What modern physics is turning into?

[Jehanne]

[Anomalocaris]

I have great hopes for the future of our physics. When I was TA for freshmen physics, my students already had a great deal to teach me about “doesn’t matter”.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I took exactly one physics course at uni. The professor seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time on The Three Laws Of Thermogoddamics:

1. An object at rest will always be in the wrong place.

2. An object in motion will always be headed in the wrong direction.

3. The amount of energy required to change either or both of these states will always be more than called for in the departmental budget.

Boru

[Fireball]

^ I have a B Sc in physics. Two of the worst "teachers" I've ever had the misfortune to encounter were in high school, and sophomore Mechanics at uni. Either one of them would have been completely at home with that.

[HappySkeptic]

I love physics. Maxwell's Equations are beautiful. E=mc^2 is profound. And physics never deals with things that don't matter

I feel that the more people understood physics, the fewer people would be hoodwinked by cults or online craziness.

Sure, physicists sometimes talk about wild hypotheses, but it takes both math (a check on internal consistency) and experiment (a check on correspondence with reality) to make a theory.

Then comes the attempts to disprove it, and see if it is burdened with unwarranted baggage.

Physics is the most fundamental of sciences, and does not suffer fools gladly.

[Brian37]

I love physics.  Maxwell's Equations are beautiful.  E=mc^2 is profound.  And physics never deals with things that don't matter

I feel that the more people understood physics, the fewer people would be hoodwinked by cults or online craziness.

Sure, physicists sometimes talk about wild hypotheses, but it takes both math (a check on internal consistency) and experiment (a check on correspondence with reality) to make a theory.  

Then comes the attempts to disprove it, and see if it is burdened with unwarranted baggage.

Physics is the most fundamental of sciences, and does not suffer fools gladly.

I wish I could understand the nuts and bolts. But I can understand to a good degree concepts without being able to do the math. Just like not being able to personally build a combustion engine from scratch, but understand expanding gas, moves the pistions, and crank shaft, distributing energy to the axles and wheels. 

I've never been able to grasp the evolutionary clasifications to any degree, but I do understand how Adinine, Guanine, Thymine and Cytosine can lead to countless combinations in evolution. 

For me at least, I am smart enough to know, that planes don't run on pixy dust, and humans can't survive the exicution that the alleged Jesus character the bible claims happened.

[HappySkeptic]

Evolutionary Theory is not Physics, but organic chemistry is based on physics (though good luck trying to derive chemistry entirely from physics -- even supercomputers can't solve the quantum mechanics from first principles).

For a primer on Evolutionary Theory, I suggest Richard Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth". I also liked his "The Selfish Gene", though it is a bit outdated now. When I first read that in my 20s as a Christian, it rocked my world.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Boru

[Brian37]

Evolutionary Theory is not Physics, but organic chemistry is based on physics (though good luck trying to derive chemistry entirely from physics -- even supercomputers can't solve the quantum mechanics from first principles).

For a primer on Evolutionary Theory, I suggest Richard Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth".  I also liked his "The Selfish Gene", though it is a bit outdated now.  When I first read that in my 20s as a Christian, it rocked my world.

I could not get past the Preface. 

All the nuts and bolts of that book confused me. But, Dawkins in his Preface knocked Plato down a couple notches for me. Prior to reading that book, I would have killed anyone (metaphorically) if they picked on Plato. But, and looking back on it now, Dawkins was right in his criticism of Plato. Plato got a lot right, like his value of questioning in works like "Apology" and "The Allegory Of The Cave".

But, if I am remembering correctly about Dawkins Preface for "The Greatest Show On Earth", Dawkins places blame on basically modern religious tribalism on Plato's idea of "essence". According to Dawkins Plato believed that if you simply thought about something long enough you could come to its "essence". I took that to mean the "perfect version", of whatever. If I am remembering correctly, Dawkins blames Plato for that strive for perfection which he claims went on to infect philosophy, religion and political thought.