If a theory consists of a set of assumptions and their logical implications, not sure about the claim being made here that physicists don't understand their own theory. Would a physicist out there care to explain?https://twitter.com/MarkThoma/status/1172675666463969280 …
Their math is fine, but the metaphors they use to describe the math are awful. For example, you & I think of a "particle" as something like a grain of sand. At quantum scales what physicists call "particles" bear next to no resemblance to a-grain-of-sand-only-far-smaller.
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So the author of this article is confused by bad metaphors?
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We all are. Not easy to fix. We understand new things (in the sense Feynman and this author use "understand") by comparing them to macro-scale objects that our brains are evolved to grasp or that we learned from direct sensory experience. Quantum very hard to compare to such.
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An [implicitly particle-like] "object" "being" at at "one of various locations" is poor simile. My description: a wave made out of nothing-yet, a ghostly 3D roulette wheel that generates a pointlike event that instantaneously turns into another such nothing-yet-roulette-wave.
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agreed about bad metaphors. they kept me confused for a long time e.g. this gravity explanation is really nonsensical:pic.twitter.com/nlPNkLWDBt
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Other concepts that confuse: • spin • Higgs field is 'molasses' • the description of energy as 'kinetic' 'potential' 'chemical' etc. when energy is just work in all cases ...several more...
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I have the impression that 'fields' and 'waves' are also metaphors that may become dubious, same as 'dark' matter and 'dark' energy however the math is brilliant and does fit accurately so I think reverse engineering quantum thru math is fascinating
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Those aren't really metaphors per se, but rather words that got - for better or worse - reused. 'Field' and 'wave' have precise mathematical meanings. Dark matter/engy are actually the names of a set of problematic phenomena (which might not even be explained by matter).
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Sure, but none of this math was in the article or other pop accounts. What remains is mostly bad metaphor.
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It's along the lines of some theoretical physicists have gotten to calling X-rays, Microwaves, and Radio waves... "light".
It's like they simply don't care what words mean.Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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