics

absurdist

Are there any mysteries yet unexplained in Classical Physics, Thermodynamics or Statistical Mechanics? Or do all the mysteries in physics come out of Modern Physics?

Rap

I think the principles of classical physics are finalized, so there are no mysteries as to principle, unlike, say, elementary particle physics where the principles are not yet completely established, which yields "mysteries". However, just because classical physics is "known" does not mean that every classical problem is easily solved, and so there are mysteries as to what classical physics has yet to predict. I would think this is mostly in statistical methods applied to classical physics. Chaos theory is one that comes to mind, like explaining the rings of Saturn. Severely non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of classical particles, maybe. Fluid turbulence is another.

absurdist

What's unsolved about fluid turbulence?

Pengwuino

If anything, I guess one could ask why our formalism works so well. Why does the Lagrangian formalism work so well and what is the meaning of the Action?

That probably crosses into philosophy, though, because even if you were to answer those questions, there would be another level that you could ask "why?" about.

Sagar_C

From a theoretical point of view, very first issue is: No one has been able to prove from first principles (Navier-Stokes equation) what will the spectrum of average kinetic energy (cf. Kolmogorov spectrum in turbulence).

Naty1

millions.

Please
Define 'mystery'....
Define 'classical physics':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_physics




Anyway, without quantum mechanics, we'd have no standard model of particle physics...and
would be hard pressed to understand light.

DaveC426913

The three body problem?

absurdist

Sry for the late reply,
By mystery, I mean some kind of discrepancy between two widely accepted theories or some kind of lack of knowledge of the some mechanism?
By Classical Mechanics I mean Mechanics, Heat and Themodynamics and not QM, Nuclear phy and modern physics (string theory, etc)
Is there anything yet to be discovered in the kind of physics often used by engineers?