Category: Physics

Sometimes I think that modern physics has become a reductio ad absurdum argument. Sometime in the 1960s or so, with quarks and continuing to strings and other developments, things started getting ridiculous. Soon, I hope, physicists will say we’ve reached the point of absurdity and declare the argument finished, and we’ll go back and reverse…

I always thought that the flow/pressure explanation, the Bernoulli Effect, was wrong, in explaining why wings produce lift. It seemed obvious to me that the angle of attack produces a direct momentum transfer. This is described in an article in the Guardian.  First item in that article.

Here’s an amazing example of this. In 1966 “The Light Of Other Days ” was published by Bob Shaw. It described “slow glass”, that could slow the image down, emerging on the far side of the pane much later. Now scientists are doing just that!  This Science Daily article describes it.

I think it’s interesting how science progresses from the simple to complex.  On one hand, a complexity of apparently different phenomena can be unified by an underlying principle.  On the other hand, theories usually start simple, then exceptions are found, and the theory must have rules added, increasing complexity.  Cosmology seems like that.  It makes…

One of the great mysteries of modern (the last 100 years) physics is the constancy of the speed of light. You’ve probably seen the famous E = mc^2, or Einstein equals Mr. Speed of Light squared.  That’s not related to the constancy, but c is a constant in that equation.  Well, the same Einstein developed…