5 ms·
Just me or the first sentence of the article can’t be parsed?
by k_sze 9y ago
Just me or the first sentence of the article can’t be parsed?
- grzm 9y agoThis one? > "In the last three decades, condensed matter physicists have discovered a wonderland of exotic new phases of matter: emergent, collective states of interacting particles that are nothing like the solids, liquids and gases of common experience." Stripped of most everything, the sentence reduces to "Physicists have discovered a wonderland". I'm almost wishing I could embed a graphic. It's been a while since I've diagrammed the grammar of a sentence. I wonder if students are still being taught how to do that. As an exercise, more for myself than what I actually think you need, I'll just do the rest: - What kind of physicists? Condensed matter physicists. - When have the physicists discovered this wonderland? In the last three decades. - A wonderland of what? Of exotic new phases of matter. - What are these new phases like? They're emergent, collective states of interacting particles that are nothing like the solids, liquids and gases of common experience. I hope that was the sentence you were referring to :)
- k_sze 9y agoOh. Physicists in the area of condensed matter. Got it. I would have written “condensed-matter” with a hyphen to make it more obvious that it’s being used as an adjective.
- jeffwass 9y agoCondensed matter physics is a long-standing branch of physics study, similar to high energy physics and astrophysics. The physics dept of any university should have a condensed matter subgroup, both theory and experimental. (FYI - I did my PhD in experimental condensed matter physics). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensed_matter_physics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensed_matter_physics