Dark Matter!!

[Manolo Sobrino]

(08-01-2014 03:42 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  Disclaimer: I'm as happy to change my opinions as real science is happy to change its theories, for the same reason, and by the same process. Saying, "Go away and read a book about quantum physics, or just stop thinking about this stuff entirely," is not helpful in this regard.

Being a trained physicist myself I have a hard time believing in those things I can't calculate, I'd say measure too, but experiments for these things are very complex and you need huge teams. I trust some people and my intuition on those, but I really hold my judgement until I know how to do it... And yes there are a few unsatisfactory things out there.

Joe, I honestly think that recommending a book or telling people not to worry about certain things is the best you can do. This stuff is highly technical and relies on precise details. Nor (just) language nor everyday experience can be used to teach these ideas properly. You'd be simply telling lies. There's a reason why there are not PopSci books on functional analysis, you can't do it in earnest, but then people are not interested in Banach spaces...

And yes, physicists exchange ideas with seemingly everyday language, but then they're using quite a lot of jargon that takes some time and effort to really understand, as it actually is a shortcut for mathematical relations among definite objects. If you can't do the Math or know where you can find it you'll get lost pretty soon. As it sounds familiar you may feel that you're getting somewhere, but you aren't.

Let me quote Einstein: “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

And a sardonic joke/jab from Pauli in a letter to Gamow when he heard about Heisenberg's World equation:



("This is to show the world that I can paint like Titian. Only technical details are missing.")