I would tend to agree. A lot of what physics is doing now is proving things through experimentation that we previously posited to exist using math. In relativity there's something called the Terrell-Penrose effect, which was recently proven to exist using lasers and high-speed photography. - ThreadSky

empirenine.bsky.social • 18 days ago

I would tend to agree. A lot of what physics is doing now is proving things through experimentation that we previously posited to exist using math. In relativity there's something called the Terrell-Penrose effect, which was recently proven to exist using lasers and high-speed photography.

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tuomaspernu.bsky.social•18 days ago

I remember Weinberg already stressing, in one of his essays, that empiricism is an over-emphasised element of physics, in terms of confirming theories at least (and he may in fact have blamed philosophers for this!). Anyway, too bad I can't access the whole piece; would like to see where it goes.

malthusjohn.bsky.social•18 days ago

Like day old bread, discounts are only fair (use).

https://archive.is/jxnrh

tuomaspernu.bsky.social•18 days ago

(Thanks! I've just been too lazy to log into the databases - or get my arse off the sofa and walk to the campus and get an automatic access. But I was just about to do that (great excuse to step out and have a little walk).)

empirenine.bsky.social•18 days ago

I appreciate when they prove things that we only posited to exist by math (my dad was an engineer, but he was also a mathematician). So I would love for them to come up with some math that was new, that integrated the standard model or disproved it and came up with something new all together.

tuomaspernu.bsky.social•18 days ago

But then again, there are those (ping @hossenfelder.bsky.social) who think that it's precisely the over-emphasis of maths in physics that has been leading us astray.

hossenfelder.bsky.social•18 days ago

In case you are referring to my book "Lost in Math", the argument I am making is that physicists are not using enough maths.

tuomaspernu.bsky.social•18 days ago

Okay, so when you say that "physicists are lost in math", the problem is not maths itself, but wrong kind of maths, or that maths is used the wrong way? (Sorry, should read your book.) Interestingly, in the piece below you put the blame on Popper - like Rovelli.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/26/physics-particles-physicists

empirenine.bsky.social•18 days ago

I mean really whose idea was strange and charmed? That's like spooky action at a distance or what we now call quantum entanglement, spooky action in a distance was a better name though, even if quantum entanglement is maybe more accurate.

empirenine.bsky.social•18 days ago

You have to have ideas before you can prove them. We didn't know there was a higgs boson we just thought there was, until we found it. Not to mention all the particles we found along the way, and I do so love that whole up, down, strange and charmed thing, lol.

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