Physics made simple
Physics explained simply, with big questions and no equations needed. A podcast asks whether time is an illusion, and Veritasium argues white holes and wormholes are probably real. Elsewhere, an orange stands in for string theory and space photos get a false-color explanation. 6 picks from the Bez Tytułu newsletter, in reading order.
The picks
Is Time an Illusion? (Great Mysteries of Physics)
Read · theconversation.com · 3 min · Issue #105
The first episode of the podcast Great Mysteries of Physics, hosted by Miriam Frankel of The Conversation, asks whether our sense of time flowing matches how time works. Sean Carroll suggests the arrow of time may come from entropy, which was very low in the early universe. Emily Adlam argues that time does not flow and that the flow we perceive is an illusion.
Telescope images are coloured, not what you see
Short · youtube.com · Issue #161
Space telescope images are coloured by NASA to show wavelengths invisible to the eye, so they are not what you would see.
The speaker explains that many space images are not what the universe looks like to the eye. Telescopes such as the James Webb capture light at wavelengths like infrared, ultraviolet, and X-ray, which people cannot see. NASA then assigns colors to these wavelengths, a process called false coloring, to highlight features that would otherwise be invisible.
Key points- The first photo from space, in 1946, was taken about 65 miles up
- James Webb captures infrared, ultraviolet and X-ray light that humans cannot see
- NASA assigns colours to these wavelengths in a process called false colouring
Matter may be vibrating strings, he speculates
Short · tiktok.com · Issue #123
The speaker says matter may be vibrating strings, with each particle a different vibration pattern, though he calls it speculative.
The video explains the structure of matter by zooming in on an orange, then its molecules, atoms, nucleus and particles such as neutrons and protons. The speaker says conventional physics stops at particles, while string theory proposes that they are tiny vibrating strings of energy, with different vibration patterns producing different particles.
Key points- Magnifying an orange leads through molecules, atoms, the nucleus, then particles
- Conventional physics stops at particles, while string theory adds a tiny filament
- An electron or neutrino is a string vibrating in a different pattern
White Holes and Wormholes Are Probably Real
Watch · youtube.com · Issue #153
Veritasium's video argues that white holes and wormholes probably exist. It credits several physicists for their help and cites sources including Kip Thorne's Black Holes & Time Warps and Einstein's 1915 field equations paper. The video was published in April 2024 and is free to watch.
The Most Misunderstood Concept in Physics
Watch · youtube.com · Issue #179
A July 2023 Veritasium video, credited to Derek Muller and others, presents what it calls one of the most important yet least understood concepts in physics. Its explanation draws on work by Carnot, Clausius and England on self-replication and dissipative adaptation, and seven physicists and researchers helped with the topic.
Simple rules can yield endlessly varied phenomena
Short · tiktok.com · Issue #181
Simple rules can produce endlessly varied phenomena, but finding them took a complex scaffolding built over 400 years.
A scientist explains that simple fundamental rules of nature can produce a huge variety of phenomena, and that finding them required elaborate experiments. He says it is not complicated, just extensive. He notes that interviewers ask about the latest discoveries, not everyday phenomena like colours or butterfly wings, and that results look complex after about 400 years of scientific method.
Key points- The speaker says the final variety of phenomena comes from very simple rules
- He would rather be asked about an ordinary phenomenon, like the colours of butterfly wings
- He describes science as a 400-year method for finding things out about the world