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When I first wrote this part of the series, I wasn’t quite sure if I should include this. for most people submitting to most of the physics journals, this isn’t an issue. But considering the number of very bright students, we have on here, inevitably some of you might consider submitting a manuscript to…
At this stage, you are well into your Ph.D. research work, and depending on what area of physics you are in, you may already start producing new results. This next part of the series will cover an extremely important aspect of your graduate work that is typically not covered (sometimes not even required)…
From Concept to Manuscript You’ve done the science. You had an idea, performed an extensive literature review, designed an experiment, ran the experiment, mucked the experiment up, repeated the cycle until you generated meaningful results, conducted a rigorous analysis and now, finally, you’ve written up your results complete with fancy graphs. You want to share…
Preamble The classical mathematician practically by instinct views the continuous process as the “real” process, and the discrete process as an approximation to it. The mathematics of finance and certain topics in the modern theory of stochastic processes suggest that, in some cases at least, the opposite is true. Continuous processes are, generally speaking, the…
Abstract “Mathematics is the native language of nature.” is a phrase that is often used when it comes to explaining why mathematics is all around in natural sciences, especially in physics. What does that mean? A closer look shows us that it primarily means that we describe nature by differential equations, a lot of differential…
Abstract There is so much to say about the many endeavors by professional scientists to explain to us the world. The list is long: Carl Sagan, Harald Lesch, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sabine Hossenfelder, Michio Kaku, and I even saw Roger Penrose and Steven Hawking on tv. The list is – of course – considerably longer…
Part 1: Overview Part 2: Mathematical Details Part 3: Implications Most people who have spent any time at all studying GR are familiar with the Schwarzschild solution. (A series of Insights articles discusses the key properties of that solution.) Much of that familiarity probably derives from the fact that the Schwarzschild solution describes a black…
* Oct. 25th, 1811 † May 31st, 1832 … or why squaring the circle is doomed. Galois died in a duel at the age of twenty. Yet, he gave us what we now call Galois theory. It decides all three ancient classical problems, squaring the circle, doubling the cube, and partitioning angles into three…
Riemann Hypothesis History The Riemann Hypothesis is one of the most famous and long-standing unsolved problems in mathematics, specifically in the field of number theory. It’s named after the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann, who introduced the hypothesis in 1859. RH: All non-trivial zeros of the Riemannian zeta-function lie on the critical line. ERH: All zeros…
We use integration to measure lengths, areas, or volumes. This is a geometrical interpretation, but we want to examine an analytical interpretation that leads us to Integration reverses differentiation. Hence let us start with differentiation. Weierstraß Definition of Derivatives ##f## is differentiable at ##x## if there is a linear map ##D_{x}f##, such that \begin{equation*} \underbrace{D_{x}(f)}_{\text{Derivative}}\cdot…
Introduction Every secondary school student who has encountered trigonometry in his/her Math syllabus will most likely have come across the sine, cosine, and area rules which are typically used to solve triangles in which certain information is supplied and the remainder are to be calculated. Somewhat surprisingly (because it is relatively simple to derive), the…
Introduction In a previous Physics Forums article entitled “How to Master Projectile Motion Without Quadratics”, PF user @kuruman brought to our attention the vector equation ##\frac{|V_0 \times V_f|}{g} = R## and lamented the fact that: “Equally unused, untaught and apparently not even assigned as a “show that” exercise is Equation (4) that identifies the range as the…
Introduction We show how one can solve most, if not all, introductory-level projectile motion problems in one or maybe two lines. To this end, we forgo convention. We demote clock time ##t## to a parameter of secondary importance and ditch the independence of motion in the vertical and horizontal directions. Starting from first principles, we…
I have written many Insights (and coauthored an entire book) explaining how the puzzles, problems, and paradoxes of modern physics can be attributed to our dynamical bias and resolved by rising to Wilczek’s challenge [1]: A recurring theme in natural philosophy is the tension between the God’s-eye [4D] view of reality comprehended as a whole…
All undergraduate physics majors are shown how the counterintuitive aspects (“mysteries”) of time dilation and length contraction in special relativity (SR) follow from the light postulate, i.e., that everyone measures the same value for the speed of light c, regardless of their motion relative to the source (see this Insight, for example). And, we can…
The “twin paradox” is often discussed in the introductory treatment of special relativity. Under “twin paradox” we understand the fact that if two twins start from the same place with synchronized clocks, traveling in an arbitrary way and then meet again at the same spacetime point, where they compare their clocks, in general, they find…
We asked our PF Advisors “How do you see the rise in A.I. affecting STEM in the lab, classroom, industry and or in everyday society?”. We got so many great responses we need to split them into parts, here are the first several. This is part 2. Read part 1 here. Enjoy! gleem AI:…
Key Points Hubble‘s law (redshift of galaxies) and Doppler effect provides direct evidence for the universe expanding away from our reference point, implying the universe is expanding. Low temperatures due to expansion from initial high temperatures at the big bang, supported by radio astronomy signals from stars, galaxies, radio galaxies, quasars and pulsars. Cosmic Microwave…
Note: This Insight was previously titled, “Answering Mermin’s Challenge with Wilczek’s Challenge.” While that version of this Insight did not involve any particular interpretation of quantum mechanics, it did involve the block universe interpretation of special relativity. I have updated this Insight to remove the block universe interpretation, so that it now answers Mermin’s challenge…
In a recent thread, I outlined how to compute the correlation function for the Bell basis states \begin{equation}\begin{split}|\psi_-\rangle &= \frac{|ud\rangle \,- |du\rangle}{\sqrt{2}}\\ |\psi_+\rangle &= \frac{|ud\rangle + |du\rangle}{\sqrt{2}}\\ |\phi_-\rangle &= \frac{|uu\rangle \,- |dd\rangle}{\sqrt{2}}\\ |\phi_+\rangle &= \frac{|uu\rangle + |dd\rangle}{\sqrt{2}} \end{split}\label{BellStates}\end{equation} when they represent spin states. The first state ##|\psi_-\rangle## is called the “spin singlet state” and it…
People often claim on Physics Forums and in the foundations community proper that quantum mechanics is “incomplete.” Indeed, Lee Smolin recently wrote [1, p. xvii]: I hope to convince you that the conceptual problems and raging disagreements that have bedeviled quantum mechanics since its inception are unsolved and unsolvable, for the simple reason that the…
Introduction We are in many ways a fortunate generation having so many wonderful tools at our disposal on account of the “silicon revolution”. The advent of powerful personal computers has radically changed just about every form of human activity in a few short decades (this author – for example – is of a generation that…
Introduction Most readers acquainted with the hydrogen spectrum will be familiar with the set of lines in the visible spectrum representing transitions of electrons from energy levels 3,4,5 and 6 (H alpha, beta, gamma, and delta respectively) of atomic hydrogen to energy level 2 – the Balmer series lines. The picture below shows 3 of…
Don’t forget to read Part 1 of this interview. Professor Kaku, what do you think of “peak oil,” how serious is it? and what alternative sources of energy do you think will best provide the worlds needs in the coming decades after fossil fuels start to decline? (whether it be organic oils, nuclear breeder-types, fusion…
About Physics Forums Values and Mission Our goal is to provide a community for people (whether students, professional scientists, or hobbyists) to learn and discuss science as it is currently generally understood and practiced by the professional scientific community. As our name suggests, our main focus is on physics, but we also have forums for…
Wheeler’s opening statement in his 1986 paper, “How Come the Quantum?” holds as true today as it did then [1] The necessity of the quantum in the construction of existence: out of what deeper requirement does it arise? Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, so compelling that when — in…
Paper discussion: Solar system expansion and strong equivalence principle as seen by the NASA MESSENGER mission. Antonio Genova, Erwan Mazarico, Sander Goossens, Frank G. Lemoine, Gregory A. Neumann, David E. Smith & Maria T. Zuber. Nature Communications volume 9, Article number: 289. Key Points Students of physics learn about the sun‘s gravitational influence which causes planets to…
Clifford V. Johnson is a professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the USC. “I mainly work on (super)string theory, gravity, gauge theory and M-theory right now, which lead me to think about things like space-time, quantum mechanics, black holes, the big bang, extra dimensions, quarks, gluons, and so forth.” Clifford V. Johnson runs a…
A Short Proof of Birkoff’s Theorem derived the Schwarzschild metric in units of ##G = c = 1##: \begin{equation} ds^2 = -\left(1 – \frac{2M}{r}\right)dt^2 + \left(1 – \frac{2M}{r}\right)^{-1}dr^2 + r^2d\theta^2 + r^2 \sin^2\theta d\phi^2 \label{metric} \end{equation} and I used that metric in The Schwarzschild Metric: Part 1, GPS Satellites to show that Global Positioning System (GPS)…
A Global Positioning System (GPS) device gives your precise location by receiving light pulses from satellites with synchronized clocks then triangulating your location based on that information [1]. Since light travels at 300 million meters per second, your location will be off by about 1 meter if the clock times are off by only…
It is said that you should accomplish three things in life: Plant a tree. Have a child. Write a book. Out of the three, I have completed at least one. At the time of writing this Insight, my textbook “Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering” just hit the virtual online shelves. This Insight will…
Key Points Published paper studied how knots in polymers respond to an external flow field and how the knot affects the response of the polymer Experiments and simulations of knotted polymer chains being stretched by an extensional flow field The coil–stretch transition occurs when the flow is weak enough for the molecule to relax to…
A new paper from a collaboration of Canadian physicists has demonstrated how simply twirling a wire through a solution of DNA molecules can align the molecules around the wire, similar to the way that twirling a fork can align noodles around it. The paper was published in Physical Review X (PRX), an open-access journal that…
Many people here know that I am a “Bohmian”, i.e. an adherent of a very non-orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM). Indeed, in the past, I have published a lot of papers on Bohmian mechanics in peer-reviewed journals from 2004 to 2012. So how can I not worry and love orthodox QM? As a “Bohmian”,…
In terms of wavelength, peak solar radiation occurs at about 500 nm. Interestingly, this is well within the range of human vision. When solar radiation is plotted against frequency instead of wavelength, the peak is found to be at about 340 THz. It may come as a shock that when 340 THz is converted to…
Undergraduate interest in research is a good thing; it’s even better if they aspire to publish their work for review and consideration from a broader audience. First, we should consider what it means to be publishable. Usually, “publishable” means a paper contains a novel and interesting result in either theory or experiment that is more…
Read part 1 -Backyards, Barns, Bayous When I was offered a job at the Air Force Academy, it seemed like an opportunity to exercise both my commitment to academic rigor and my desire to serve my country while continuing with the basement and boat ramp approach to research. Since I was faculty in the Department of…
This Insight Article is a sequel of the Insight Articles ”The Physics of Virtual Particles”, “Misconceptions about Virtual Particles“ , and ”The Vacuum Fluctuation Myth”, which make precise what a virtual particle is, what being real means, document some of the liberties taken in physics textbooks in the use of this concept, mention the most…
This here is my personal story. For an alternative introduction see my talk: Higher Structures in Mathematics and Physics. Initially, I discovered higher category theory and higher homotopy theory for myself in my Ph.D. work, in the course of analyzing the supersymmetric quantum mechanics of the superstring on loop space. Driven, as I am,…
During and even after the recent US election campaign, there were numerous reports of fake news, made-up news, and other kinds of news that were deemed either outright fabrication or inaccurate or incomplete reporting of something to skewer it into one point of view or another. While the outright-fabricated news can easily be spotted eventually,…
21st-century science labors under the myth that good experimental science requires expensive lab facilities in a university or institutional setting. We have the example of Marie and Pierre Curie discovering radium in an abandoned shed, Lavoisier’s seminal Chemistry work in his home laboratory, and Isaac Newton’s seminal work in optics in his mother’s farmhouse (Woolsthorpe Manor)…
The article, “Governmental policy is wrecking science,” makes some interesting points but is fundamentally in error, because government policy is only a small part of the problem. The government is depending on scientists and teachers to police students and each other regarding scientific and academic integrity. To a harmful extent, scientists and teachers are failing…
In 2002, Pierre Deligne proved a remarkable theorem on what mathematically is called Tannakian reconstruction of tensor categories. Here I give an informal explanation what this theorem says and why it has profound relevance for theoretical particle physics: Deligne’s theorem on tensor categories combined with Wigner’s classification of fundamental particles implies a strong motivation…
In the early 20th century, an eccentric businessman named Roger Babson declared gravity to be mankind’s greatest threat. He devoted part of his fortune to defeating it, creating the Gravity Research Foundation which sponsors a yearly essay contest focused on the understanding of gravity. This contest has been won by the likes of Stephen Hawking…
This Insight Article is a sequel to the Insight Article ”The Physics of Virtual Particles”, which contains an exposition of definitions that are physically justified, and in particular, makes precise what a virtual particle is and what being real means. As discussed in detail in the companion article, virtual particles are defined as (intuitive imagery…
Is it possible to design an unbreakable cipher? Do methods of encryption exist that guarantee privacy from even the most capable and highly-resourced of prying eyes? This question is especially relevant today, as individual privacy and national security increasingly find themselves at opposite ends of the arbitration table. Powerful nation-states with unparalleled mathematical know-how and…
It’s a calculation which you can find in any textbook on General Relativity (GR): when gravity is weak and does not vary with time, and when particles are traveling slowly with respect to the speed of light, GR becomes good old Newtonian gravity again. However, this is done at the level of equations of motion….
A monographic substitution cipher works by replacing individual characters of plaintext with corresponding characters of ciphertext. It is perhaps the simplest encryption scheme ever devised: early monographic substitution ciphers were employed by Julius Caesar to secure private correspondence. These ciphers were low-tech, required virtually no mathematics, and encryption and decryption could be accomplished by finger…
Can you give us a brief history of berkeman? I grew up in a military family (my dad was an Army colonel), so we moved all over the place when I was a kid, finally settling in Calistoga in the northern part of the Napa Valley, California, for my high school years. Being a military…
Give us a brief history of Borek Note: text below is of a negative pedagogical value, don’t read it if you are younger than 20, attending school or still naïvely hoping for the best. I was born half a century ago, in a galaxy far, far away. So far away our laws were all shifted…
Historically, life is categorized into three broad domains: bacteria, archaea, and eukaryota. Whereas bacteria and archaea are almost all relatively simple, single-celled microorganisms, humans and all other forms of complex, multi-cellular life (including all other animals, plants, and fungi) are classified as eukaryotes, so understanding the evolution of eukaryotes is important for understanding the origin…
This is a new Interview category for Insights. While I line up some great new interviews I’ll be migrating some previous mentor interviews. ZapperZ is a staff emeritus at Physics Forums Can you give us a brief history of ZapperZ? Without reveal things that are answers to a few of the security questions to my accounts, I would say…
Let me introduce you to Andy Resnick, a long time Science Advisor at Physics Forums. Tell us a little bit about how you developed an interest in biophysics That’s a good question, and I’m not sure how to answer. I’ve worked in the ‘in-between space’ for many years- for example, optics is in-between physics…
Look in your standard cosmology textbook (in my case, the closest one at hand is Barbara Ryden’s Introduction to Cosmology) and go to the section which describes the experimental discovery of dark matter. Two of the things you will likely find in there are the following pieces of information: The virial theorem applied to the…
Introduction In this Insight, I will go over the background information for the Millennium Prize problems and briefly describe three of them. A future Insight will contain brief descriptions of the remaining four problems. In 1900, David Hilbert presented 23 of the most important open problems in mathematics at a conference of the International Congress…
For several years, I have been contemplating this beautiful picture by photographer Brian McPhee. I have a personal interest in the photograph because that boat is my year-round home. I also have a scientific interest in the photograph because of what it teaches me about rainbow physics. The simplest explanation of rainbow physics is based…
What causes cancer? For the most part, cancer is a disease that arises from mutations in the body that accumulate over time. These mutations knock out key tumor suppressor genes involved in repairing DNA or regulating cell division and activate oncogenes that can drive cells to divide uncontrollably and invade other tissues. But where do…
In an Insights series “Blockworld and its Foundational Implications,” I quoted Huw Price and Ken Wharton in several places advocating a blockworld approach to physics (called the Lagrangian Schema[1]). While Ken did sign off on my use of these quotes, I wasn’t entirely fair to the Price & Wharton program because I didn’t reveal their…
In parts 1 and 2 of this 5-part Insights series, I explained the blockworld (BW) implication of special relativity (SR). In part 3, I introduced general relativity (GR) and brought BW to bear on general relativistic cosmology to ‘explain’ what puzzles so many people about big bang cosmology, i.e., the origin of the universe….
Key Points Funke and Dietz created a DNA hinge which is adjustable by varying the length of one of the DNA molecules, allowing positioning of molecules attached to the hinge by as little as 0.04 nanometers. DNA origami was one of the first successful methods of “bottom–up” nanotechnology, allowing structures such as cubes, smiley faces,…
This post is about some simulations I did of self-avoiding random walks. These are what they sound like: with each step, the position of the walk moves randomly, with the constraint that it can’t visit the same spot more than once. These are mathematically somewhat interesting and crop up in a few areas of physics;…
Astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background in 1965. They were not looking for it. They were using the comically distorted Holmdel Horn Antenna at Bell Labs, New Jersey, to study the reflection of radio waves off NASA balloon satellites. Despite all efforts to remove interference while calibrating the instrument…
Key Points Jérôme Duplat and Emmanuel Villermaux published a paper in Physical Review Letters (PRL) to generate centimeter–sized vacuum bubbles in water with miniature laser–driven explosions Observed the flash of light produced as the bubble collapsed, a phenomenon known as sonoluminescence Measured the temperature inside the bubble to be upwards of 20,000 Kelvin Bubbles generated by…
The Planck length is an extremely small distance constructed from physical constants. There are a lot of misconceptions that generally overstate its physical significance, for example, stating that it’s the inherent pixel size of the universe. The Planck length does have physical significance, and I’ll talk about what it is, and what it isn’t. Key…
Key Points Scaling arguments are powerful tools in physics between vague descriptive arguments and rigorous formulae. Examples of scaling arguments include the Square–Cube Law and Terminal Velocity. A paper by Nicole Meyer–Vernet and Jean–Pierre Rospars examines the top speeds of organisms of varying sizes from bacteria up to blue whales. The paper finds that the…
In the previous article we saw that the generalization of super-Lie algebras to homotopy super-Lie n-algebras (super L-infinity algebras) has been found, decades back, to be at the heart of supergravity and M-theory — somewhat secretly so, in the dual guise of “FDA”s. Lie algebras are infinitesimal symmetries. Super Lie algebras are infinitesimal supersymmetries. Lie…
While the world didn’t end, after all, 15 years back at the turn of the millennium, in hindsight it is curious that, almost unnoticed, something grand did come to a halt around that time. Or almost. The 90s had seen a firework of structural insight into the mathematical nature of string theory, an unprecedented…
Many physics majors believe that pursuing a Ph.D. in physics requires they make a choice between theory and experiment. Due to my weaknesses in math, I thought I had chosen to be an experimentalist when I chose an experimentalist as my mentor for grad school. But as I chased interesting projects, I ended up publishing…
I am going to backtrack a little bit and talk about writing your Curriculum Vitae (CV) and what you should focus on in search of a job in physics. This includes looking for a Postdoctoral position, a research position, and possibly a faculty position at a university. I am going to base this…
If you intend to pursue an academic/research career, chances are, you will need postdoctoral experience. This is typically a 2 to 3-year appointment either at a university, national laboratories, or industrial laboratories such as Bell Lab. It is not uncommon for someone to do 2 postdoctoral positions before finding suitable employment. So this…
In the previous chapter, we have reached the point where you have finished with your thesis defense, and also thesis submission to the graduate school. You are all set to go into the nasty physics world and look for a job. If that is your case, then you are SCREWED! You do NOT…
When I look over the most highly cited papers and my favorite accomplishments, I am struck by the fact that most of the projects were not funded by an external research grant and many were not even performed while I was “on the clock” in a scientific position. I guess that makes me an amateur….
At this point, you have completed writing your thesis, your adviser has approved of it, and you have distributed it to all the members of your thesis committee. It is now time for you to do your thesis defense. Officially, this is the final obstacle standing in your way between you and your…
At this stage, you have performed your doctoral research work, maybe even have published (or about to publish) a paper or two, and may have presented your work at a physics conference. It is time for you to think about finishing this part of your life. However, before you can do that, you…
I’ll try not to make a habit out of this, but I believe there’s something to add to this chapter of the series. In Part XIV, I mentioned the APS Meetings – March and April – which typically tend to be the largest yearly gathering of physicists. They both covered different areas of physics, i.e….
I mentioned earlier that there are two ways for physicists to communicate their work. The first is via publications in peer-reviewed journals. I have covered this in the last chapter of this series. The second, which we will cover here, is through oral presentations at various scientific conferences. Each year, there are scientific…
Your First Scientific Paper Ought to be good! Structure and Contents of a Master Degree Thesis This guide was written some years ago as a guideline for students at the Physics Master level at the University of Oslo. I had at that time been the final censor for about 30 students, and I was getting…
In this Insight, I’ll discuss a recent experiment ([1] [2] [3]) by some Australian physicists that has brought a thought experiment into the real world [4], and in doing so has lent some ammunition to a most unlikely idea: Retrocausality: A reversal of the concept of causality, allowing effects to occur before the events that cause…
Now, where were we? Oh yes! You have now started with your actual research work. You and your adviser have agreed on at least the general type of area you will be working in and you have started to do a lot of literature search of what is going on in that field,…
It has been a while since the last installment of this series, so let’s recap on where you are right now. You should already made a choice on the physics subject area that you want to work in, and you have picked an advisor who will be (i) supervising your Ph.D. research work…
In the previous part, I described the trials and tribulations of going through the qualifying exam that almost all graduate physics students have to go through. In this part, we will assume that you got through that very difficult part of your graduate program and now ready to do some serious, real physics…
You are now entering your first year of graduate school. In terms of the academic aspect, you will have a set of required courses that you must take. Typically, these courses would be advanced classical mechanics (at the level of Goldstein), advanced QM (at the level of Merzbacher and Sakurai), and advanced E&M (at…
I have decided to tackle this issue because it became a very common question in many physics forums. Can someone, without a degree in physics, get accepted and succeed in physics graduate school all the way to obtaining a Ph.D? Obviously, this question cannot be answered easily, because it depends on (i) your…
In a previous Insight, Weak Values Part 1: “Asking Photons Where They Have Been,” I showed different methods for computing the relative intensities in the weak measurements done by Danan, Farfurnik, Bar-Ad, and Vaidman (DFBV)[1]. In that experiment, DFBV had a weak transverse signal, created by mirrors oscillating with small amplitudes transverse to the beam path through an interferometer, piggyback…
In a previous Insight on retrocausality, I explained an experiment by Danan, Farfurnik, Bar-Ad, and Vaidman (DFBV)[1], “Asking Photons Where They Have Been” using various retrocausal models. In this Insight, I will give a brief introduction to the formalism for computing the relative power spectra in that experiment. Specifically, I will show how the weak…
We are still discussing the final year of your undergraduate education. So far, we have covered what you need to consider if you want to go on to graduate school and prepare yourself as best as you can for that part of your journey. This is the “traditional” path that many physics students…
We are still stuck in the discussion of your fourth and final year of college. This time, I feel that a clear explanation of the US graduate school system is warranted, especially to others from the rest of the world who intend to continue their graduate education in the US. This is because…
The development of the CRISPR/Cas9 system has made gene editing a relatively simple task. While CRISPR and other gene-editing technologies stand to revolutionize biomedical research and offer many promising therapeutic avenues (such as in the treatment of HIV), a great deal of debate exists over whether CRISPR should be used to modify human embryos. As…
We are still discussing the final year of your undergraduate program where you are in the midst of applying to graduate schools. In Part 5, I mentioned the word ”assistantship” several times, and it is important that you understand what this is, and why you should apply for it. So this part of the…
We have now reached the final year of your undergraduate program. By now, you would have gone through courses in the fundamental pillars of physics (Classical mechanics, Quantum mechanics, and E&M), and even courses in Thermodynamics/Statistical Physics. Academically, this is where you start taking more advanced courses, even some graduate-level courses. There are plenty…
So far, I have covered what I believe a student needs all the way to the end of the 2nd year of studies. In most schools in the US, an undergraduate must have a declared major by the end of the 2nd year (if not sooner). So by now, you should already be officially…
For many physics students, Medical Physics is that branch of the discipline that seems to hover in the no-man’s land between academia and “industry.” It’s not as glamorous or fundamental as some of the other branches that may have originally drawn students into physics in the first place. It didn’t get a chapter in Hawking’s…
Part III: Mathematical Preparations In most universities in the US, a student must have a declared major by the end of his or her second year. So this is an important transition – making the commitment in a particular area of study. By now, if you have followed the first two chapters of this…
In two previous Insights, I shared Mermin’s explanation of the Hardy experiment[1] and the Mermin device[2]. Both of his corresponding AJP papers presented nontechnical arguments against “instruction sets” aka “counterfactual definiteness” for quantum mechanics (QM). In the case of the Mermin device, Elitzur & Dolev showed a particular experimental instantiation yielded a quantum counterpart to the liar paradox[3]. Herein I will share a third Mermin AJP paper[4]…
In 1981, Mermin published a paper[1], “Bringing home the atomic world: Quantum mysteries for anybody” in which he explained the mystery of quantum nonlocality[2] without requiring the formalism of quantum mechanics (QM). I will summarize that argument then show how the QM formalism fits his results and how his device is instantiated in Elitzur & Dolev’s quantum liar experiment (QLE)[3]. The quantum state…
Part II: Surviving the First Year of College This part covers the survival tips of the first two undergraduate years. So now you’re in college, and you have every intention to be a physics major (actually, what I’m about to describe applies to anyone who is taking a physics class, not just for physics…
So You Want to Be a Physicist: A 22 Part Guide Introduction: The motivation for creating the series One of the most frequent questions we get in various physics forums and IRC physics channels (besides the annoying ”can anything travel faster than c?”) is the process and background of being a physics major. Often,…
The prospect of designer babies has been a staple of the dystopian futures imagined by science-fiction writers, evoking fears of eugenics (e.g. Brave New World) or social inequality (e.g. Gattaca). However, new advances in gene editing technologies, in particular, the discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 system, are bringing this piece of science fiction closer to reality….
Key Points Worrying about the future now means recognizing the advances in technology, such as genetic engineering, that have arisen. There is a standard of health that fluctuates depending on relative perceptions of different biological variations on the human species that may emerge. We must be careful when using new technologies and understand their implications,…
Meet a Mentor is a series to help you get to know your wonderful Mentors better. Constructive questions and comments are welcome! Today we meet: Mark44 How did you become interested in mathematics? Along about 4th grade I came across an algebra textbook that really fascinated me, with all of its x’s and y’s, and symbols…