There was a good layman's explanation for the Higgs Boson I saw a few days ago, unfortunately I don't remember the link at all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson There is plenty there I do not understand. But I guess in another generation we will start describing the Universe as a five dimensional place from our ability to observe. Three spacial, time, and what I am temporarily calling "Charity Matter". (I would have said mass, but mass is *NOT* matter. See these two links for details on the distinction.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass
Omni, your image has a flaw. It assumes people don't care about candy more than they care about quasi-hypothetical quantum particles.
To a large degree a lot of contemporary physics is beyond understanding simply by virtue of the scales. You can 'know' about it, what it does, etc. but I doubt anybody truely understands anything on a quantum scale.
Hey, it's been argued that all of science since Einstein, and probably earlier, is only understandable by humans via metaphor.
Well, look at the atomic solar system for a great example of that. You know you're in the shit when you can't even vaguely explain what's going on with atoms "well, it's kind of like a fuzzy tennis ball"...
This fanfic illustrates the problem quite well. Start at "Harry wanted to kill his eraser." (It's a really good fanfic, you guys, you should read the whole thing)
I read the entire chapter. I am puzzled. Was the significance of this the fact that we simply do not understand the matter that makes up our reality?
I think it was more about Bella's secret desire to see Edward and Jacob engage in sweaty m- Oh, sorry, wrong fanfic.
It's more that human beings are nigh incapable of doing so. The kid had to consciously use backdoor exploits on his own brain just to partially bypass this.
Yeah, that. This chapter shows how far humans have to go for their perception not to be able to switch back to the "default" option. He had to go that far just to force his brain to stop perceiving the eraser as one object. Oh well, that one wasn't nearly as cool as the "Patronus v.2" and what it did, but either way the story is worth reading.
Why is it every time I say this or anything similar the thread is doomed to die out? Do people really like discussing these things *UNTIL* the topic allows the discussion?
A funny thing called Real life might get in the way. That and my brain is starting to hurt with all the smart people stuff we're all talking about. I'm smart, but I'm not that smart. Whoa. That was weird. I accidentally posted 4 messages somehow, but it all got fixed.
Because sticking to a topic as per the title is what happens, and maybe the topic drifts - but if you acknowledge its drifted, there's no point having it in the wrong thread.
