3 ms·
As someone who spent years studying Computational Plasma Physics, it feels strange to see someone cite "Maxwell's Equations" as some sort of platonic form of si
by neutronicus 6y ago
As someone who spent years studying Computational Plasma Physics, it feels strange to see someone cite "Maxwell's Equations" as some sort of platonic form of simplicity
- trianglesphere 6y agoI think the comparison might be subtly apt. Maxwell's is clean when deriving EM waves in a vacuum, but once you add in particles and go to the real world it becomes a mess just as you need much more than lambda expressions and evals to build software.
- adameast1978 6y agoI have never understood the need in the Computer field or other fields for that matter to make unnecessary and incorrect analogies to physics. It is silly and I have to look past this as many things have worth where the author does this as some sort of way to make what they did seem more impressive rather than just advance something on its own merits.
- Koshkin 6y agoI guess there's something to be gained by doing that. (By contrast, electrodynamics wouldn't gain anything by calling Maxwell's equations "the lambda calculus of physics.")
- adameast1978 6y agoI would say that we as CS people could learn from physics but when name things God Particle... Arguably to grab headlines I wonder about the Physics world... Then again I guess things like funding and getting people interested are important.
- Koshkin 6y agoAs Lederman explains, "This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I have given it a nickname: the God Particle. Why God Particle? Two reasons. One, the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing. And two, there is a connection, of sorts, to another book, a much older one..."
- adameast1978 6y agoHaven't read Lederman's book but sounds interesting. If he is referencing the Bible that makes me not like the name even more however names really are pretty trivial and aren't the real science so I guess it doesn't even matter. It is just my opinion doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things, both my opinion and what he names the Higgs-Boson.