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>At one time I was in a physics program at university until I discovered that I couldn't understand physics. I changed to computer science ;-). My experience, t
by winestock 11y ago
>At one time I was in a physics program at university until I discovered that I couldn't understand physics. I changed to computer science ;-). My experience, though, was that most people I talked to had only a cursory understanding of actual physics. What they really understood was the math.
The science fiction author, Jerry Pournelle, who has a measured IQ of 180, once complained to Richard Feynman, "I don't understand quantum mechanics." Feynman replied, "That's okay, Jerry; neither do I."
- coliveira 11y agoIt could be said that nobody truly understands quantum mechanics, for the simple reason that human beings evolved to live under classical physics. Like any other scientific field, however, this doesn't preclude us from conducting experiments and studying the mathematical laws that model the results. In this respect, it doesn't make any difference if we have an intuitive understanding or not.
- Retra 11y agoBy that reasoning, nobody understands classical physics either. Aristotle's model of gravitation survived for a couple thousand years, basically uncontested. I get pretty irritated when people say nobody can or does understand quantum physics. Your intuition does no better with classical physics, or any other physics. You build an intuition through study. Almost none of us would probably even be able to discover conservation of momentum without it being laid out by someone else.
- coliveira 11y agoAnd this is what I said above, we can achieve a form of understanding by using experiments and a theoretical foundation to explain the results.
- Retra 11y agoBy that reasoning, nobody understands classical physics either. Aristotle's model of gravitation survived for a couple thousand years, basically uncontested. I get pretty irritated when people say nobody can or does understand quantum physics. Your intuition does no better with classical physics, or any other physics. You build an intuition through study. Almost none of us would probably even be able to discover conservation of momentum without it being laid out by someone else.