Whenever I think about magnets I remember this Feynman interview where someone asks him why magnets behave the way they do, and he says that to answer a “why"-question you need a foundation where something is agreed to be true, and it seems like for electromagnetic forces we end up in " because that’s how the universe is apparently”.
Sure, but between nothing and the axioms of the standard model we end up with a fairly comprehensive description which can predict how different kinds of magnets behave in a wide variety of situations.
That is sort of how the universe operates though. You can have a greater and greater understanding of the underlying principles of physics but eventually you do get to “that just how it is”. Why is there no such thing as a negative photon, apparently we just can’t have a negative excitation in the photon field, no one knows why.
whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
well… to be fair…
pmk@piefed.ca 16 hours ago
Whenever I think about magnets I remember this Feynman interview where someone asks him why magnets behave the way they do, and he says that to answer a “why"-question you need a foundation where something is agreed to be true, and it seems like for electromagnetic forces we end up in " because that’s how the universe is apparently”.
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 15 hours ago
Sure, but between nothing and the axioms of the standard model we end up with a fairly comprehensive description which can predict how different kinds of magnets behave in a wide variety of situations.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 13 hours ago
That’s knowing how to use it, not how it works.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Feynman was a bit pedantic sometimes.
oce@jlai.lu 10 hours ago
This seems to be easily said of anyone trying to popularize science philosophy.
echodot@feddit.uk 9 hours ago
That is sort of how the universe operates though. You can have a greater and greater understanding of the underlying principles of physics but eventually you do get to “that just how it is”. Why is there no such thing as a negative photon, apparently we just can’t have a negative excitation in the photon field, no one knows why.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 13 hours ago
Yeah,. Each time we think we’ve got it, there’s another hole to dig deeper.
VinegarChunks@lemmus.org 12 hours ago
With a lot of things:
You start off with no knowledge, and it’s a big mystery.
You gain some knowledge and feel like you have understanding.
You gain a lot more knowledge and you learn how much more there is that isn’t known.
The President is either at stage 1 or stage 3, take your pick.
echodot@feddit.uk 9 hours ago
No he’s at stage 0. He has no knowledge but he doesn’t investigate he just makes things up and then says that.
We’re talking about the person who thought that stealth planes were physically invisible.
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
you forgot about the parallel imaginary number line (√-1), i think that is where the president lives.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 9 hours ago
You meant stage 2? “some knowledge and feel like you have understanding.”
RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Wish he was at stage 4…