Re: [alliance-iosk] Last message off topic

[vhandel@chem.vu.nl (Ramon van Handel)]

>Subject:  Last message off topic

Well, gotta reply to this one :)

>> I haven't read that book, but I always feel this kind of science-fiction
>> weirdness when I read that kind of books.  I don't believe you can treat
>> subjects like quantum physics without their mathematical formalism - the
>> two belong together.  Without maths, you simply cannot understand the
>> physics, because many implications are purely mathematical - such as the
>> well-known Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which follows purely from the
>> non-communtance of operators (space and momentum, in this case).
>
>Well, from a purely theoretical point of view, you are correct: a mathematical
>theory cannot be understood without mathematics itself. But you are making a
>bold assumption: that you can't describe a mathematical model in a
>non-mathematical way. This is simply false: ANY math formalism can be described
>in a semi-formal language, and so "understood" by non-math people. The key is
>the semantical meaning of "understood". You, chemistry scholar, attribute to
>this word a full significance. Other people attributes a significance which is
>a subset of yours, but still valid. If it is not valid, we can formally
>proof (
>:)) that the people who attributes a lesser significance to the word, cannot
>learn anything about, which is blatantly FALSE.

No, I didn't say that.  But it is very easy to get a wrong view if you
don't introduce the mathematics.  And many people whom I have spoken to who
have read these kind of books HAVE completely false ideas about these
subjects - it's my experience here.

Aside from that, a mathematical treatment of quantum mechanics doesn't have
to be ununderstandable.  Two books spring to mind:  Richard Feynman's
classic book, part 3 of his Lectures on Physics, and one of my favorite
treatments of introductory quantum physics, 'Understanding Quantum Physics'
by Michael A. Morrison (highly recommended !)

>Probably you don't remember the first book about computer you have read,
>Ramon: was an introductory or scholar manual?

It was a little children's book about BASIC.  It didn't try to explain what
'programming' meant without containing programs.

Ramon

---
Ramon van Handel   <vhandel@chem.vu.nl>
Chemistry Student, OS Programmer and all-round Weirdo
The ant has made himself illustrious / Through constant industry industrious.
So what? Would you be calm and placid / If you were full of formic acid?
(Ogden Nash)


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