4 ms·
One of the commenters in the post wrote this > Einstein didn't use Maxwell's original quaternion equations. He used the dumbed down vectors of Lorentz, Heavisi
by pmontra 5y ago
One of the commenters in the post wrote this
> Einstein didn't use Maxwell's original quaternion equations. He used the dumbed down vectors of Lorentz, Heaviside, Gibbs, Hertz, etc. Make no mistake—this is the reason why Relativity doesn't play well with quantum mechanics.
> Maxwell's original equations are scalar in nature. The reduction of these equations by Lorentz, et al. in the early 20th century removed the scalar (time) component entirely, and theoretical physics, whether it knows it or not, has been reeling ever since. [...]
Can anybody here explain why this is so important?
- gmt2027 5y agoMaxwell's original paper presented 20 equations. Heaviside's elegant formulation simplified these into the 4 familiar vector calculus equations. I doubt that this has been the obstacle to a unified field theory.
- Qem 5y agoGeometric algebra boils them down to a single equation. See https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340037736_CHAPTER_FIVE_Maxwell_Equations_in_Geometric_Algebra https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340037736_CHAPTER_F...
- CamperBob2 5y agoIt's important because it suggests that GPT3 or a similar model can now synthesize scientific-sounding gibberish.
- blendergeek 5y agoI am not a theoretical physicist. I have only done first semester college physics and I have read hacker news comments (and physics related articles) for years. However, I can assure you that if it was a simple as using the proper Maxwellian quaternions instead of the dumbed down Lorentz vectors to get a unified theory, this would have been done a long time ago. The comment you ask about seems to make no sense whatsoever. That is why you are having trouble parsing the comment and figuring out what its significance is.
- kosievdmerwe 5y agoIt's likely a vapid comment, if it were true and so simple, why didn't any number of physicists solve GR using quaternions and unify physics?
- mhh__ 5y agoDumbed-down in this case means that Oliver Heaviside was a genius.
- pdonis 5y agoThis comment looks to me like someone with an axe to grind, not someone with an actual substantive point to make.
- immmmmm 5y agoi am a former string theorist, pretty much turned and expanded Maxwell Einstein and Yang Mills in any possible ways, and those comments are garbage. > original quaternion equations quaternions are a 3/4d thing, you can write maxwell in any dimensions. sure you can rewrite some 3/4 d physics with quaternions but really no one does that for the last 30 years. we routinely use the group SU(2) or SO(3) but almost never it's quaternion representation. it's really not that practical. > dumbed down vectors i don't think it is the vectors that are dumb in this case... btw it's not only a vector, it's a connection in a U(1) bundle over some spacetime manifold \cal{M}. > Relativity doesn't play well with quantum mechanics What in the f**** f**.... it works really well, we call that quantum field theory and it's the best theory ever found by mankind. it works so well CERN didn't found any deviation in 30 years or so. > Maxwell's original equations are scalar in nature Oh. My. God. No. Any Maxwell or Yang Mills is a gauge theory with A_\mu the gauge potential which IS A SPACETIME VECTOR that takes value in some adjoint representation of some group. For Maxwell this group is U(1) so the gauge field aka photons is a real valued vector. > removed the scalar (time) component entirely a vector is a vector. a scalar is scalar. a vector transforms with rotations a scalar does not.. > Can anybody here explain why this is so important it is not important. it is the dumbest things i heard in a long time.
- drran 5y agoClassic «shutup and calculate». BTW. Your Shift key is broken.