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Does it not strike you as a rather peculiar viewpoint that everything that exists should be easily understandable by untrained humans? That's quite a thing to e
by katmannthree 7y ago
Does it not strike you as a rather peculiar viewpoint that everything that exists should be easily understandable by untrained humans? That's quite a thing to expect from the universe.
It's not just "not an explanation", it's declaring that there _is no_ correct and easily understandable mathfree explanation or analogy. The only way you can properly understand things like this is within the context of the experimental measurements we've made and the mathematical models we've developed as a result. There's no way to explain these to a five year old in a way that's not significantly incorrect (unless perhaps they happen to be
uncommonly good at linear algebra) .
The current layperson explanation is so significantly incorrect that I think it's actually detrimental. Photons aren't "particles" like marbles, and they're not also "waves" like you see on the ocean. They're sure as hell not both at the same time in some sort of religiously inspired "don't question it" union.
What they are are entities, abstract things that we can create and play with and measure. We can make somewhat complicated mathematical models to predict certain aspects of their (and similar entity's) behavior. They at times exhibit behavior one would expect from a particle. In other cases they exhibit behavior one would expect from a wave. They're neither though, they're their own thing that behave by their own rules. That's it.
- RangerScience 7y agoDon't forget, kiddos! You're made of star stuff ...and that star stuff is made of math... and that math is not just any math, it's probability math.