Physics is Hard

Here we are, almost at Christmas, and semester one is already done. We've made it through our first classes, first midterms, first exams, and first time getting marks back and it has already been the best time of my life. There have been many ups and downs but that is where the fun in life is. For us kids trying to make it in the tough world that is undergraduate physics, some things were definitely an eye opener.

Today was the day I got my mark in my first physics class, the last mark I received. My early marks were good, all my other classes I am very proud of, but physics was a shock. Throughout the semester even marks in physics were promising. I thought things were going well. I was wrong. Before the exam our professor said our class average was too high. At this point we knew something bad was about to happen.

When we proceeded to take the exam, everyone had the same uneasy feeling and when we finished it was even worse. It was certainly the hardest exam I have ever written and I think many of my classmates felt the same way. When I got my mark back today, my fears were confirmed. Its tough to get bad marks when you know they're coming, well its tough anytime but especially then. However there is something priceless about getting bad marks, and it is the entire reason we go to university; learning.

The marks are all in the past, there is nothing we can do to go back and change them. But there is always something you can take away from them. Maybe its something in how I studied, maybe I was distracted about leaving for the holidays and being so close to finished. Whatever happened, its already happened and there is no way to change it. But you can always learn from what happened and make sure it never happens again, and that is what I hope to do from this experience.

The thing about experiences is that there is always something to learn from them. You need to make sure you take everything you possibly can from an experience while its happening and while you're reflecting, but once its gone you need to leave it where it is, in the past. This is the entire point of living, to learn from your mistakes. Mistakes are the entire fun of life. If you went through you're entire life perfect it would be excruciatingly boring. So enjoy your mistakes, learn from them, and then go make the next one.

The Language of Mathematics

In many sciences, especially in physics, theories and ideas are communicated through math. Equations are how relationships are communicated, how we express the way things work in a way that is universally understood. To many, this would mean math is the most fundamental thing in the universe, because it can communicate ideas across any field, but I think math is only a language to communicate principles that exist whether we communicate them or not.

If mathematics were the most fundamental thing to the universe, it should be able to stand alone, which it does. There are principles of math that are on their own, that can be used to explain things just within math. But these principles of math are then used to explain and expand on principles in other fields. Theories of math are like verbs or nouns, they are only specific elements of a language used to communicate ideas. The beautiful thing about math is it can explain things to people of all different languages and backgrounds in a way they can all understand.

However, consider the following example; a species of beings 3 lightyears away has a very advanced scientific society. They are completely involved in explaining the laws of physics, but the society has an incredible ability of telepathy in their society, so all ideas are communicated through the mind, with no intermediate step. This telepathy is accompanied by only communicating abstractly. In their society, there is no such thing as math. The laws of nature are only in the minds of the beings, over the total telepathic network and are not conveyed through the language of mathematics. To us, these beings would seem to have no knowledge of science, but really they could have a knowledge much more advanced than our own. The point of this example is that even though the society does not have mathematics, the laws of physics still exist and can still be represented. To me this says that physics is more fundamental.

Math is simply our way of translating physical laws into a language we can understand, but it must not be the only way of thinking of our physical world. We could try to think of things more abstractly, then comminicate them through mathematical language. I'm by no means saying math is not important, I'm only saying its not fundemental to the way things really work. If we are to advance in the study of our universe, we should not confine ourselves to limits set by mathematics in explaining physical phemomenon, but allow ourselves to think of things in many different, more creative ways of communication of ideas and ideas themselves.

Science and Science Fiction

Often in human literature, there are connections with science and technology, some of that day and some which does not exist. Most people know of the classic examples of futuristic sci-fi, things like Star Wars, Star Trek, and pretty much any super hero movie. They can be very entertaining to watch and to get caught up in the stories of a different world, but it can be interesting to examine the actual technologies within the movies themselves and look at the real world possibilities.

We've talked before about Star Wars and the most recognizable technology in the Saga, the lightsaber. They are working on a state of matter similar to the lightsaber, which frankly I think is just awesome. The lightsaber wouldn't have much of an impact on your daily life besides the fact of how ridiculously cool it would be to have one. Another technology from Star wars would be the many different types of speeders and star ships. In the world of space travel today, some companies such as SpaceX are planning for commercial space travel, which means you could pay to go to space just for the experience. Obviously this isn't the same as a star fighter battle in space around the forrest moon of Endor, but its a step in the right direction. Some of these ships in Star Wars also have the ability to travel through hyperspace at light speed, which we know through the laws of physics is impossible. So if you were hoping to be able to activate the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon at some point, I wouldn't could on it.

In Star Trek, the Enterprise has a similar function as light speed, called warp speed. Warp speed is said in the various Star Trek series to be achieved when matter is mixed with antimatter creating plasma which when circulated through the warp drive creates a bubble around the ship which allows it to travel at speeds greater than light. Again, as far of we know the cosmic speed limit of light cannot be broken, but the technology described by Star Trek is very interesting. The matter/antimatter interactions which they describe sound very cool, I have no idea if they are possible or not, but the theory is very intriguing. The other thing about Star Trek are the interactions with new forms of life all over the galaxy, and how these interactions go. This goes along somewhat with my last post about the possibilities of life in our universe. If you haven't seen Star Trek I encourage you to try an episode or 2 from any of the different series' or one of the movies, they can be very intriguing.

Finally, obviously most super heros couldn't actually exist, but things Batman of Ironman, where there are mostly just inventions, are the coolest to me. They show how creative people can be, and even though it is all fiction, it shows the possibility of where we might get. Obviously I don't literally mean the possibility of the Dark Knight guarding our streets, but all of science fiction is meant to show the possibility of where science may take us.

I think its important to keep this inventive, creative, wondrous side of science in the forefront of the minds of those pursuing it. When studying science, its easy to see things as static, and always exactly how they are taught. But the aim of science is new ideas, new innovations, and new technologies from the knowledge we have attained. To do this we need to keep our minds open to new ideas, no matter how far out there they are. We have to remember there was a time it was considered blasphemous to say the world was round. Ideas lead to discovery, no matter where the idea comes from. You never know what idea will lead to the next break through.