World Science Scholars

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  • Share your ideas and questions about the Puzzle: Unreasonable Power of Mathematics Part II video.

    Share your ideas and questions about the Continuity video.

    Share your ideas and questions about the Puzzle: Ants Colliding video.

    Concepts such as symmetry, duality, continuity, and conservation were used to help solve the puzzles. What’s a real life example of one of these concepts?

    Share your ideas and questions about the Puzzle: Ants on a Meter Stick video.

    Note: Do you have a question or prompt for your fellow Scholars that relates to this course? Begin your own discussion topic here.

    Note: Discussions are a place where you can let everyone read your ideas on various issues and questions that follow from the material we’re covering. Share your ideas and questions about the Course Overview video.

    Not a silly question at all. In fact, it is such a good one, we will try and include it in the live session this week!!

    Nadine- I really like your honesty here! I think you are wrestling with something many do not wish to voice. We accept the math, but it seems very weird that nature would work this way. That is why experimentation is critical in the scientific process.

    So, never, ever accept ideas simply because anyone says so.
    Challenge yourself to think through, like a detective, and find where the logic goes awry.
    In this case, think about what was known about nature that led to the question of simultaneity:
    1) That light is a constant speed and
    2) that it is impossible to tell if one is traveling at constant velocity or not.
    Are you convinced of these? Why? Why not? Given these, does the train example follow?

    Here is a question for you or anyone else: Do we cling to the math because the nature of reality outside the cloud of our everyday experience is so strange?

    I’m enjoying all your contributions here!! Many of you want to learn the evidence and math behind some of these topics and that is great! We will touch upon some of that math and the professors will have some special challenges for you. Those challenges will take you deeper into the math and we are here to support you!! Let us know what we can do to help.

    Why do you say, “In truth they are both moving towards each other at a constant velocity.”? How we differentiate between they are both moving or only one of them is moving?

    That’s great Moses! Quantum mechanics, though, will be the third module. You are smart to recognize how important understanding math is to understanding physics. You will see, too, that there are many areas of math that are important in physics, not just calculus.

    Diego- You are right. The conclusions do come fast. The challenge is that the conclusions come out of math that is beyond the scope of the course. We encourage you to dig deeper and share what you find with others here. You may find there is a group of Scholars interested in pursuing the same thing.

    Really great thought Diego. But then I think we have just made it more complex by one more person. For example, if you watch two of your friends run past you, you might say that you are standing still and they are moving. And yet, you ARE moving as the Earth spins on its axis. What do you think?

    Thanks for commenting, Destiny! There is a real philosophical side to these aspects of physics. I look forward to hearing your thoughts/ideas as you go along!

Viewing 15 posts - 136 through 150 (of 152 total)