This is meant to be the actual script to the SUITE Seniors’ Session presentation. The presentation did not really go as planned as I spent 97% of the time impromptu-ing. I don’t how I managed to pull it off, but never mind…
For those who don’t know, I was requested to give a talk on the joy of Physics to the USP 1st-years, and this was the script I prepared:
The things I Love in/about Physics
Up to the middle of this week, I was still not very sure what to talk about. I agreed to do this because I thought it would be a great opportunity, to say, explain the Special Theory of Relativity to a bunch of people, but I decided that nobody would really be interested in listening to Physics lecture on a Friday night, and I’m pretty sure that I won’t be able to convince anyone to take up Physics by doing just that, or in fact, talking about any other Physics principle.
What perhaps is the goal of this is, at the very least, an opportunity to share about the joy that I derive from yakking endlessly about the strangeness of quantum mechanics in Chatterbox. Whether or not I’m going to get any new juniors in my course from this, is secondary. Speaking of strange things…
Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
-Sir Arthur Eddington-
Eddington, by the way, was responsible for making Einstein a “superstar”, by providing the first experimental proof for relativity. Details of what he actually did aside, what this comes to show is that, the laws that govern our universe, our very existence are subtle. It would seem that Nature does not yield her secrets easily, and even when she does, she gives all of us a nasty surprise. Take for instance, the act of shooting electrons through a double slit. We all expect electrons to behave just like particles, and when we shoot particles through a double slits, we expect two bands to form, but that doesn’t happen. This happens instead:
Wave Diffraction Pattern as electrons pass through a double slit
This, by the way, and not Schrodinger’s Cat, was my first taste of quantum mechanics. I was well and truly baffled, and it sparked something that I believe is still in me until today. It began a foray into something that is perhaps so marvellously beautiful, interesting, and I must confess, painful at the same time. So then, what is it about Physics that makes it have all the traits I just listed? I will now show you something that a colleague and I talked about over tea just two days ago, and I took a liberty of translating the ideas into a diagram. These are what I call the three jewels of Physics:
The Three Pillars of Physics
This diagram probably needs some expounding, but I’ll approach it from my personal perspective. Many of the people in my course do take a deep preference for one of the three, but we acknowledge that they are all equally important.
Predictions are hard to make, especially those about the future
-Neils Bohr-
Well, let’s start with the predictions that the ideas make. Yes, of course, perhaps the most important and fun part of explaining a theory to someone is telling them what it does. If I went up to you and told you that string theory says all particles are made up of vibrating strings, you would reply, “so what?” If I told that to my mum, she’ll think that we people have nothing better to do than to come up with silly ideas like this. But I would be able to pique your interest if I went on to say that it predicts hidden dimensions, and parallel universes and things like that. Now, this perhaps the “Wow!” part of physics and what all popular science is all about. I was once in this realm and drew much inspiration from here, but I guess, by being where all the “action” is, harping on the results won’t get you anyway and that’s because I have to personally get my hands dirty. And, guess what, that brings us to the next gem:
“Nature laughs at the difficulty of integration”
-Pierre-Simon Laplace-
People tend to avoid Physics like the plague because of the Maths involved. But there are still some who find that the meaning of the whole of Physics lies in the maths, I understand why, the whole of physics has one main cog in the machine, and that is the equations. And so, they place a lot of love in the equations, and make sure that each and every one of them is in perfect logical order. I agree, but somehow, my slight lacking in mathematical skill seem to hamper slightly my appreciation in this department and in the end, I have developed this perception that they are merely tools to craft an idea, like the algorithms to complete a Rubik’s Cube. I recently said that it is perhaps a tragic irony in the progression of Physics, that as the ideas become simpler and more elegant, the equations become more complex, and I know of no reason why this must be so. It’s sad, really, but I will give the math some credit, as the joy you get when you solve a equation is an “integral” part of the fun in physics. But what is more fun is the ideas…
If at first the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it
-Albert Einstein-
I find that the ideas and concepts that come from Physics the most wonderful… indulgence… if I may use that word. You see, if one looks at the thing that creates the revolutions in science, one finds that it is the rise of a strange new idea, an idea which has not been thought of before to explain a phenomenon. It is not so much about someone finding a flaw in the maths. In fact, it’s never about the maths, it’s so self-consistent, anyway, or a new prediction or solution to a problem, but because of a flaw in an old idea, and the rise of a new one. I can tell you the tales of the debates about the atoms, the developments leading up to special relativity and the discourse that led to quantum mechanics, explaining the pertinence of each idea to our understanding and I could go on for hours. A lot of effort goes into understanding why a concept of such and such must be true, and the arguments, assumptions and axioms that underlie it. Nowadays, I do it on a weekly basis, in what we have fondly come to call, “staring at the equations”. But it is truly worth it, I always view understanding the argument and equations as a puzzle, just like solving the Sudoku in the newspaper, and the satisfaction derived from these two activities are equivalent. And then, I too, derive a lot of joy in explaining these wonderful new personal discoveries to others who are interested or are in need of some form of understanding, and that is the fragment of the joy that most of you would have perceived, which probably led me to standing here talking to you about this. Well, what can I say, it’s like showing your friends your completed Rubik’s Cube, the one you spent a whole day twisting and turning.
There is one final part of Physics, and I think it is the most important asset that any physicist, scientist and in fact anyone, should have. The heart of Physocs, is the trait we call curiosity.
Curiosity is a powerful fuel, and most of us spent the better part of our lives learning new things about the world. But there comes a point, I fear, that school begins to interfere with your education. strangely, there were times when all of us were simply reduced to rote learning, memorising line after line of text. I find that all of this really takes away the joy of learning: spoonfeeding teaches us nothing more than the shape of the spoon.
In retrospect, I realise that I had just one gift, and that is a deep love for the discovery of new things:
“Curiosity is… the pleasure of finding things out”
-Richard Feynman-
What most people see as a bunch of facts, I see a wealth that is worth accumulating and sharing with others. and so I spent my time stumbling into new pieces of information and trivia, and when I first encountered Physics, I realised I had found a treasure trove of knowledge, one that dealt with the very fabric of our universe, our very existence. Beginning with perhaps the day I encountered the double slit experiment, I began to peer deeper and deeper into the many facets of Physics, and promised myself that at the end of it all, I could fully comprehend the beauty and secrets of the universe. So here I am today, still exploring a strange realm not many dare to venture into, and in the words of Robert Frost: “Two roads diverge in the yellow wood, I’ve taken the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
In the end, what do I truly expect to get from it all? Is it fame, recognition, or even the Nobel Prize? Nah, I just want to leave this place knowing how beautiful nature is, and the joy I had unraveling her mysteries. And there is no better way to do then than to see the world from the shoulder of Newton’s Giant, and pass on the joy to those who are interested. But there’s one last thing I must say: that even with all I have described above, I still know that there are things out there I can never hope to find out. Physics is a humbling experience in this way, and I hold on to this quote from Shakespeare:
“There are more things in ths heaven and earth, Horatio, than dreamt of in your philosophy”
-From Hamlet, by Shakespeare-
Thank you.
