They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve. ~Kahlil Gibran I know that last time I promised to talk more about quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, finals hit me with all the force of a great typhoon; I don’t feel like I have the time to write an article on quantum I’d be happy with. So here’s some filler on prime numbers. Our regular programming returns next week. A prime number is a counting number that is greater than one and only divisible by one and itself. For example, 2
Physics / Quantum Mechanics / Science And Math
The Charming Doubleness: Particle-Wave Duality
But the beauty here lay in the duality, in the charming doubleness… ~ Thomas Mann (Felix Krull) I apologize to those of you who have requested a topic. The current requests are all pretty in-depth and I want some time to think about how to explain them properly. So, in a bid to buy time, I’m going to do a multi-part series on quantum mechanics. In this part, I’ll describe some of the experimental results motivating the fundamental principle of quantum mechanics: particle wave duality. As amazing as it may seem, quantum mechanics tells us that every particle is
Geometry / Mathematics / Physics / etc.
FTL Part 3: General Relativity Lets us Take Shortcuts
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear non-subjective viewpoint,it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff. ~The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) This is part three of a multipart series on faster-than-light travel. In the first part of the series, I explained why the speed of light is constant, no matter the observer. In part two, I explained why this invariance prevents us from going faster than light. This time, I’ll explain how we might use general relativity to get around this restriction. Fair warning: although general relativity
Uncategorized
What mathematicians do all day
I’d like to share with you all a humorous article by Yasha Berchenko-Kogan, describing what mathematicians (specifically math graduate students) do all day. It is very much in accord with what my own research experience has been like. https://gist.github.com/4158578
Physics / Relativity / Science And Math
FTL Part 2: The Universal Speed Limit
It is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light, and certainly not desirable, as one’s hat keeps blowing off. ~Woody Allen This is Part Two of a multipart series on faster-than-light travel. This time, I’ll describe why it’s difficult to travel faster than lightspeed. At the end of my last article, I told you that the speed of light is constant, independent of the speed of the observer or the source. If I drive past you at half the speed of light with my headlights blazing, the photons of my headlights will be going past you at
Education
Some Thoughts on Education: Part 2
Bonus content! This is a follow-up entry to my previous post, A Few Ideas on Education. Enough people have given me thought provoking content, that I wanted to share what they’ve said and what I think about it. Using Computers to Teach Math (I’ve already posted this in a comment on the original post, so if you’ve read that, you can skip this section.) Someone on my facebook feed asked me for my thoughts on the ideas promoted by this video: http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers.html For the most part, I think this school of thought is spot on. Conrad Wolfram is simply
Physics / Relativity / Science And Math
FTL Part 1: The Speed of Light is Constant
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. ~Douglass Adams, Mostly Harmless This is part 1 of a many-part series on faster-than-light travel. Before we can discuss how to travel faster than light, we need to understand why this is a problem in the first place. Why is the speed of light the universal speed limit? The answer starts with the invariance of the speed of light. By this point, everyone knows that the speed of light is constant, but it is not at all obvious
Education
A Few Ideas on Education
“Wow! 2500 hits! I really didn’t expect such an enthusiastic response to my first blog post! Thanks for all your enthusiasm! Andy Colyer asked me the following question in the comments. I’d love to get your thoughts about how to get children interested in math and physics. What the progress of the curriculum should be. Any text or material recommendations, etc. Did you do mathcounts? I decided that maybe I could share my answer with all of you. (Don’t worry, an article answering Kosh’s question on the requests page will be up soon. This is just bonus content.) Before
Analysis / Mathematics / Science And Math
Taming Infinity: infinite sums, infinite primes and the sizes of infinity
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. ~Howard Phillips Lovecraft To infinity, and beyond! ~Buzz Lightyear Infinity: The Early Years When I was about ten, I had the following conversation with my friend: Me: I want Pokemon Yellow the most of anyone! My Friend: No, I do! I want it twice as much as you! Me: I want it
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Hello world!
The Physics Mill is up and running, and I’ll write my first article soon! If there’s any topic in physics or math that you’d like to learn about, leave a comment on the requests page, or shoot me an email at questions.thephysicsmill@gmail.com.