{"id":502,"date":"2006-08-16T12:08:48","date_gmt":"2006-08-16T12:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2006\/08\/16\/framing-physics\/"},"modified":"2006-08-16T12:08:48","modified_gmt":"2006-08-16T12:08:48","slug":"framing-physics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2006\/08\/16\/framing-physics\/","title":{"rendered":"Framing Physics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over at Gene Expression, Razib is collecting ten-word summaries of evolutionary theory<\/a>, with follow-up posts here<\/a> and here<\/a>. Because I’m completely shameless about this sort of thing, I’m going to swipe the idea, and apply it to physics.<\/p>\n

Of course, physics as a discipline covers a bit more conceptual territory than “evolutionary theory,” so it’s probably impossible to boil down to a single statement of ten or fewer words, but Razib had to cop out as well, settling on ten ten-word statements. So let’s take that as a goal, and ask, following the original phrasing: If you had 10 words or less, what would you have the public master (and I mean internalize, not spit back as a creed) about physics?<\/p>\n

I don’t have a complete answer for this, but I’ll offer a few suggestions below the fold. If I get enough interesting comments, I’ll try to compile a big list in a future post, with fame and fortune sure to accrue to those who come up with the best phrases.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A good starting point (especially as I’m feeling like a lazy blogger today) is probably the volume titles for Thomas Moore’s Six Ideas That Shaped Physics<\/cite> course<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Conservation Laws Constrain Interactions<\/li>\n
  2. The Laws of Physics are Universal<\/li>\n
  3. The Laws of Physics are Frame-Independent<\/li>\n
  4. Electric and Magnetic Fields are Unified<\/li>\n
  5. Particles Behave Like Waves<\/li>\n
  6. Some Processes are Irreversible<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As you might expect from a text designed for a two-semester intro course, those volumes cover a pretty wide range of physics, and do a reasonably good job of encapsulating the key ideas. For a deeper understanding, you’d probably want to revise #1 to encompass Noether’s theorem<\/a>— “Symmetries lead to conservation laws, and conservation laws constrain interactions,” maybe. Numbers two and three could be combined into a single statement: “The laws of physics are universal and frame-independent.” Number five could probably use an “and vice versa” at the end, and thermodynamics (number six) is famously summed up as “You can’t win, you can’t break even, you can’t quit.”<\/p>\n

    That would get things down to five short statements, leaving five more. What else should be included?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Over at Gene Expression, Razib is collecting ten-word summaries of evolutionary theory, with follow-up posts here and here. Because I’m completely shameless about this sort of thing, I’m going to swipe the idea, and apply it to physics. Of course, physics as a discipline covers a bit more conceptual territory than “evolutionary theory,” so it’s… Continue reading Framing Physics<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-physics","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}