Random
Musings…
If you have any brilliant
ideas to contribute, I’d love to hear them!
If you know me, then use
whatever contact email you have, but if not, please send them to:
3/28/2007 Acausal Preacceleration in Classical
Electromagnetism
After a while,
physicists adjust to the weirdness of quantum mechanics, but there are some
things that are just too weird to be accepted even there. For example, most physicists reject David
Bohm's interpretation of quantum mechanics because the future would influence
the present (and the past)-creating problems for interpreting experiments, at
least (not to mention relativity and being able to propagate changes faster
than the speed of light). On the whole, though, physicists generally accept the
intuition that causes come before effects- even in relativity is careful to
preserve this…
The New York
Times has an article
on dark matter and dark energy that I think might be slightly overhyping the
degree to which these ideas cause a problem for the foundations of
physics. The author suggests that these
will require a fundamental overthrow of how physics is typically thought of,
which, while possible (after all, relativity explained a very small perturbation
in Mercury’s orbit), is likely not to be as dramatic as the author
suggests.
Quantum
mechanics can do a lot of fun things. We
can have particles tunneling through solid barriers, and confuse ourselves
about just what the spin of an electron IS.
But can it prove the existence of God?
Well, the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics (the standard
one, accepted by most physicists), says that matter is in a wave function until
it is observed. This wave function is a
combination of all possible states, and observing it makes the particle being
observed “collapse” into a given state.
“You can’t
understand
Sorry for the
lack of posting recently- not surprisingly, I’ve been a little busy with
classes. But, my philosophy class is
discussing physicalism, and I thought I’d say something about it really
quickly, as a physics major. Physicalism
is essentially the theory that everything can be explained through physical
explanations- i.e. everything is reducible to the laws of physics. In our recitation this was formally defined
as the theory that “all facts are entailed by physical facts”, where a physical
fact is one that would eventually be described by a complete theory of physics…
In my ongoing
mission to convince the general public that physicists are not crazy when they
talk about quantum mechanics, I’ve decided that I should tackle the largest
challenge I can find: why do physicists insist that at the quantum level things
are indeterminate? Why aren’t they
determined by some unknown factor that we don’t yet understand? How can we be so certain that they
aren’t…
Earlier, in
my post on the United Methodist Church and homosexuality, I remarked briefly about the inerrancy of Scripture and
the difficulty of establishing the canon, something which has been challenged
recently in public opinion. At the time,
I did not have time to make an argument myself (nor do I
now), but on that same train of thought the Reformation21 magazine has a
helpful post on the subject, available at: http://www.reformation21.org/Window_on_the_Past/158/. I particularly like
the article because it refers to the early Church fathers…
Since I’m
spending this summer dealing with particle physics, I thought I’d post on one
of my favorite elementary particles, the strange quark, and the concept of
conservation of strangeness. I suppose
first I should give a BRIEF introduction to modern particle physics, although
perhaps someday I’ll have a longer post on it.
Basically all matter and antimatter in the universe is made of two types
of particles, hadrons (examples: protons and neutrons) and leptons (example:
electrons). Hadrons are made up of
combinations of quarks, of which there are six types…
For decades the
Ever wonder what I’m
doing all day long now that it’s summer?
Well, I’m working in research for the high energy physics group in the
physics department here at DRL. We’re
primarily working on two projects involving the International Linear Collider-
writing a program on a very expensive computer to simulate the acceleration
cavity, and working on feedback loops using piezo crystals. Sometimes they let me play on the computer,
creating/moving waves through the digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and the
analog-to-digital converters (ADCs).
Anyway, we’ve finally got a website up at: http://ganesha.hep.upenn.edu/~guest/, so check it out if you’re
interested.
A United Methodist Church in
I suppose I will
weigh in with my two cents on the NSA collecting the phone records of
Americans. Despite my Republican
leanings, I am deeply disturbed by this development. I will not argue that there are times when
the government has a legitimate need to access a person’s phone records, even
without that person’s knowledge- such as in terrorist investigations, which is
(supposedly) what this is to do.
However, the fact that the government is gathering this information is
not nearly as troubling as the revelation that no one seems to have oversight
over the NSA…
As I said below, I’m
attempting to post on quantum mechanics, trying to explain the reasoning that
led to some of the crazy conclusions physicists stubbornly cling to in ways
that the general public can grasp.
Hopefully in doing so I’ll become a better physicist, and actually
understand quantum mechanics myself.
I’ve begun with a series explaining wave-particle duality, which also
gives a good historical explanation of the foundation of quantum mechanics for
any who are interested. The mathematics
is approximately on a level of second semester college calculus; however, I’ve
tried to give a sufficient verbal explanation of the math that it’s not
necessary to follow it. Furthermore, the
equations are not derived, but simply included for those who find it easier to
grasp abstract ideas in a mathematical formulation…
A Response to Kenny Pearce’s Contemplated View of Scripture:
In the remarks to his
blog (http://blog.kennypearce.net/archives/000193.html), Kenny Pearce has said that
one view of Scripture he is contemplating is: “"ONLY the text of Scripture
is all and only a perfect, complete, and infallible VERBAL expression of this
same revelation" - I've already said there are other perfect and complete
expressions, but they are not essentially verbal.” The revelation in discussion here is the life
and teachings of Jesus Christ. Kenny
seems to be referring to his remark that…
People tend to be
unduly frightened of theoretical physics, particularly quantum mechanics and
relativity. To combat this, I’m going to
attempt to explain these, as best I can, in as little technical language as
possible. There seems to be a perception
among the general population the physicists in general have lost their minds,
and when one first runs into quantum mechanics this is indeed a good thing to
wonder. it
seems to me that many people simply decide that they cannot accept these
theories, especially quantum mechanics.
In general, it’s a wonderful idea to have some dissention on theories-
we cannot allow anything to become so indoctrinated that it is beyond
questioning, because only by questioning its tenets can physics as a field
progress. Unfortunately, though, most
people tend to reject quantum mechanics right out without trying…
Happy New Year! This year I have great plans for this
webpage, some of which will hopefully see the light of day if my class schedule
allows me to have some free time.
It seems as though
much of the general population has an irrational fear of theoretical physics
and math, which is quite unfortunate since many of the most rewarding
intellectual pursuits are in these two fields.
I’d like to discuss some of the more interesting results of both fields
in as little technical language as possible, so as to stimulate interest in
these fields without putting too many people to sleep. Since I’m taking Physics
250, Principles IV: Modern Physics, I’ll probably have some interesting things
to discuss.
By now just about
everyone has heard of Rep. John Murtha’s criticism of the Iraq Conflict, but I
just thought I’d mention it here because Murtha is from
Quantum mechanics is
the bane of many people’s existence.
Anyone who has struggled to make sense of it, and wondered how the
universe could possibly be this crazy, will tell you that quantum mechanics is
the realm of the most bizarre.
Furthermore, it creates many philosophical problems about the nature of
science- if the universe is inherently probabilistic and random, how can we
postulate that certain physical laws exist at all, much less give sufficient
epistemological support for them. Many
people would like to see quantum mechanics replaced by some sort of deterministic
theory. While I don’t personally see any
possibility for it, I would most certainly welcome it, because I too am
concerned about the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics (although I
hope string theory can do something to limit the probabilistic…
It seems as though
I’ve been neglecting my primary academic focuses, physics and math, on this
website. This is not due to a dulling
interest in the subject, but rather the difficulty of putting theoretical
physics and math online, combined with the lack of interest in these subjects. However, to remedy this situation, I’ve
decided to post information on some topics in complex analysis that I’ve found
particularly fascinating recently. I’ll
try to remove most technical language from here and the nuts-and-bolts
mathematical work, in order to make it more accessible to the random people who
somehow or other find this site, but if you’re more interested there’s plenty
of other fascinating information out there…
I realize I haven’t
said anything in, oh, three months or so.
I’ve been a bit busy with these things called classes…they take up a lot
of time. However, I thought I’d post
something that I worked on for my ethics class over the summer (with some
revisions and shorter) about one of the dilemmas that often confounds
Christians, and my rough solution to it.
Plato, in the Euthyphro, questioned whether the gods loved what was good
or whether something was good simply because it was loved by the gods. While people no longer worship the Greek
gods, the question has continued to confound Christians- is something good only
because God loves it, in which case there seems to be no real meaning to the
claim that God is good, but if one claims otherwise one seems to be challenging
His omnipotence, because He is forced to adhere to some…
Contrary to how
things may seem, I have not fallen off the face of the planet, nor have I
forgotten about this attempt of a website.
I just don’t really have anything to post and it’s been a startling busy
summer (although not very productive). So I’d like to say a little about what I’m up
to and what will hopefully be coming soon, because if I say I’m going to do
something I might actually get around to doing it…
Congress has
(finally) passed a budget, and yet somehow they still found it necessary to
destroy a pristine piece of land in
Recently I was asked
about whether I thought individual formulas “existed” in an abstract sense, and
as is typical I answered first and then thought about it. Fortunately I still agree with my answer, but
as I thought more I thought I should clarify my thoughts (you can be the judge
of whether this is clear or totally confusing).
My original answer was that formulas do not exist in an abstract sense,
as if just waiting for some random person to happen upon them. However, I’d like to clarify that at the time
I was thinking only of physical (scientific) formulas and not of mathematical
ones, and my working definition of a formula is: a mathematical description of
reality that gives accurate results.
Obviously this doesn’t include mathematical formulas, which don’t
describe reality but instead are a statement of some truth...
Now that it’s finally
spring break, I can relax and address an issue that has been in the news
recently, the comments made by Harvard’s president regarding women in the
sciences. It’s a well-known fact that
women aren’t as represented as men in the sciences, particularly in
physics. However, as a female hoping to
become a physicist, I also reject the notion that there are innate differences
the preclude women from succeeding in the scientific realms. I don’t mean to say that women and men are
precisely equal in every manner; common experience reveals that there are
differences between the genders. Women
and men think and react differently, but I do not believe that these
differences are equivalent to the claim that women and men are biologically
designed to succeed in different fields.
In fact, I believe that a successful field should…
2/21/2005
Reality and Relativity
Introductory note:
I’m not really discussing reality in a metaphysical sense, arguing that all
people experience the same world. For
now, absolute reality means a physical property that all ideal observers can
agree on, despite their “individual realities” or experiences. I’m not arguing that we all live in some sort
of absolute reality and experience it differently- my metaphysical beliefs are
still relatively tentative and I don’t want to make such a strong claim. I’m looking for a reality built on things everyone
agrees on, not arguing that this reality exists metaphysically or that we all
reside metaphysically in it…