4 ms·

Nice writeup! BTW statistical thermodynamics has a name for that set of possible microstates, perhaps the most pretentious sounding name in all of physics, the

Nice writeup! BTW statistical thermodynamics has a name for that set of possible microstates, perhaps the most pretentious sounding name in all of physics, the "canonical ensemble".

jleyank 5y ago
Nah, Ultraviolet Catastrophe is worse, then there's wavefunction collapse. And there's gotta be something in particle physics that puts these terms to shame. Given that the particle names are drawn from literature and whimsy. I looked up the dictionary definition of pretentious, and so it doesn't really apply, but the hERG channel is a critical ion channel and various drugs block this and cause Really Bad Things. hERG stands for "the human Ether-a-go-go-Related Gene" - a pretty bloody stupid name but whimsey is not restricted to particle physics. Canonical ensemble, along with microcanonical and grand canonical ensembles are all over statistical mechanics. And I suspect there's not one bit of whimsey in their naming. There was not any humour in my stat mech course aside from me trying to make sense of it.
- javajosh 5y ago
  "Ultraviolet Catastrophe"'s problem is that it sounds way cooler than it is. I mean, that's the title of a cyberpunk novel; more hyperbolic (and disappointing) than pretentious. Eigenthings would be second on my list of pretentiousness (oddly, not gedankenthings; I'm inconsistent I guess). Standard Model names strike me whimsical to the point of being undignified.
  - ravi-delia 5y ago
    I'm still mad about top and bottom when truth and beauty were right there!
    - lvncelot 5y ago
      If I'm not mistaken, the "official" names are just "t" and "b", so top and bottom, just like truth and beauty, are more mnemonics. So referring to them as truth and beauty would be just as correct.
      - jleyank 5y ago
        Thought one was their names and the other their attributes?
        lvncelot 5y ago
        Seems like you're right and I misremembered.
  - dr_dshiv 5y ago
    Ultraviolet catastrophe is cool! It’s why we needed quantum physics, otherwise there would be catastrophic infinite energy emerging from random high frequency oscillations!
    - javajosh 5y ago
      Well that's not quite what it is, first of all, and second of all I don't like the practice of calling something a catastrophe when its just predicted by a theory, but didn't happen. I mean, bad theories always predict something horrible should be happening. What's next, do flat earthers get to have an "ocean water catastrophe" because their theory implies all the water drains away? Or a "super luminal" catastrophe because their theory requires infinite unending linear acceleration of the earth (and moon and sun)? I mean, it really is a catastrophe I guess...for the theorist.
- antognini 5y ago
  My favorite is "gravothermal catastrophe" with "violent relaxation" being a close runner-up.
- XorNot 5y ago
  There's actually a sort of general principle in medical science that people should avoid whimsical names for things, since in all likelihood someone with a life-altering or fatal condition or their family shouldn't be told that it's due to a mutation in the Sonic Hedgehog protein [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog
effie 5y ago
> the most pretentious sounding name in all of physics Also, "the free will theorem" and "the god particle".
- hexxagone 5y ago
  the "god particle" was actually the "goddamn particle" https://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-higgs-is-called-the-god-particle-2015-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-higgs-is-called-the-...
allisvancity 5y ago
"well, I never!" —the Grand canonical ensemble

Nice writeup! BTW statistical thermodynamics has a name for that set of possible microstates, perhaps the most pretentious sounding name in all of physics, the "canonical ensemble".

jleyank 5y ago

Nah, Ultraviolet Catastrophe is worse, then there's wavefunction collapse. And there's gotta be something in particle physics that puts these terms to shame. Given that the particle names are drawn from literature and whimsy. I looked up the dictionary definition of pretentious, and so it doesn't really apply, but the hERG channel is a critical ion channel and various drugs block this and cause Really Bad Things. hERG stands for "the human Ether-a-go-go-Related Gene" - a pretty bloody stupid name but whimsey is not restricted to particle physics. Canonical ensemble, along with microcanonical and grand canonical ensembles are all over statistical mechanics. And I suspect there's not one bit of whimsey in their naming. There was not any humour in my stat mech course aside from me trying to make sense of it.

javajosh 5y ago
"Ultraviolet Catastrophe"'s problem is that it sounds way cooler than it is. I mean, that's the title of a cyberpunk novel; more hyperbolic (and disappointing) than pretentious. Eigenthings would be second on my list of pretentiousness (oddly, not gedankenthings; I'm inconsistent I guess). Standard Model names strike me whimsical to the point of being undignified.
- ravi-delia 5y ago
  I'm still mad about top and bottom when truth and beauty were right there!
  - lvncelot 5y ago
    If I'm not mistaken, the "official" names are just "t" and "b", so top and bottom, just like truth and beauty, are more mnemonics. So referring to them as truth and beauty would be just as correct.
    - jleyank 5y ago
      Thought one was their names and the other their attributes?
      - lvncelot 5y ago
        Seems like you're right and I misremembered.
- dr_dshiv 5y ago
  Ultraviolet catastrophe is cool! It’s why we needed quantum physics, otherwise there would be catastrophic infinite energy emerging from random high frequency oscillations!
  - javajosh 5y ago
    Well that's not quite what it is, first of all, and second of all I don't like the practice of calling something a catastrophe when its just predicted by a theory, but didn't happen. I mean, bad theories always predict something horrible should be happening. What's next, do flat earthers get to have an "ocean water catastrophe" because their theory implies all the water drains away? Or a "super luminal" catastrophe because their theory requires infinite unending linear acceleration of the earth (and moon and sun)? I mean, it really is a catastrophe I guess...for the theorist.
antognini 5y ago
My favorite is "gravothermal catastrophe" with "violent relaxation" being a close runner-up.
XorNot 5y ago
There's actually a sort of general principle in medical science that people should avoid whimsical names for things, since in all likelihood someone with a life-altering or fatal condition or their family shouldn't be told that it's due to a mutation in the Sonic Hedgehog protein [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog

effie 5y ago

> the most pretentious sounding name in all of physics Also, "the free will theorem" and "the god particle".

hexxagone 5y ago
the "god particle" was actually the "goddamn particle" https://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-higgs-is-called-the-god-particle-2015-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-higgs-is-called-the-...

allisvancity 5y ago

"well, I never!" —the Grand canonical ensemble