Physics

In General > s.a. history; main areas; paradigms; physics teaching; theory.
* Goals: Identify those aspects of the physical world which are subject to precise prediction; Give clear definitions of the properties of physical objects which are used in the prediction; Model those objects and find ("discover") the laws relating those properties to each other and their evolution.
* Motivation/usefulness of basic physics: Prediction and control of physical phenomena; Possibility of guiding technology in distinguishing correct/incorrect, feasible/unfeasible approaches; Knowledge.
* Limitations of physics: To what extent can biological processes, life and thought, be treated ultimately like physics? May be related to role of quantum mechanics and complexity.
* And other disciplines: 1996, Alan Sokal tricked the top humanities journal Social Text into publishing as genuine scholarship a totally nonsensical paper that celebrated fashionable literary theory and then applied it to all manner of scientific questions; Sokal showed that, with a little flattery, laymen could be induced to swallow the most ridiculous of scientific canards—so why should we value their opinions on science as highly as scientists'? 2000s, Harry Collins showed that he can talk gravitational waves as well as an insider [@ Slate(06)oct].
@ General references: Thomson AJP(60) [nature of physics]; Holton 85; Krumhansl PT(91)mar; Brody 93; Contreras PT(02)oct [basic physics]; Ellis PT(05)jul [limitations of physics]; Benka PT(06)dec; Luminet a0804-in [limits].
@ Physics careers: Hermanowicz 98 [r pw(99)jun]; issue PT(01)apr, issue pw(01)oct; Rigden & Stith PT(03)nov; Kaplan PT(07)apr [industry vs academia].
@ On doing physics: Krieger 92; Buchwald 95; Porter 98 [controversies]; Osheroff AJP(01) [discoveries]; issue PT(04)nov [ethics].
@ Status, predictions: Davies ed-89; Maddox 98; Durrani pw(99)dec [status]; Weart PT(06)jun; Fraser ed-06; Harnad a0709.
@ Poetry: Lowell PT(89)apr [T S Eliot on physics]; Coletta & Tamres TPT(92) [R Frost on physics].
@ The Sokal affair: Sokal ST(96), LF(96), LF(96); Weinberg NYRB(96); Schweber PT(97)mar; Mukerjee SA(98)mar; Beller SA(98)sep.
@ And other disciplines: Durrani PW(96) [business]; Jamieson pw(99)sep, Varmus pw(99)sep [biology].

General and Interdisciplinary References > s.a. experimental physics.
* Quotations: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish p 133; I I Rabi: "The power of physics is in words".
@ I: Whitehead 20; Bridgman 29, 36, 61; Schrödinger 57; Feynman 65; Baker 70; Matthews 71; March 83; Spielberg & Anderson 85; Barrow 88; Sachs 88; Wilczek & Devine 88; Wolf 89; Barrow 91; Glashow 91; Lederman & Teresi 93; Matthews 93; Newton 93; Hilgevoord 94; Rothman 95; Hey & Walters 97 [modern physics]; Lightman 97; Marshall et al 98; Adams 99; Landsberg 00; Novikov & Kisin 01; Charap 02; Ho-Kim et al 04; Laughlin 05 [fundamental physics]; Barrow 07.
@ I, recommended: Kuhn 57, Koestler 59, Weinberg 77 [J Rigden, pw(05)oct]; von Baeyer & Bowers AJP(04)RL.
@ I, texts: Krauss 93; Glashow 94; Hobson 98.
@ I, especially spacetime and matter: Ridley 95; Blin-Stoyle 97; Morris 99; Calle 01 [including strings]; Hammond 03.
@ IIa: Lindsay & Margenau 57; Feynman et al 63-65; Wallace 91; Mills 94; Rohlf 94.
@ IIb: Furth 70; Stauffer & Stanley 95; Taylor 01 [overview]; Lawrie 02; Fischer-Cripps 03; Longair 04; Rogalski & Palmer 05.
@ III, Texts: Landau & Lifshitz; Levich 73; Stevens 96; Tribble 96.
@ III: Penrose 04; Stamatescu & Seiler 07 [fundamental physics].
@ Reference: Rosen 04 [encyclopedia]; Poole 07 [handbook].
@ Other: AS 78(90)449 [cartoons]; Bunk et al 06 [Quantoons].

Visions, Ultimate Theories of Everything > s.a. computation; foundations of quantum mechanics; holography; Metaphysics.
* Examples: Wheeler's "higgledy-piggledy"; The holographic hypothesis; Information theory and computer-inspired models.
* Issue: Penrose’s math-matter-mind triangle, which points out the circularity of the widespread view that math arises from the mind, the mind arises out of matter, and that matter can be explained in terms of math.
* Positions: Some physicists believe that current physics has already found the basic framework for a complete description of reality, and only has to fill in the details ("fundamentalist view"); Others suspect that no single framework, from physics or other sources, will ever capture reality ("secular view"); Yet others guess that reality might be approached arbitrarily closely by some form of future physics, but probably based on completely different frameworks ("mystic view").
@ I: Weinberg 92; Lindley 93; Horgan SA(94)feb.
@ Nature of laws, symmetries: Anandan FP(99)qp/98, IJTP(03)qp-in [no laws]; Mohrhoff FP(02)qp; Tegmark FP(08)-a0704-FP [External Reality Hypothesis and Mathematical Universe Hypothesis], a0709 ["shut up and calculate"]; > s.a. theory.
@ Theories of everything: Kaiser 90; Taylor FP(93); Tegmark AP(98)gq/97; Hartle gq/02-in; Tipler RPP(05)-a0704 [extended standard model + Feynman-Weinberg quantum gravity].
@ Higgledy-piggledy etc: Patton & Wheeler in(75); Wheeler IJTP(82), pr(82), AJP(83), IBM(88); Deutsch FP(86).
@ Visions: Talbot 92 [holographic]; Barut FP(94) [criticism of "final theories"]; Nanopoulos RNC(94); Laszlo 95; Bastin & Kilmister 95 [combinatorial]; Jaroszkiewicz qp/01 ["machine principle"]; Dadhich gq/03, gq/04 ["universalization"], phy/05; Hut, Alford & Tegmark FP(06)phy/05 [3 views on math, matter and mind].
@ Suspicious articles and books: Herrmann ap/99; McCutcheon 04.
@ Aspects: Gross IJMPA(05) [status, future]; Ellis FP(06) [and the real world]; > s.a. quantum spacetime.

Online Resources > see MathPages pages; Physics Comments; Wikipedia portal.

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Send feedback and suggestions to bombelli at olemiss.edu – Modified 3 jul 2008