News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:How Renormalization Saved Particle Physics by clickok on Thursday September 17, 2020 @02:33PM (#24508290)
> A theory is nothing but a way to turn (a finite number of) measurements into predictions.

That's a very nice way of putting it. Is there a particular book, lecture, or other resource you could recommend for this interpretation of theorizing?

Re:How Renormalization Saved Particle Physics by ssivark on Thursday September 17, 2020 @06:04PM (#24510544)
That particular statement is something I made up once I finally understood what was going on; I’ve not seen any references which explain it quite that way. If there are any specific leading questions, I might try to unwrap that intuition here; otherwise it’s a little difficult and I’ll need to think harder to cook up a nice motivating example :-)

That said, Simon Dedeo has a relatively accessible set of online lectures which explain the concepts behind renormalization and broader connections to ideas in computing and other fields, without needing as much heavy machinery as a typical theoretical physics treatment. I haven’t watched it, but in general I appreciate his pedagogy, so here’s the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF0b3ThojznTzAA7bfLWh...

Re:How Renormalization Saved Particle Physics by cloogshicer on Thursday September 17, 2020 @03:05PM (#24508643)
I'd also love a recommendation here!