What is The Physics Mill?
The Physics Mill is a blog by me, Jonah Miller, about physics, math, computing, and whatever interests me. The goal is to write about these topics in a way accessible to everyone. I now update only occasionally, but I am still maintaining the site.
Why make The Physics Mill?
Primarily because I think it’ll be fun! I really enjoy thinking about these subjects, and I think it’s fun to spread the love. I also want to understand these topics better, and one of the best ways to learn is to teach. If I can strip an idea of its notational baggage, and distill it to pure ideas that I can explain to a broad audience, then I probably really understand that idea. More importantly, I probably learned a lot in the distillation process. Finally, science, and physics especially has a bad rap as being impossible to understand except for college-educated wizards. I want to dispel that notion. No one, not even a wizard, can really understand quantum mechanics, but everything else is accessible to everyone. You’ll see. Hopefully you’ll stick with me, and we’ll have a lot of fun.
Why read this specific science blog, when there are so many others?
You should read all of them! You can never have enough science! If you’re like me, though, you don’t have nearly enough time to read all of the quality content available on the Internet. In this case, I suggest you choose experimentally: try reading a little of each blog that looks interesting to you, and make a decision about which ones to follow in the long term based on how much you like the content. Basing your beliefs on evidence is what science is all about.
What’s that funny header image?
The short answer is that it’s a helix, and I used it because I thought it looked cool. The long answer, for those not afraid to delve into some very dense math, is that it’s a plot of an outward spiral on a helicoid. It’s an example of a non-commensurate curve defined in equiaffine space. It’s from my research on metric notions in equiaffine space, which you can read about here.
Additional Credits
This blog is edited by my brilliant spouse, Xan Fresch. If you have any editing or writing you need done, they’re the person to call.
Questions? Comments? Hate-mail?
Don’t hesitate to leave a comment on the blog or email me.