What is the hardest thing for you to wrap your brain around

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The discussion centers around the challenges of comprehending vast concepts in the universe, such as the immense size of the universe and the minuscule size of quarks. Participants express difficulty in grasping abstract ideas like infinity, the nature of consciousness, and the fundamental question of existence—why anything exists at all. The conversation touches on mathematical concepts, particularly Cantor's work on different sizes of infinity, and the implications of quantum mechanics and the multiverse theory. There are also reflections on human emotions, memory, and the complexities of understanding life and death. Overall, the thread highlights a shared fascination with the mysteries of existence and the limits of human understanding.
  • #31
What have I got in my pocket?
 
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  • #32
julcab12 said:
Women...

Roger that.
It's amazing that they say almost exactly the opposite of what they mean, and then rag on you for a week because you took them at their word. ("I don't care about Nancy's party; I want to stay home with you," turns rapidly into "We could be having fun at Nancy's party instead of sitting here watching Jeapardy.")
 
  • #33
Jimmy Snyder said:
What have I got in my pocket?
I'm sure it's precious.
 
  • #34
Borg said:
I'm sure it's precious.

I believe that would just be "prec", since there were several "S's" absent from the end of his post. We must keep our tensesses straight.
 
  • #35
encorp said:
Entropy.

Why it is what it is, and so on.

I'm all set with entropy; it's enthalpy that I still don't quite get (beyond it's definition, and how to calculate the change thereof).

Enthalpy isn't taught in basic physics, so I haven't had the professional requirement of coming up with a dozen analogies to explain it.
 
  • #36
Chi Meson said:
I'm all set with entropy; it's enthalpy that I still don't quite get (beyond it's definition, and how to calculate the change thereof).

Enthalpy isn't taught in basic physics, so I haven't had the professional requirement of coming up with a dozen analogies to explain it.

I remember Enthalpy! It was a term they used when teaching us how nuclear reactor systems worked.

But being somewhat old, and mentally degenerating at a very rapid pace, anything I learned before yesterday is generally hard for me to wrap my brain around.
 
  • #37
Had the meteor not struck planet Earth when the dinos walked all over killing them all, then they would still be around. Ifcourse, had that same meteor struck just 500 years ago, I would not be writing this now.
 
  • #38
The hardest thing for me to wrap my head around is how people can still think the universe was created in 6 days, and that a virgin got pregnant by an immaculate conception.
 
  • #39
Yayfordoritos said:
The hardest thing for me to wrap my head around is how people can still think the universe was created in 6 days, and that a virgin got pregnant by an immaculate conception.

A "day" can be defined other than a time period of 24 hours. Perhaps the biblical creation day is 2 billion years long.

And we impregnate people like that all the time where I work. Never asked them if they were virgins of course. It's a bit of a personal question. :rolleyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjz16xjeBAA​

Science explains everything.

Neil deGrasse Tyson explained the science of Santa Claus the other day on NPR. He is a freakin' genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YAQh9O0rm8​

ps. Magnets! Someone explain magnets to me!
 
  • #40
Number Theory. Or Human stupidity. I'd say both are equally hard for me to wrap my head around.
 
  • #41
The hardest thing for my to wrap my brain around is how people can confuse two different subjects like Philosophy and Quantum Mechanics or Astrology and Quantum Physics? Every subject is wonderful in its own way and should be dealt with differently. Yes, there is no border between subjects and they can be intermingled but not to the extent that you make a subject lose its integrity.

Understanding people is hard. Well, understanding the universe is hard.
 
  • #42
I think it's Graham's number for me.
 
  • #43
I can't understand why my bank account is constantly empty...I think QCD may have something to do with it.
 
  • #44
How humans survived in the wild.
 
  • #45
Anything greater than or equal to Graham's number. (Alright, not technically a physics thing).
The most difficult, actual thing, for me to wrap my brain around: every single thing in Quantum Mechanics :)
 
  • #46
Graham crackers.
 
  • #47
lisab said:
Graham crackers.

I thought you put white/grey squishy things BETWEEN the crackers??
 
  • #48
EricVT said:
Memory.

How tiny chemical reactions and electrical signals can conjure up such vivid memories from 20+ years ago amazes me.

This is it for me too.
 
  • #49
What came first, the chicken or the egg? It's an analogy that can be applied to almost any practical situation and asks the very question of existence.
 
  • #50
NWH said:
What came first, the chicken or the egg? It's an analogy that can be applied to almost any practical situation and asks the very question of existence.
Egg? (chicken came from egg, but what laid egg wasn't necessarily chicken - probably tasted as good, though ... I find the distinction question interesting in cases like this; the thing in the farmyard is "clearly" a chicken and its wayback ancestor clearly isn't (it probably had teeth and a long bony tail) - where along the evolutionary trail does a chicken become a chicken and not a chickosaurus?)
 
  • #51
NWH said:
What came first, the chicken or the egg? It's an analogy that can be applied to almost any practical situation and asks the very question of existence.

I've never found it to be all that applicable. Or deep.
 
  • #52
Why anyone gives a flying <expletive> about New Year's.

P = NP

Why anyone thought Notre Dame was #1
 
  • #53
Drakkith said:
I've never found it to be all that applicable. Or deep.
Look at it a different way. What came first, energy or matter? What came first, the universe or the big bang? The chicken or the egg scenario asks the very question of existence, like where did everything come from and what was actually required for it to exist. That's the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around, how something can seemingly come out of no where without a chicken or an egg to give birth to it.
 
  • #54
NWH said:
Look at it a different way. What came first, energy or matter? What came first, the universe or the big bang? The chicken or the egg scenario asks the very question of existence, like where did everything come from and what was actually required for it to exist. That's the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around, how something can seemingly come out of no where without a chicken or an egg to give birth to it.

Huh. I've never had an issue with that question. I guess I just don't care because I don't think we can even know.
 
  • #55
Women.
Everything tangible by our senses and thoughts seems to follow a pattern, a logic (even if hidden) that we can scratch, a equilibrium principle, something that we can recognise, [B]except[/B] women. From all familiar things, nothing is more unfamiliar than a woman's brain,...
 
  • #56
Drakkith said:
Huh. I've never had an issue with that question. I guess I just don't care because I don't think we can even know.
That's a fair view point. There's a lot of things I feel I could wrap my head around, like relativity or the idea of extra dimensions, but the idea of absolute nothing completely baffles me.
 
  • #57
The human brain.
 
  • #58
What keeps us alive? We can have a biologist or physcian tell us about electrolytes and our heart beating etc...but what keeps us GOING?
 

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  • #59
seriously one subject that i found completely confusing (and still do) is p-chem.. totally counterintuitive imo... as the course dragged on i had to stop myself from trying to understand it and just start using these crazy mnemonics , in order to pass.
 
  • #60
why is there something instead of nothing? why this universe bothers to exist?

it drives me crazy, it drives me nuts.
 

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