Enlightenment in Physics
We spend quite a lot of time searching the internet looking for articles, videos, lectures and anything that stands out in terms of providing enlightenment concerning some aspect of modern physics. We're talking about content that suddenly makes sense of something that you've been struggling with. No complex maths, just straightforward descriptions that explain the maths behind the subject.
When we find something that matches our crititeria for enlightenment, we intend to publish links on this page, together with a brief description of what you will get from the item. Scroll on down to see the entries.
ITEM 1: YouTube Video "Nobody explained the Schrödinger equation like this!"
In Part 2 of A Journey into Modern Physics, we looked at the wave nature of electrons and how the electron is confined to a three dimensional standing wave in the nuclear well of an atom. The fact that the standing waves describing the electron are bound to the nucleus like strings on a guitar, gives rise to why the electron is confined to certain orbitals and certain shapes. All this is defined in the Schrödinger wave equation of modern physics.
This video created by a British theoretical physicist is a brilliant explanation of what he calls "that hideous wave equation". But once he understood its many implications - light dawned. Don't be put off by the equation at the start, it's there to emphasise his struggle trying to understand it. It's about half an hour long in total, but well worth the while.
Click on this link:
ITEM 2: LECTURE BY RICHARD FEYNMAN - "Something strange happens when you look inside an atom".
Physicist Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988) was a superb communicator. This reproduction of one of his lectures follows on perfectly from item 1, "Nobody explained the Schrödinger equation like that".
There is a disclaimer at the start of the video that what you hear is not actually Feynman's voice, but that of an AI clone. If the cloned voice starts to annoy you, switch off the sound and just follow the text for a great description of why reality is so strange when you look into an atom. The lecture is about 25 minutes in length.
Click on this link:
ITEM 3: DISCUSSION - Is Spacetime fundamental or is it emergent?
Here's a big question in modern physics: Is space time a fundamental feature of reality or is it something that emerges from a deeper level of fundamental physics. This is a burning question at the present time and the research is deeply embroiled in mathematics, involving micro wormholes forming a basic structure of spacetime. This explains one of quantum physics greatest mysteries, 'entanglement' and possibly even gravity, through ER = EPR as explained in A Journey into Modern Physics by Kieron Conway.
Listen to a fascinating discussion between Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice and guest, Brian Cox contemplating spacetime being emergent from a deeper understanding of physics. It's just under 20 minutes long.
Click on this link:
That's it for now. We'll post notifications of new items on the blog.