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Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]

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Re: Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]

#51

Post by 3abiton »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #43

My proudest moment in high school was getting a 5/5 on the calculus based AP Physics C exams at 15 with no calculus and only rudimentary algebra knowledge at the time. That experience permanently colored my thinking, and made me much more open to practicing thorough visual imagination as a way to solve problems. I found that practice useful all the way through my EE degree's vector fields courses a decade later. I th…

Can't agree more, mental visualization is such an asset for any understanding as it relies on compressing information and forces oneself to digest the material.

Re: Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]

#52

Post by mjburgess »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #43

My proudest moment in high school was getting a 5/5 on the calculus based AP Physics C exams at 15 with no calculus and only rudimentary algebra knowledge at the time. That experience permanently colored my thinking, and made me much more open to practicing thorough visual imagination as a way to solve problems. I found that practice useful all the way through my EE degree's vector fields courses a decade later. I th…

> continuity of spacetime is a convenient approximation

I disagree, and there's no evidence for this. This is computer science leaking out; physics has no formulation of spacetime in discrete terms, and indeed, all of physics presumes continuity.

In QM, the space of wavefns is infinite-dim continuous, and if wasnt, QM wouldnt be linear.

Cognition is discrete, but the world is continuous.

Re: Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]

#54

Post by niemandhier »

William Burk published a little book on understanding differential geometry on an intuitive level using visualisations.

One chapters deals with Maxwell. After this it was easy to understand

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/applied-differential-ge...

Re: Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]

#55

Post by yard2010 »

mjburgess wrote: post #52
hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #43

My proudest moment in high school was getting a 5/5 on the calculus based AP Physics C exams at 15 with no calculus and only rudimentary algebra knowledge at the time. That experience permanently colored my thinking, and made me much more open to practicing thorough visual imagination as a way to solve problems. I found that practice useful all the way through my EE degree's vector fields courses a decade later. I th…

> continuity of spacetime is a convenient approximation I disagree, and there's no evidence for this. This is computer science leaking out; physics has no formulation of spacetime in discrete terms, and indeed, all of physics presumes continuity. In QM, the space of wavefns is infinite-dim continuous, and if wasnt, QM wouldnt be linear. Cognition is discrete, but the world is continuous.

But isn't the whole point of QM is that this assumption doesn't hold in some scale? I mean it's literally in the name. Care to explain? :)

Re: Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]

#56

Post by lll-o-lll »

mjburgess wrote: post #52
hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #43

My proudest moment in high school was getting a 5/5 on the calculus based AP Physics C exams at 15 with no calculus and only rudimentary algebra knowledge at the time. That experience permanently colored my thinking, and made me much more open to practicing thorough visual imagination as a way to solve problems. I found that practice useful all the way through my EE degree's vector fields courses a decade later. I th…

> continuity of spacetime is a convenient approximation I disagree, and there's no evidence for this. This is computer science leaking out; physics has no formulation of spacetime in discrete terms, and indeed, all of physics presumes continuity. In QM, the space of wavefns is infinite-dim continuous, and if wasnt, QM wouldnt be linear. Cognition is discrete, but the world is continuous.

> the world is continuous

Is it though? Does it matter one way or the other? Do we think reality is the math in some way, or is the math a really darn good model of the reality?

Re: Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]

#58

Post by omnicognate »

yard2010 wrote: post #55
mjburgess wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> continuity of spacetime is a convenient approximation I disagree, and there's no evidence for this. This is computer science leaking out; physics has no formulation of spacetime in discrete terms, and indeed, all of physics presumes continuity. In QM, the space of wavefns is infinite-dim continuous, and if wasnt, QM wouldnt be linear. Cognition is discrete, but the world is continuous.

But isn't the whole point of QM is that this assumption doesn't hold in some scale? I mean it's literally in the name. Care to explain? :)

No, position and time are typically continuous variables in quantum mechanics. You can have formulations in which they are discrete but they are not required and are relatively exotic. QM certainly doesn't say they must be discrete.

Re: Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]

#59

Post by namaria »

xhstephen wrote: post #53

i have tried to transform the pdf into a presentation with AI, may help you read faster

I don't know what's more concerning, the fact that you find a six page paper written by one of the greatest communicators in science hard to digest or that you think an automatically chopped up version with colorful shapes is equivalent to the original.

Re: Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]

#60

Post by rsecora »

mjburgess wrote: post #52
hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #43

My proudest moment in high school was getting a 5/5 on the calculus based AP Physics C exams at 15 with no calculus and only rudimentary algebra knowledge at the time. That experience permanently colored my thinking, and made me much more open to practicing thorough visual imagination as a way to solve problems. I found that practice useful all the way through my EE degree's vector fields courses a decade later. I th…

> continuity of spacetime is a convenient approximation I disagree, and there's no evidence for this. This is computer science leaking out; physics has no formulation of spacetime in discrete terms, and indeed, all of physics presumes continuity. In QM, the space of wavefns is infinite-dim continuous, and if wasnt, QM wouldnt be linear. Cognition is discrete, but the world is continuous.

Its 99 years since Einstein published the paper on the photoelectric effect whith had far-reaching consequences. [1]

And 93 years since the first Solvay Conference. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_quantum_mechanics [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvay_Conference

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