StainesFS and barit1 have essentially answered your question.
maybe the professor is thinking pure science and the real world application does exert a measurable force.
You seem to have the mindset that science isn't "real". That couldn't be further from the truth. If scientific theory doesn't match experiment, it's
wrong! If someone is using 'pure science' to explain something and it doesn't match what you know to be true from 'real life', it's usually because he/she isn't considering all factors that would affect the result or is misapplying a scientific theory to the 'real life' problem.
Feynman Chaser - The Key to Science - YouTube