tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421975.post109790539132490454..comments2023-09-21T02:40:09.514-05:00Comments on View from the Corner: Problems with Time and SpaceMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06090852893009703643noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421975.post-1098209197981008882004-10-19T13:06:00.000-05:002004-10-19T13:06:00.000-05:00*scratches his head* I'm not sure about some of t...*scratches his head* I'm not sure about some of the things you said, but the example with the lasers and the atoms/molecules SOUNDS to me like it's easily explained by wavepackets, although that wouldn't make the math easy:P Plus, my understanding of this is naive at best.<br /><br />I'm skeptical but curious about the light at 2 meters per second or so (unless it's in an unusual medium, e.g. a plasma or solid with strong fields, then maybe I'll believe it :P else I won't believe it until I scrutinize the equations myself)<br /><br />At any rate, it's too bad you're having such a taxing life right now. Presumably, someday, ultimately, you'll be beyond this grueling time period, and maybe you'll be able to come out sometime then:)<br /><br />--Ashi.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421975.post-1098055009848251712004-10-17T18:16:00.000-05:002004-10-17T18:16:00.000-05:00What everyone seems to need is a way to pack more ...What everyone seems to need is a way to pack more time into a day. Shame that it's the least understood dimension of space-time, we really don't seem to be able to manipukate it half as well as we can mess about with space.<br /><br />I loved what little I did of QFT. I found the maths hellish, but the basic concept seems utterly natural to me. I can sort of explain it to the extent that somebody else gets something from the explanation, but it takes time (and coffee) and can't be done purely in writing. I'm not that good a comunicator. The key is getting to grips with the concept of "stuff". I'm afraid that's entirely mine and I can't point to any books that explain it, though it owes a lot to Feynmann it also owes a fair amount to conversations in the IC Physics tea room. The important thing being to get very clear in ones head that what matters is stuff, not the various names we give to different small bits of stuff, or the ways we go about pretending that stuff is actually lots of different things. REALLY looking at how a guitar or violin works helps. You can talk about playing a single note, but you never actually can, all sorts of other things are inherent in it. Because you don't have a string vibrating in isolation on a single frequency, that's only theory, in practise it actually vibrates with a huge range of harmonics all of which affect the rest of the instrument as well as the rest of the instrument affecting the string and doing its own thing simultaneously. We do that to stuff. We label it and treat it as if we deal with a single note, just as musician does when playing a guitar. However what's really happening isn't what we say it is. All the stuff is vibrating with different harmonics and making other bits of stuff resonate.<br /><br />That probably didn't help.<br /><br />On the other hand I'm with you on the rest of it. I never did really get to grips with any interesting aspects of optics, and in my day we were excited about the fact that we could not quite make a hologram on a good day.<br /><br />Heng on in there, try and keep the Christmas break clear of stress, you are long overdue a few weeks of real relaxation.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15465552194883941273noreply@blogger.com