#ESP2017FabCo

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Physics Reflection 4

The portion of Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos which stands out to me the most is when Greene discusses the direction and nature of time.  Greene states, “Eggs break, but they don’t unbreak; candles melt, but they don’t unmelt; memories are of the past, never of the future; people age, but they don’t unage.  These asymmetries govern our lives; the distinction between forward and backward in time exhibited the same symmetry we witness between left and right, or back and forth, the world would be unrecognizable (13).  This thought interests me because I feel like it is a concept and principle which goes unnoticed.  We are all just used to events occurring this way, our minds cannot wrap around reverse occurrences, apart from the photography technology and time-warped imaging which can be created today, our natural outlook on the world is future-based.  The parts of this idea which really compel me are Greene’s examples of memories and aging.  By their very nature, memories are created when information is stored and retained in the mind for future recollection.  They are mainly associated with past events, but why memories do not give insight to the future is a mystery.  Instances such as deja vu are inexplicable, but perhaps they are in fact memories of the future, this process would completely usurp the system of retainment which we have created for ourselves.  The notion of which memories do not have to be of the past intrigues me and causes me to wonder if our human conceived principles are merely ambiguous and theories of the past, present, and future are only relative.  The second half of this illustration of which I am drawn to is when the author discusses aging and “unaging”.  It is true that if aging were nonexistent or the reverse of what it is now, the world and everyone in it would be unrecognizable.  Aging backwards is a concept which can only be found in fairy tales and movies, even then, the concept is simply guessed at and its effects are construed with no real basis or fact.  While these thoughts about memories and age are accepted and known as true and factual, after reading this literature, I can not help but wonder how the world would be if things were different and time was not future-based.  Although the essay focuses on time having a natural direction and rhythm, I tend to focus more on the “what-ifs” then the concrete, as science and exploration is all about questioning one’s surroundings, not accepting someone else’s ideas without giving a second thought to the unknown.

[tailored-to-perfection-blog]

Fabric of the Cosmos - “Welcome to my reality”

In this initial quote by the character Symmetra from the video game of the year, Overwatch, Symmetra makes a statement welcoming the enemy player into her reality. What makes her reality different from others? What is the interpretation of reality? The reading makes the suggestion that, commonly known, reality is a concept developed by an individual based on personal experiences. However, the author’s opinion is contradictory to the common thought. He believes a person’s interpretation of reality is different than true reality. Reality has many layers that one cannot see just by looking upon the outside world. One can observe dirt, but cannot distinguish the individual atomic makeup based on its appearance. Newton developed the theory that all space and time was concrete. It could not be altered, nor changed. However, Einstein proved that theory wrong. He discovered that time and space can be warped. They are “flexible and dynamic” (10). However, what we perceive time to be is a one way street. We can go forward, but we perceive no backward. Space seems to be set. Once you have an area, that area cannot be changed unless acted upon by an outward force. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, proves otherwise. In the subatomic realm, one object is able to interact and communicate with another object from extreme distances instantaneously. In order for this to be possible, either space or time must be manipulated, because nothing, not even information, can be transferred instantaneously. Along with this research, Einstein wanted to find a single theory that could describe how the universe functioned. There are many theories that attempt to explain this, such as the atomic theory, but it leaves many questions, like the idea of quantum mechanics. This is when the superstring theory was developed. The superstring theory states that all particles are composed of tiny filaments, billions of times smaller than an atom nucleus. As the string vibrates, different properties of the particle. This theory, however, predicts 11 spacetime dimensions, and currently we only have 4. With this theory, scientist may be able to crack more information about our universe and its inner workings. We could potentially find more dimensions, as well as scientific advancements that could lead to bigger and better technology.

[freshenthusiastwhispers-blog]

This week’s reading started off with a strong quote of The Myth of Sisyphus, “There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is suicide,” this came off as a strong quote because I was not expecting the reading to be about philosophy and our perspective of the world. I read this specific quote when I was on a plane and skimming through the essay, and the quote just kept me thinking until I finished reading the rest today. Personally, I feel that the fear of death is from mostly the fear of changes, moving into the unknown. I really enjoyed this reading simply from the fact that it connected two complete ideas together into one, and with the video Professor Ambrosio recommended that delve into the topic of quantum physics, it really sparked an interest to find out how the world really operates.The reading this week was from The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. He starts off with a short summary of the development of theories of physics organized into “realities”. In the classical realities, he brings mention of how early pioneers of modern science thought of studying as a way to make the universe predictable. Putting the complexity of the universe into simple laws that can be understood by an average adult human still fascinates me greatly. He then continues his description of the contribution of Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, on how they explained almost anything dealing on the macro scale of the world. With the Newtonian forces acting on almost all cases and Einstein explaining the theory of relativity. The next part he goes on explaining the complexity of quantum mechanics and cosmic. Showing examples such as schrodinger’s cat  and she he bucket example. Overall I wished I had more time to read the passage for a second time or third because I find philosophical books to be more interesting as you read them more and more.

[mmilk-money]

Physics Reflection 4

Two objects can be far apart in space, but as far as quantum mechanics is concerned, it's as if they're a single entity (p.12)

It is this single sentence that opened up a universe in my mind and finally led to the understanding of quantum mechanics. It finally makes sense why something that happens over here, in this place, affects something else over there, in that place. It's all part of the same thing. When the idea was first stated, it absolutely blew my mind. To control the circumstances from a distance, the command still has to travel to reach the destination through some sort of medium. Pressing a button on your car remote activates radio waves that are in turn traveling to the car to unlock it. Things like that take time to travel from one object to the next.

But that is resolved when you take a different perspective on the world. What if things aren’t separate? What if, instead of objects, there were an object, singular? That’s how the message is so instantaneous. There is no need to spend time jumping from connection to connection when everything is already connected.

Taking on the single-entity worldview also helps one understand a different principle of quantum mechanics: how things can be partly this way or partly that way. If we treat a human as a single “thing”, that one unit can be waving its arm and walking on its feet at the same time. By deductive reasoning, if a person is made out of particles and humans can have partial states, so too can particles have partial states. Of course, a particle can change properties with the addition of other particles, but even that is in a partial state of togetherness.

[pleasantlyhardbluebird-blog]

The Fabric of the Cosmos

Sebel Fusi

Physics

7-16-17

Roads to Reality begins with an anecdote given by the author, which introduces the idea of analyzing and pondering the world around you as you live. Essentially, this idea was agreed upon by the author’s source, Albert Camus, and it is the central message within the anecdote itself. Understanding physics has a lot to do with understanding and analyzing the existing world, and should be taken advantage of while you are alive. This is why the first line of Camus’s book said, “There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” Camus was trying to convey that living life exposes you to the incredible world from which you can learn from. Suicide would end that learning and begin a new understanding without fully comprehending the initial experience.

Nonetheless, the author continues by speaking to the changes in scientific thought throughout the decades after the publishing of Albert Camus’s book. The author uses a comparison between Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein to subtly illustrate this change. Newton was one to believe that space and time were simply a set stage for the events of the universe to play out, while Einstein believes that space and time played a part in reality, and were a raw material of the universe’s existence. In physics, incorporating space and time has become essential and important, but no one can fully understand the vast concept. This is why the knowledge of space and time would fluctuate over time; the inability to completely describe something leaves the mind in a continuous search for new answers.

Furthermore, the author brings in a series of realities that have been observed throughout the development of physics. Relativity is a theory that may philosophers and physicists gravitate towards because it is something that has the power to describe this indescribable concept we call the universe. With every era, a new type of reality emerges, morphing and changing preexistent ideas, each with a different sense of how things are connected and relative to one another. So, we come to a concluding question: Is the universe an abstraction or is a physical entity? The author explains how this question has been motivating physicists and others to further their searches, and find a way to something we’d never foreseen before.

[spookymoongentlemen-blog]

The Fabric Of The Cosmos

One thing that I enjoyed about reading “The Fabric of the Cosmos” is that Brian Greene began the book by telling a story and introducing personal details about his childhood into the story. By doing this, he really caught my attention as a reader.    With his terms not being incomprehensible, but in basic terms it allowed me to understand the points he was attempting to make in his writing much easier. Tying the book back to his personal life to prove points was a great choice because it allowed the reader to make connections to his personal life.  

“To open our eyes to the true nature of the universe has always been one of physics’ primary purposes” This quote gave me as a reader more comprehension and thought about what physics is truly used for. The author explains how difficult it would be if physics had not been studied or learned over the last century. He does this by using everyday examples that normal people use when he says, “We take for granted that there is a direction to the way thongs unfold in time. Eggs break, but they don’t unbreak; candles melt, but they don’t unmelt; memories are of the past, never of the future; people age, but they don’t unage.” By using these examples, the writer allowed me to better understand the reasoning behind physics and how science shows us that our experiences are a misleading guide to reality.

One other thing that was interesting about this reading was that the reader touched on how Einstein proved Newton wrong with the theory of theory of relativity by showing that space and time are “flexible and dynamic” This was interesting because both were extremely intelligent and to hear how one theory disproved by the other is interesting. If in the event that they had been studying these topics in the same era it would have been interesting to see how everything played out.

[themostsarcasticperson-blog]

The Fabric of The Cosmos

The Fabric of the Cosmos showed me that some breakthroughs in physics reevaluate our ideas of science.  “The classical Newtonian worldview was pleasing. Not only did it describe natural phenomena with striking accuracy, but the details of the description - the mathematics - aligned tightly with experience. If you push something, it speeds up. The harder you throw a ball, the more impact it has when it smacks into a wall. The more massive something is, the stronger its gravitational pull. These are among the most basic properties of the natural world, and when you learn newton’s framework, you see them represented in this equations clear as day.  Unlike a crystal ball’s inscrutable hocus-pocus, the workings of Newton’s laws were on display for all with minimal mathematical training to take in fully. Classical physics provided a rigorous grounding for human intuition.” What this quote is saying Newton’s laws were simply and easy to understand, just the basic principles.  Science also shows us that our experiences are a misleading guide to reality. “These developments are anything but details. Breakthroughs in physics have forced, and continue to force, dramatic revisions to our conception of the cosmos. I remain as convinced now as I did decades ago that Camus rightly chose life’s value as the ultimate question, but the insights of modern physics have persuaded me that assessing life through the lens of everyday experience is like gazing at a van Gogh through an empty Coke bottle.” I like this quote because it explains how our experiences are misleading.  It also shows that our concepts of everything including cosmos is constantly changing. Developments in physics have also shown space and time to be the most important and incomprehensible features of reality, no matter if they are misleading or if the concepts are constantly changing.

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The Fabric of the Cosmos

The Fabric of the Cosmos

Brian Greene

I found it interesting the way the author introduced the topic. He narrated his story of how he would look at books and not think anything great about them but then one day he started feeling curious about one of the smaller books. This curiosity grew with time and eventually lead him to grab the book and read it, unveiling an endless source of information.

No one really thinks of physics as a philosophical field of science, but it all begins when one formulates philosophical inquiries. No one would know (and no one really know to this day) what happens to space as something moves around without first asking what happens to space when something moves through it. Personally, I was intrigued by the warping and distortion of both space and time. We have the idea that they do occur under very extreme conditions, although I don’t believe in that totally since they are so difficult to record and there isn’t much concrete evidence about it besides black holes.

It’s also interesting how most of the laws have been derived from previous ones once thought were correct. If it weren’t for those wrong claims we wouldn’t have the laws we have today and that serve as the foundation for everything science-related. I was compelled to read more about realities when the author mentioned the differences between classical reality and relativistic reality. Who would have thought there were different versions of the same reality? Is it even the same reality? Einstein stated his theory of relativity and how space is directly related to time. That made me wonder, however, if they are actually related. What if they are completely different versions of the same reality and occur in different dimensions but there is another dimension that serves as a link between them two?

[friedjellyfishgladiator-blog]

The Fabric of The Cosmos

Out of all of the readings, “The Fabric of The Cosmos” is by far my favorite and the most interesting. From the start to the end of the reading, I was immersed and engaged with the topics and how the topics were integrated to create a timeline of where we are today in the world of physics. Today at lunch, Krisi and I had a very deep conversation about one of the topics in the reading. We read that scientists are in the process of developing an equation that incorporates all of the equations solved thus far. However, Krisi and I discussed that the unknown things about time are what hold scientists back from creating this equation. Time is such a debatable topic, even though as human beings we experience it 24/7. This is what makes it crazy to think about because we live through time every day without understanding exactly what it is and the impact it can have if controlled. Without finalizing whether time is a scalar or a vector or a 3-dimension or 4-dimension, our world can not be truly understood. In addition, the unknown identities of time do not align with other variables such as mass and velocity. Time is the only variable that is independent of everything else and continues without dependency of something else. While Krisi and I discussed this, it became clear that the mysteries of time are most likely holding back future discoveries and advances.

Another interesting idea was in the “Roads to Reality” chapter, where Greene wrote about quantum reality. My favorite part is when Greene says “that something you do over here can be instantaneously linked to something happening over there, regardless of distance  (pg 11).” After reading this part of the reading, I thought about how my actions potentially influence or align parallel to someone else’s across the world. I also thought about whether my future and past motions were already planned and I may not even know it. The concepts throughout this reading seemed so simple and rational yet so complex.

The structure of the reading is divided into chapters, but also by subtitles. The first chapter, “Roads to Reality,” sets the tone for the rest of the reading. In each subtitle, as the reader, I felt I understood more and more about this so called “road to reality.” Every chapter and subtitle built off of what was already discussed, which made the reading more understandable. Furthermore, I thought the reading resembled a timeline of where physics once was and where it is today.

[ultrapikachuposts-blog]

The Fabric of the Cosmos

Roberto Arroyo Mr. Ambrosio Physics 14 July 2017 The Fabric of the Cosmos    I like how the reading started with the author being confused on all of the concepts involving the universe. Also, I found interesting how the author included a quote from a book which talked about suicide, and the correlation it had with knowledge about the universe. It comes to my mind how there is little we know about where we, humans, stand, or at least where we think we stand. Moreover, the more one dedicates themselves to learning about the universe, more unanswered questions arise; there is not always to answer which can be good because there is room for imagination, but also bad because no one will ever know a definite answer.    Space and time, two “ideas/concepts” that are mentioned in the text, make up part of our environment and we are unable to understand those concepts. With the struggling to find what space and time were came a battle between Einstein and Newton. Einstein proved Newton wrong by proving that space and time are intertwined and are flexible. However, Newton had a relative, ha get it relativity :), impact on the world of physics providing equations that approximated resulted very accurately. This idea that there are these equations that are accurate, made me think about “Six Easy Pieces”, how both text were talking about approximation and trying to get, essentially, the “truth of things”.    I like how the book says humans play the part on classical physical which things are binary and the contradiction where quantum mechanical states that things can take different possibilities. This statement made me smile. Quantum mechanics is a subjunctive which I enjoy; quantum mechanics will make you look at the world in a different view because it will make you double think things.    The text mentions the instantaneous relation between particular by Einstein that reminded me of “The Dancing with WiLu Masters”. Cosmology is unable to explain some concepts of the universe and is still trying to figure out what's going on. For example, time’s arrow is still widely looked at and scientist are at turmoil to the beginning of the universe.    People began to do research and found that two main concepts did not work together even though they claimed to be “universal”; general relativity and quantum mechanics were not able to give out appropriate answers. Those approximate answers might be the answers people want to see, but not really seeing that the answers given are really the correct ones, only that we still have to acquire knowledge to understand what we have made of our thoughts.