Physics

[EHyde she/her]

I am not a physicist or a scientist of any sort; I studied fashion in college. I come from a family of engineers and married into a family of physicists, so when reading all the physics-related discussions on the Mistborn topic, I see an awful lot of phrases that I've heard before ... but I still don't have a particularly great grasp of what's being talked about.

I am interested in learning more. I'm not the type who can learn well just from reading wikipedia or textbooks, so I think I'm going to go with MIT's open course but ... basically Brandon Sanderson has inspired me to study a subject that all of the "science is cool" programs in high school failed to spark an interest in.

[Eerongal he/him]

uh oh, physics is mentioned. Chaos will be showing up in 3......2.......1......

but no, physics is awesome. I highly recommend "the elegant universe" by brian greene. About half the book is a sort of "primer" to physics that doesn't get too deeply into equations or anything, and the second half is an overview of string theory. And, at least in my opinion, it's very far from being a "dry" book, it's actually a really good read.

[darniil he/him]

I've liked the stuff by Stephen Hawking that I've read - the stuff he's written for us common-folk, that is. (I'm sure he's got some seriously over-my-head stuff that he's written, too.)

[Chaos he/him]

How have I not seen this thread until now? Preposterous.

Ellen, how much math have you had? You can understand a lot of physics without math, certainly, but for certain topics, like quantum mechanics, it becomes critical. A lot of the mysterious, non-intuitive stuff falls out very naturally from the math.

I'll have to look into where else you can learn more. I can't say I know off the top of my head, considering I'm currently doing physics in college

but no, physics is awesome. I highly recommend "the elegant universe" by brian greene. About half the book is a sort of "primer" to physics that doesn't get too deeply into equations or anything, and the second half is an overview of string theory. And, at least in my opinion, it's very far from being a "dry" book, it's actually a really good read.

I've heard it is very good, but I haven't read it. Though, I should make a disclaimer that string theory is not experimentally verified in any way, shape, or form. They just as well could be really tiny cows down there. It's really applied philosophy at this point. That doesn't make it a fruitless endeavor (because if they can come if up with an experimental prediction and we could test it, that'd be awesome), but don't take things too seriously there. Better, in my opinion, to look into things that we know to be actually true.

[Eerongal he/him]

I've heard it is very good, but I haven't read it. Though, I should make a disclaimer that string theory is not experimentally verified in any way, shape, or form. They just as well could be really tiny cows down there. It's really applied philosophy at this point. That doesn't make it a fruitless endeavor (because if they can come if up with an experimental prediction and we could test it, that'd be awesome), but don't take things too seriously there. Better, in my opinion, to look into things that we know to be actually true.

well, to be fair, string theory is a bit more than just applied philosophy. Afterall, it emerged from working from the mathematical theory perspective, it just currently isn't testable given technological limits. Basically they have a lot of equations that, in theory, work out to describe the possible functions of *A* universe, they just have no way to prove that this in fact describes *OUR* universe.

That said, yeah, string theory is very far from a proven fact. But it's also fairly interesting stuff, in my opinion

[EHyde she/her]

Ellen, how much math have you had? You can understand a lot of physics without math, certainly, but for certain topics, like quantum mechanics, it becomes critical. A lot of the mysterious, non-intuitive stuff falls out very naturally from the math.

I took calculus in high school and passed the AP test ... which meant I didn't have to take any math at all in college so I have forgotten a lot of what I once knew.

[Argent he/him]

Ah, this Brandon Sanderson... it is positively amazing how he manages to grab an area of science (and it doesn't even have to be a "hard" science) and turn it into a wonderful story that engages you so much that you start wanting to learn about the real world concept that inspired Brandon to put this stuff in a book.

Another +1, Brandon, another +1.

[Demosthenes]

If you've ever heard of Khan Academy, Sal has a bunch of Physics videos you can watch. I haven't seen them, but if they're like his other videos, they're quite good. He also has videos about Chemistry and perhaps some other sciences. I hope this helps.

[Joe ST he/him]

If you've ever heard of Khan Academy, Sal has a bunch of Physics videos you can watch. I haven't seen them, but if they're like his other videos, they're quite good. He also has videos about Chemistry and perhaps some other sciences. I hope this helps.

THIS. Especially if you need any refreshers on the maths side of things.

[Alliare she/her]

You can also ask if there is something that rings a bell but don understand completely and we'll do our best to explain it to you.

And I have a thing with anything by Feynman. He was one of the best Physics teachers there has been.

[Tritlo he/him]

What's neat about physics is that if you're not going to be calculating something, you don't actually have to know all the math. It's a lot about having a feel about how things work, and the specific equations come into play later, though if you understand the equations, they can certainly offer a valuable insight into the physics. I've studied some physics at the University of Iceland, and I was also a backup for the Icelandic Physics Olympiad team, so I should be able to explain at least something (hopefully Sanderson related!)

Also, I loved the reference to quantum entanglement in TWoK, but I won't spoil it for anyone here.

[Zas678 he/him]

And the Uncertainty/ Certainty Principle. That's pretty awesome too.

[EHyde she/her]

If you've ever heard of Khan Academy, Sal has a bunch of Physics videos you can watch. I haven't seen them, but if they're like his other videos, they're quite good. He also has videos about Chemistry and perhaps some other sciences. I hope this helps.

Thanks for the recommendation, I looked into those videos and they look very helpful.

And I have a thing with anything by Feynman. He was one of the best Physics teachers there has been.

I've read some of his non-physics writing (Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman) and enjoyed it quite a bit!

Also, I loved the reference to quantum entanglement in TWoK, but I won't spoil it for anyone here.

I don't know that you need a spoiler warning around that? At least not if you're referring to what I think you're referring to. Have you seen this?

[KChan she/her]

You could also skype with Eric. He usually winds up teaching it whether people want to learn it or not.

[Lady_Yasha she/her]

Eric's managed to avoid mentioning Physics to me on Skype

The Elegant Universe is a magnificent book for this subject, as is anything written or produced by Brian Cox. I find it's easier to learn from people who're enthusiastic about their work and Dr. Cox does just that. His main focus of study is astrophysics and particle physics - the fundamental subject area if you want to begin understanding physics as a whole.