Physical Intuition

A blonde's ability to solve a triple integral for torque in her head (without a slide rule) while walking across a parking lot in stiletto heels on a windy day.

 

I do, it's brilliant.

 

That sounds more like my dream girl. :tongue2:

 

Just out of curiousity, I'm wondering why you've asked questions along this line in several threads. Are you doing a project on this topic?

 

A guess that didn't go amiss? :tongue2:

I don't think intuition can be 'used' in physics - it can only be confirmed.

 

That is a good point, if I understand you correctly.

The "using" of intuition is just a method to guide us. It may be lead us in the correct path, or down to a dead end. Ultimately all scientific ideas must be judged by the scientific method: the "hanging judge" that does not care how smart and clever we are. Ideas must be consistent with experiments in the end.

 

I think it is a fine line between use and confirmation. Eventually after working on certain types of problems for a long time, maybe intuition and experience are one and the same.

For me, it comes down to what my research advisor would always say to us- "You should know the answer before you even start a calculation." I think he stole it from Feynman. But it essentially means that one should reason through a problem in the broad sense (order of magnitude) before getting into the details.