5 ms·

Yes, I haven't read the other comments but that is a terrible terrible explanation. OP had a genuine question about the nature of things and the person answered

by panic 16y ago

Yes, I haven't read the other comments but that is a terrible terrible explanation. OP had a genuine question about the nature of things and the person answered bringing up paper and arrows. This is the stuff that made Feynmann mad when they asked him about magnets. Have you ever read the book QED? It's Feynman's best effort to explain Quantum Electrodynamics to a layman. In the book, he takes a genuine question about the nature of things (how does light work?) and answers it by "bringing up paper and arrows!" (I encourage you to read the book to see what I mean). Feynman disliked "explaining" nature with inaccurate and irresponsible metaphors. But arrows are the way it really is!

crocowhile 16y ago
I haven't read that particular book. I pointed out Feynman's magnets because they were a bit of a recurring joke on reddit (I refuse to use the word meme) and found ironic redditors fell in the same trap. On a margin note, the best book I've read about explaining modern physics to the layman is this: http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Physics-Albert-Einstein/dp/0671201565 http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Physics-Albert-Einstein/dp/0...
- jarin 16y ago
  What's wrong with the word meme? It wasn't invented by reddit, you know (or 4chan either).
  - prawn 16y ago
    For anyone unaware, "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene in 1976.
Jach 16y ago
Yeah, I believe he proved a correspondence between the arrows and the Schroedinger equation (not in that book) at some point (and it's not hard to come up with a character of the proof). The grandparent is referring to something like this video, though, which you mentioned at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM Bringing in arrows where they don't belong, or in the magnet case "rubber bands", is cheating the asker. I'm not familiar enough with GR to know if arrows are a useful representation like they are with complex amplitudes.
jarin 16y ago
There's also this video of him telling his students that there's no simple, philosophically pleasing way to explain the world. It just is how it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMDTcMD6pOw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMDTcMD6pOw

by panic 16y ago

crocowhile 16y ago

I haven't read that particular book. I pointed out Feynman's magnets because they were a bit of a recurring joke on reddit (I refuse to use the word meme) and found ironic redditors fell in the same trap. On a margin note, the best book I've read about explaining modern physics to the layman is this: http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Physics-Albert-Einstein/dp/0671201565 http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Physics-Albert-Einstein/dp/0...

jarin 16y ago
What's wrong with the word meme? It wasn't invented by reddit, you know (or 4chan either).
- prawn 16y ago
  For anyone unaware, "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene in 1976.

Jach 16y ago

Yeah, I believe he proved a correspondence between the arrows and the Schroedinger equation (not in that book) at some point (and it's not hard to come up with a character of the proof). The grandparent is referring to something like this video, though, which you mentioned at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM Bringing in arrows where they don't belong, or in the magnet case "rubber bands", is cheating the asker. I'm not familiar enough with GR to know if arrows are a useful representation like they are with complex amplitudes.

jarin 16y ago

There's also this video of him telling his students that there's no simple, philosophically pleasing way to explain the world. It just is how it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMDTcMD6pOw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMDTcMD6pOw