4 ms·
For people who can study physics (such as students) it's confusing and misleading, and harms their efforts to understand the real material. (Source: studied phy
by gowld 5y ago
For people who can study physics (such as students) it's confusing and misleading, and harms their efforts to understand the real material. (Source: studied physics in college, and had a hard time dislodging the nonsense metaphors about things like "virtual particles".)
For people who can, it's just fairy tales, so what's the point of instilling a false sense of understanding?
Physics is mathematical models + experimental data. Good physical intiution comes from familiarity bred of working through math problems and observing experiments. Bad intuition comes from metaphors.
- andi999 5y agoThe 'virtual particle' non-sense (or very limited sense as artefacts of pertubation theory) goes very deep. Ask and 9 out of 10 physicists will tell you there are such thing (otherwise how do you explain Casimir effect), even at a reputable high energy lab the 'reason' for the range of interaction was given by Heisenbergs uncertainty applied to the creation of (massive) interactive virtual particles. If it is interesting: from 10:00 onwards discussion about the reality of individual terms of the pertubation series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72us6pnbEvE&t=1367s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72us6pnbEvE&t=1367s
- wallfacer120 5y ago"For people who can, it's just fairy tales, so what's the point of instilling a false sense of understanding?" I think this statement is worth examining a little bit. This statement implies that, unless you are going to develop a working knowledge of the math and become a practicing physicist, then you shouldn't bother reading anything about it.