Entries by Josh Meyer

Intro to the Millennium Prize Problems

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…

Retrocausality: How Fundamental is the Arrow of Time?

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…

5 Common MATLAB Error Messages and How to Fix Them

In this Insight, I’ll go over 5 common MATLAB error messages, what they mean, and how to fix them. Hopefully, after reading this post you’ll find yourself being more productive, and maybe even help your friends with their code. Most forums online where people post MATLAB questions generate quite a bit of duplicates, and PhysicsForums…

How to Visualize the 2-D Particle in a Box

Introduction The particle in a box is a staple of entry-level Quantum Mechanics classes because it provides a meaningful contrast between classical and quantum dynamics. It is one of the few problems that can be solved exactly, without approximations. Despite this, I would wager that most of you solved only the 1-D particle in a…