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> tries to explain why quantum mechanics is mechanics Curiously though, since the 1800s analytical mechanics, too, began to be seen as a branch of mathematics.
by Koshkin 4y ago
> tries to explain why quantum mechanics is mechanics
Curiously though, since the 1800s analytical mechanics, too, began to be seen as a branch of mathematics. But I think that in this case, just as in the case of quantum mechanics, it is still extremely important to see the physical content, and the physical principles, that allow us to apply this or that mathematical framework. The fact that physics is a heavy user of mathematical methods (probably the heaviest of all sciences) does not mean that it reduces to mathematics. Don't lose the forest for the trees.
- davidivadavid 4y agoAs someone who was a math and physics major at one point, that's what I consider the biggest missed opportunity in physics education. I was always taught physics as a set of theorems that you apply to some set of random problems. Zero effort given to the context, actual applications, and physical insight. That kind of put me off physics, and I've been longing ever since for someone to build a course that essentially covers physics historically, starting from the problems physics helped us solve, and that puts modelling and experiment at the center, instead of just teaching recipes. I feel the like incredibly common idea that all applications derive from theory might be one of the must harmful misconception in education.
- analog31 4y agoI was a math and physics major too. What made it come alive for me was not just learning about experiments, but actually working in the lab.
- dekhn 4y agoI believe every person who is allowed to work in a quantum field (heh) should have been able to run at least a trivial quantum experiment. That is, Scott Aaronson should go sit in some collaborator's lab and set up all the apparatus and analyze all the data, before he gets to spew about "quantum" to the general public. This should also apply to any theoretical physicist- I would love to see String Theorists in a lab setting up a michaelson morley experiment.