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The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019

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Re: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019

#101

Post by BurningFrog »

Miraste wrote: post #99
BurningFrog wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I (almost) have a masters degree in Physics, and think Economics absolutely is a hard science. It's also probably the most important science, since it deals with issues central to human life and prosperity. I mean, I love exoplanets too, but they'll never affect how we understand society and change the understanding and direction of human civilization.

I agree that economics is more relevant to the average person than astrophysics, but I don't see what that has to do with its being a hard science. Physics has testable hypotheses and experimental verification. The attempts at this in economics put it at the absolute low end of the soft sciences, as far as I can tell.

> I don't see what that has to do with its being a hard science

I agree. I meant to make two separate claims.

> The attempts at this in economics put it at the absolute low end of the soft sciences, as far as I can tell.

Economics has many subfields. The major division is between microeconomics and macroeconomics.

I think a lot of the "soft science" reputation the field has comes from the Macro side. This is a very tough field to study, since the study object (the world economy) is sentient, extremely intelligent, and adapts to any new findings. It can certainly be seen as a partially failed science as a result.

Macro gets the headlines, but the Micro side is what I'm impressed by. We have an enormous amount of knowledge accumulated over the last 200 years, and understand society and markets immensely more than before Adam Smith started thinking about this stuff.

Re: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019

#102

Post by perl4ever »

willyg123 wrote: post #33
scotty79 wrote: post #5

> "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star." "Solar-type star" is meaningful here because first extrasolar planets we discovered orbit the pulsar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_B1257%2B12

This is why I love astrophysics. I assumed the supernova would obliterate any planet in the star's orbit.

Well, I have no idea, but it seems reasonable that there could be debris condensing into planets after a supernova. Or debris that was a planet recondensing.

Re: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019

#104

Post by AareyBaba »

ikhwan wrote: post #80
smhost wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the term "eurocentric" normally isn't about NA vs EU rivalry, but rather about "european identity" in the white supremacist sense. (the caveat is that radical equality is also a distinctly european tradition, but still, this tradition doesn't seem to get included under the "eurocentric" label, for whatever reason)

Ironically, only a Eurocentric worldview could have one believing that "racial equality is a distinctly european tradition" There were many celebrated anti-racist movement leaders across the world and in various time periods. The most well-known of these would be the Prophet Muhammad, who famously in one of his last sermons declared "Surely all of mankind – from the time of Adam until our time – are like the teeth of…

Who were the red-skinned people the Prophet was referring to in 600 AD ?

Re: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019

#105

Post by valevk »

"The curve shows how many spots there are of each size in the background radiation."

"The first peak shows that the universe is geometrically flat, i.e. two parallel lines will never meet."

Can somebody explain this, please?

Re: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019

#106

Post by rurban »

BurningFrog wrote: post #57
safgasCVS wrote: post #12

Still cant believe the economics profession managed to convince people it deserves a seat at the table of the hard sciences

I (almost) have a masters degree in Physics, and think Economics absolutely is a hard science. It's also probably the most important science, since it deals with issues central to human life and prosperity. I mean, I love exoplanets too, but they'll never affect how we understand society and change the understanding and direction of human civilization.

But Mathematics is an even more important field, arguably the most important of all, and it doesn't even have a Noble sidebar.

Every science relies an math.

Re: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019

#108

Post by torgard »

marton78 wrote: post #97
torgard wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are often patriotic. You feel a certain connection to someone who comes from your country. But yeah, I agree. One fun example: I am Faroese. On a technicality, Faroe Islands _could_ be considered the highest rank, at 1 laureate for a population of 49,489[1]. Niels Finsen was born in the Faroe Islands to Icelandic and Danish parents. His higher education and scientific studies were conducted in Denmark. So an e…

Wait. I thought it's wrong to say "Faroe Islands", because the "oe" already means "Island". So how is this?

Wow, yeah that's true! I have never thought about it before.

From Wikipedia:

"In Faroese, the name appears as Føroyar. Oyar represents the plural of oy, older Faroese for "island". Due to sound changes, the modern Faroese word for island is oyggj. The first element, før, may reflect an Old Norse word fær (sheep), although this analysis is sometimes disputed because Faroese now uses the word seyður (from Old Norse sauðr) to mean "sheep". Another possibility is that the Irish monks, who settled the island around 625, had already given the islands a name related to the Gaelic word fearrann, meaning "land" or "estate". This name could then have been passed on to the Norwegian settlers, who then added oyar (islands).[12] The name thus translates as either "Islands of Sheep" or "Islands of Fearrann".

In Danish, the name Færøerne contains the same elements, though øerne is the definite plural of ø (island).

In English, it may be seen as redundant to say the Faroe Islands, since the oe comes from an element meaning "island". Most notably in the BBC Shipping Forecast, where the waters around the islands are called Faeroes. The name is also sometimes spelled "Faeroe"."[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands#Etymology

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