Editing 895: Teaching Physics
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Laws of physics (with General Relativity being one example) are expressed mathematically; any description in English is by necessity an analogy. To really understand the physics, you have to understand the mathematics, since any analogy will always fail at some level. However, many people find mathematics to be boring and the analogies to be interesting. The strip highlights the irony of finding the incorrect explanation (the analogy) interesting and the real explanation (the mathematics) boring. | Laws of physics (with General Relativity being one example) are expressed mathematically; any description in English is by necessity an analogy. To really understand the physics, you have to understand the mathematics, since any analogy will always fail at some level. However, many people find mathematics to be boring and the analogies to be interesting. The strip highlights the irony of finding the incorrect explanation (the analogy) interesting and the real explanation (the mathematics) boring. | ||
β | The title text refers to Feynman's | + | The title text refers to Richard Feynman's almost unique ability to find really good analogies, which in some cases were exact and precise. One of the best and most famous examples of the latter is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram Feynman Diagrams], which allows people to visualize and intuitively understand extraordinarily complex mathematical expressions (specifically, S-matrix elements that form transition amplitudes in quantum field theory). |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== |