There is a famous saying about if the only tool you have is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail. It sounds silly but physicists have only mathematics! I think it was Planck who queried the relationship between maths and physics but even the ancient Greeks recognised the differences.
One issue with maths is that it likes things to be linear or "well-defined" in some way. For instance, you can design your perfect amplifier that converts 1mV into 1V and 2mV into 2V but if you give it a 100,000,000V lightning strike you do not get 1,000,000,000V at the output. You get a pile of burnt and melted materials. The equations will not tell you that. That kind of "non-linearity" applies to everything that is real.
I heard Poincaré published E = mc² before Einstein did.
Peer Review: Most of the great science was done prior to the days of peer review so is it actually useful? One journal did ask Einstein to subject one of his papers to a review but Einstein refused and published elsewhere! Peer review is a great way to control "the message". Ask the climate fraternity.
As pointed out in the video, demonstrating how gravity works by using gravity is not an entirely convincing ploy.
Celebrity is certainly an issue. Some people appeal to the masses and some go out of their way to do so. Others are happy to just do the science without all the public relations. For instance, three scientists won a Nobel Prize for quantum physics which included Richard Feynman but who were the other two?
Scientists have similarities to inventors. Progress is made slowly with each step contributing to subsequent steps. However, only the famous ones get remembered no matter how small their contribution was.
My theory of quantum entanglement: If I get a postage stamp, I can cut it in half and put the left half in one envelope and the right half in another envelope. Those parts are now"entangled." I can send the envelopes miles away but when I open one I will know instantly, much faster than the speed of light, what is in the other envelope. Spooky action at a distance! One day, someone will be able to explain the fault in my logic but it has not happened yet.
Some disconnected but related thoughts of my own:
There is a famous saying about if the only tool you have is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail. It sounds silly but physicists have only mathematics! I think it was Planck who queried the relationship between maths and physics but even the ancient Greeks recognised the differences.
One issue with maths is that it likes things to be linear or "well-defined" in some way. For instance, you can design your perfect amplifier that converts 1mV into 1V and 2mV into 2V but if you give it a 100,000,000V lightning strike you do not get 1,000,000,000V at the output. You get a pile of burnt and melted materials. The equations will not tell you that. That kind of "non-linearity" applies to everything that is real.
I heard Poincaré published E = mc² before Einstein did.
Peer Review: Most of the great science was done prior to the days of peer review so is it actually useful? One journal did ask Einstein to subject one of his papers to a review but Einstein refused and published elsewhere! Peer review is a great way to control "the message". Ask the climate fraternity.
As pointed out in the video, demonstrating how gravity works by using gravity is not an entirely convincing ploy.
Celebrity is certainly an issue. Some people appeal to the masses and some go out of their way to do so. Others are happy to just do the science without all the public relations. For instance, three scientists won a Nobel Prize for quantum physics which included Richard Feynman but who were the other two?
Scientists have similarities to inventors. Progress is made slowly with each step contributing to subsequent steps. However, only the famous ones get remembered no matter how small their contribution was.
My theory of quantum entanglement: If I get a postage stamp, I can cut it in half and put the left half in one envelope and the right half in another envelope. Those parts are now"entangled." I can send the envelopes miles away but when I open one I will know instantly, much faster than the speed of light, what is in the other envelope. Spooky action at a distance! One day, someone will be able to explain the fault in my logic but it has not happened yet.
We're all still wondering what's in the envelopes.
Very interesting I’d like to try out your little experiment