Growing evidence that the universe is connected by giant structures (2019)

Re:Growing evidence that the universe is connected by giant ... by ben_w on Friday January 17, 2020 @03:52AM (#22073015)

Think of it like this: how many degree-level lectures can you give in physics as compared to whatever your profession is? Now imagine what someone who knows as much about your profession as you do about physics sounds like to you.

Half my questions on Physics stackexchange are so naïve they’re not even wrong, they are so bad they get closed as nonsensical. Looking at past exam papers, I could probably get a grade B in A-level physics (A-level is UK qualification taken at age 18 between secondary school and university currently used to decide which university you go to).

The other half of my ideas are right, but actual physicists tell me they’re “obvious” and “not worth writing about”.

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Re:Growing evidence that the universe is connected by giant ... by RHSeeger on Friday January 17, 2020 @07:56AM (#22074179)

The fact that pretty much all thoughts from people outside the field are either obvious, false, or nonsensical... doesn't invalidate the idea that flashes of insight can come from anywhere. I get what you're saying and agree the odds of it happening are pretty much zero. But sometimes even things with a probability of pretty much 0 can happen. The eigenvalue thing is an example of that, in my opinion.

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Re:Growing evidence that the universe is connected by giant ... by specialist on Friday January 17, 2020 @09:02AM (#22074650)

A layperson could unwittingly trigger a cognitive leap by asking naive questions. A la Feynman saying he can't explain magnetism in a way that I could understand it, the effort could spark an insight or novel angle.

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Re:Growing evidence that the universe is connected by giant ... by MiroF on Friday January 17, 2020 @11:06PM (#22082191)

Name a single instance of a lay person without a background in physics discovering the basis behind a phenomenon since 1900.

For some reason, physics seems to be disproportionately popular among armchair theorists compared to other fields like math or chemistry.

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Re:Growing evidence that the universe is connected by giant ... by ben_w on Saturday January 18, 2020 @03:46AM (#22083246)

> disproportionately popular among armchair theorists compared to other fields like math or chemistry.

I’ve heard this before, but I wonder how true it is? I know my experiences are just anecdotes, but I knew a guy who was convinced the Hotel Room/Bellboy/Missing Dollar problem “broke maths”, and I’ve had countless frustrations with family members promoting homeopathy and acquaintances talking about chemical X being “one atom away from being bleach” like that doesn’t apply to water.

I’d be interested if anyone has done a real analysis of rates of armchair nonsense by sector.

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