Whenever I think about magnets I remember this Feynman interview where someone asks him why magnets behave the way they do, and he says that to answer a “why”-question you need a foundation where something is agreed to be true, and it seems like for electromagnetic forces we end up in " because that’s how the universe is apparently".
Sure, but between nothing and the axioms of the standard model we end up with a fairly comprehensive description which can predict how different kinds of magnets behave in a wide variety of situations.
No, the theory of electromagnetism and by extension physics in general is knowing how it works. How to use it is engineering, a different set of knowledge which we also have some of.
That is sort of how the universe operates though. You can have a greater and greater understanding of the underlying principles of physics but eventually you do get to “that just how it is”. Why is there no such thing as a negative photon, apparently we just can’t have a negative excitation in the photon field, no one knows why.
well… to be fair…
Yeah. Each time we think we’ve got it, there’s another hole to dig deeper.
With a lot of things:
You start off with no knowledge, and it’s a big mystery.
You gain some knowledge and feel like you have understanding.
You gain a lot more knowledge and you learn how much more there is that isn’t known.
The President is either at stage 1 or stage 3, take your pick.
No he’s at stage 0. He has no knowledge but he doesn’t investigate he just makes things up and then says that.
We’re talking about the person who thought that stealth planes were physically invisible.
you forgot about the parallel imaginary number line (√-1), i think that is where the president lives.
You meant stage 2? “some knowledge and feel like you have understanding.”
Wish he was at stage 4…
I can’t wait until he’s crossed the final stage
Whenever I think about magnets I remember this Feynman interview where someone asks him why magnets behave the way they do, and he says that to answer a “why”-question you need a foundation where something is agreed to be true, and it seems like for electromagnetic forces we end up in " because that’s how the universe is apparently".
Sure, but between nothing and the axioms of the standard model we end up with a fairly comprehensive description which can predict how different kinds of magnets behave in a wide variety of situations.
That’s knowing how to use it, not how it works.
No, the theory of electromagnetism and by extension physics in general is knowing how it works. How to use it is engineering, a different set of knowledge which we also have some of.
Feynman was a bit pedantic sometimes.
This seems to be easily said of anyone trying to popularize science philosophy.
That is sort of how the universe operates though. You can have a greater and greater understanding of the underlying principles of physics but eventually you do get to “that just how it is”. Why is there no such thing as a negative photon, apparently we just can’t have a negative excitation in the photon field, no one knows why.
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