Quantum Mechanics

Quantum physics for dummies by steven holzner
it's actually quite entertaining, despite the plebeian title.

>>9737031
>for dummies

That would be fucking great. I'll look like one of those grandmas who read "smartphones for dummies" while I read it on the subway

>>9737037
why do you have to be ashamed to understand the world?

>>9737023
>how the very small affects the very large
quantum mechanics does not do a good job of explaining this. that is why they're looking for a unified theory.

what you're looking for is the butterfly effect which is a part of chaos theory

>I'm honestly just hoping it was just some temporary drug-induced insanity
it was. don't take drug trips to be factual. if anything they're symbolic, pointing at the answers, but are not the answers themselves.

>>9737023
Do you know any maths?

>>9737023
Fiction, because QM and science as a whole is fiction.

>>9737045
How the very small affects the very large is also lots of types of physics. Most of reductive theories rely on this.

Another interesting thing to consider is how sometimes when the very small is in very large quantaties you can observe all kinds of unforseen phenomena ,not predictable by using the normal reductive method of reasoning, like phonons. Condensed matter physics is full of examples like these, it's a great trip.

>>9737042
I just think it'd be funny. I'm definitely going to read that though

>>9737045
>butterfly effect
>chaos theory
Thanks for the pointers anon where are some good places to research these

>if anything they're symbolic, pointing at the answers, but are not the answers themselves.

That's exactly right. But you have to suffer through understanding a language perfectly and not begin able to speak it in order to be able to speak it well

>>9737047
If i'm right I don't have to. Mathematics is just a way to speak the language of these absolutes we understand. I don't want to write a academic journal on physics, I just want to understand it.

>>9737049
If people can learn how to avoid addiction and how beneficial very limited, recreational use of narcotics can be, when used appropriately.

>Regardless, I'd like to gain a greater understanding of how the very small affects the very large.
Don't fall for STEM memes. Read Timothy Morton, then call him an idiot. You're also an idiot, fucking pseud.
>>9737072
>If people can learn how to avoid addiction and how beneficial very limited, recreational use of narcotics can be, when used appropriately.
Memeing yourself is only beneficial of you enjoy being a fucking meme.

>>9737081
How many of you lot who say don't fall for STEM meme have ever actually tried to understand mathematics or physics? Why does everything have to be a meme? Why does everything have to be about pointless allegencies? If there's something to learn why reproach people for learning it?

And if you really believe that these fields can tell you nothing about the world and that there is nothing to learn from them then it's your loss.

>>9737064
>science as a whole is fiction

What's this even supposed to mean

>>9737071
Because as things get bigger they get more complicated. To a point. There's also a point where, as things get bigger, they get less complicated. That's why I want to know more about how the very small affects the very large. Because they might just be different ways of getting to the same thing.

And it follows that human consciousness is at the highest level of intricacy that exists right now. We are neither small nor big, yet the most intricate thing in all of existence (at least hat we're aware of right now)

>>9737081
>STEM memes
I want to study up, I don't want to major in it.

Besides, there's a reason I posted this here and not on /sci/ or something. /lit/ and the arts in general have a very profound understanding of human subconscious, which might be what makes us the most advanced being in the universe

>lol everything's a meme guise XD
you've been spending too much time on /tv/

>>9737105
this

>>9737110
>human
>conscious
>>9737105
I worked as an engineer for 6 years. Fuck off undergrad.
There is nothing to learn in systematics. Learning itself is systematic horsepiss.
>>9737110
Fuck off you /r/edditor
>which might be what makes us the most advanced being in the universe
Fuck off humanist.

>>9737116
What else affects the world around us with such intensity as the collective human conciseness?

And what makes you think humans aren't conscious? You think, therefore you are.

>>9737119
>collective human consciousness
Fuck off
>You think, therefore you are.
False.

Humanists are so incredibly wrapped in ideology, they cannot comprehend anything outside of that ideology. Find a hole and immanentize it.

>>9737116
>worked as an engineer for 6 years
>learnt that there is nothing to learn from systematics

>>9737122
Thank you for trying to explain something I don't understand

You only half-understand these words and so you're reducing yourself to namecalling to keep from revealing how little you know

>>9737128
I did not learn that
>>9737130
>projecting
Knowledge doesn't exist.

>>9737159
have another (you) my friendly neighborhood (you) farmer

>>9737171
anybody i dont like is le meme xdDd|DSDDsdf

>>9737023
There was a fairly decent biography of Albert Einstein I read once. Don't remember the name but the cover had the same bust of Einstein repeated with different colours behind him.

>>9737179
Collecting (yous) on /lit/ is much harder than (yous) on places like /tv/ and /r9k/. You deserve as many as you can get for your hard work

>>9737195
Fractals are visual 2D depictions of the smallest level of reality in motion. They're intimately related to what Einstein was trying to communicate. There's a reason Einstein remains the most well-known scientist 60+ years since his death.

>>9737206
>Collecting (yous) on /lit/ is much harder than (yous) on places like /tv/ and /r9k/. You deserve as many as you can get for your hard work
Fuck off back to /r/eddit. Not everybody fits into your echobox here.

>>9737210
If you actually believe something then try explaining it. That's the only way to prove to yourself you actually know anything.

If you don't it's just (you) farming by shitpost on a shitty website because you're too scared to face how shitty your life is.

>>9737227
Nice ideology you fucking twat. Lick my ass. Pseuds like you are pseuds regardless. Disgusting positivism. Obsession with the past. Please go back to /r/eddit you humanist filth.

>>9737023
A Brief History
The Greatest Story Ever Told... So Far

There's also obviously plenty of talks on YouTube

>fiction
>movies
You're a faggot

>>9737023
Listen man you probably already know this and are lying to yourself. Reading "engaging" pop-sci about physics won't actually teach you anything. You can't learn stuff about physics without the prerequisites. You need the foundation of physics AND mathematics. Take it from someone who has done upper level physics. If you want to actually know something work through young and freedman university physics. Then move on from there, /sci/ is a decent board. On the other hand, if you want cry and be really "on to something" read any pop sci with a catchy title watch some ted talks and take some drugs.

>>9737243
>Knowledge doesn't exist.
>Humans aren't conscious.
Holy Mary, this guy's cracked it. Now, did all that come to you gradually during your six years as an engineer or right at the end in a flash of revelation?

>>9737243
Why are you even here? If everything's already so obvious to you you should be gone, out of here. Yet here you sit, typing at your computer when you could be doing something more productive with your limited time on earth.

There's so much more to go through. You think you're already done? You've barely even started. Let's all keep going together. Let's all embrace that which we hate for an eternity, and find the joy lain within.

>>9737248
>>fiction
>>movies
>You're a faggot

Narrative film & other works of fiction tend to repel people who like to study more, but if you learn where to look they offer so much more penetrating data than any dry, academic lecture has to offer. They touch us down in our very subconscious.

Our subconscious is what makes humans the most intricate thing that's existed up until this point. We can understand things without having to fully, consciously comprehend them.
Read some ancient myths. They're the perfect example of how the subconscious brain, which already understands everything in the universe, affects us greater than the actual logical reasoning behind those myths. It's why the story of Moses' Exodus from Egypt and being given 10 rules to live by stuck with humanity more than being presented with the physical reality of why we do what we do.
Even now, studies have shown that if you present people with statistics about starving children they'll donate half as much as the people who hear a sad story about one single starving child. Even people who hear both give less.

Narrative form has a profound affect on the collective consciousness. That's why I want to be a filmmaker. Movies have the power to both move people and reach as many warm bodies as possible.

>>9737285
Again, my goal here is not to understand it. At least not at the level of complexity you're talking about. My goal is to gain a subconscious understanding of it, thereby gain a more profound understanding than I could consciously. But you're right, in the end I'll only know I've really learned it if I can communicate it in narrative form.

>>9737310
don't feed the (you) farmer

unless you, of course, are also a (you) farmer, in which case form a cancerous growth that wastes precious limited max thread replies.

>>9737330
>ANYBODY I DONT LIKE IS THIS THING I DONT LIKE
Fucking undergrad

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>>9737349
>that euphoric feel when you see the red dot indicating a (you)

>>9737330
>Again, my goal here is not to understand it. At least not at the level of complexity you're talking about. My goal is to gain a subconscious understanding of it, thereby gain a more profound understanding than I could consciously. But you're right, in the end I'll only know I've really learned it if I can communicate it in narrative form.

I can understand why someone might take this kind of approach but you have it the wrong way around. The math comes first and its hard work, the intuition is the reward. Its all worth it in my opinion and can be a really profound experience when it clicks. Trust me I went to a good school and no one started with a intuition for quantum mechanics. The "intuition" you get from drugs and pop sci is just bullshit.

>>9737122
>>You think, therefore you are.
>False.
I'm sorry mr. nonthinker, but we who do think, can know that we are.

Who is wrong without existence?

>>9737023
Not about QM, but "The Mind of God" by Paul Davies is a pop-sci classic about maths, physics and how they relate to the physical universe. Touches on Neo-Platonic themes and is easy to read and short.

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>>9737023
The drugs are messing with your brain, you don't understand anything. It's your first taste of insanity. That feeling of an incomprehensible cosmic truth and the despair that accompanies it is a peek into schizophrenia. I've experienced something similar, probably to a lesser extent, without any drugs.
I was going to link this lengthy text-wall written by, presumably, a schizophrenic, about the true nature of the universe or whatever, clearly making sense in his own mind. It was very geometrical, too. An interesting demonstration of what such "truths" look like to a sober mind. Alas, can't find the website. Maybe someone knows what I'm talking about.
Of course, you can contest that maybe he really does have understanding that none of us possess, but at that point you have to let go of reason. Which is what "enlightened" truth-seeker druggies do, so take your pick.

>>9737688
Give it a rest. There's no arguing with "how do we know we exist" people. Like talking to a wall. Or he's deliberately shitposting, either way, no point responding.

>>9737774
>implying that any sober philosophy isn't the same shit but with less balls

>>9737776
You're really flying towards this whole "schizophrenia" thing aint ya?

>>9737023
Sorry to ruin the grandiose buzz you have going but you don't sound like you want to understand anything. You want to watch a self-gratifying 5 minute youtube video that will reinforce whatever delusional nonsense you came up with during your trip. Everyone who has tripped has had the sensation of 'understanding' things on some fundamental level that the conscious mind can't comprehend. But there's no real understanding, its a hollow chemical trick and we know exactly how and why it happens on psychedelics.

QM also isn't really the area you are after if you want to know "how the small affects the large"

>>9737563
You're kidding yourself if you think you have an intuition for QM though. Other areas of physics, sure, but surely not QM.

>>9737023
>>9737818
Yep "psychedelics" are a philosophical dead end, they may give you some seemingly profound insights but they all ultimately lead to some form of Monism, where all creation merges into a undifferentiated mass of bland uniform one-ness ("everything is like, connected maann") The quicker you move on from drugging yourself the better you will be.

>>9737023
Nevermind te bollocks OP. You'll probably enjoy reading Robert Anton Wilson. His Schroedingers Cat trilogy is fiction modelled over three quantum physics theorems and does a nice job of illustrating each in a humorous fasion.

>experiences something profound

XD I can't explain it brah I wuz 2 high on droogs!

Kys druggie.

Also interested in Quantum Mechanics, but I'm not as much of a brainlet as OP. Is a knowledge of calc 3/differentials and Newtonian mechanics enough to get me started? What book should I get? Or should I just look up my university's syllabi and go from there? I think we only have 1 quantum mechanics course (we are mainly just an engineering school)

In all seriousness. Read the holographic universe by michael talbot.

>>9737023
Richard Feynman has a collection of lectures on this very topic

>>9737774
Dont listen to this bluepill

>>9737023
I'd say don't read this >>9737031. I don't have any idea what is contains but I assume it's not much better than a tv documentary or youtube video. The thing with those is that they do more harm than good (unless they direct you to actually studying it). QM is an extremely complex field and nobody really understands it. You can't make it simple, you have to delve into the math and the experiments yourself to see what it is about. But materials aimed at a layman understanding usually ignore this and have the tendency to over simplify things, making you miss the conclusion of QM (that the world is very complex and we can't possibly grasp it all with our reason or experiments).
If you want to study it seriously do it, but you will be disappointed most likely. If you don't want to study it don't look into it at all. You will either be disappointed or not understand what it is about.

>>9737122
hey there u.g.

you want to learn about QM without any mathematical or physical knowledge? lmao my man

>acid
oh. ha.

>>9737023
>Regardless, I'd like to gain a greater understanding of how the very small affects the very large.

QM & then statistical mechanics brah

http://www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/people/JamesBinney/qb.pdf

Blundell - Concepts in Thermal Physics

>>9737774
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

>>9737563
That's why I want to study it. To gain that intuitive understanding of it. But I get what you mean; you can only get to the very small by focusing on the very large. But the reverse is also true. You just have to figure out how to trick your brain into doing it.

There's a reason you despise pop-science. You see it as a way to make people feel as though they understand a concept without truly understanding it; that's why if you ask most stoner college dorm drifters to explain these lofty concepts to you they'll fizzle out and die before they can.

But being able to understand something and being able to explain it to others are two separate skills. To understand something is subconscious, to communicate it to others is conscious.

In the end, I understand that I'll only truly understand these concepts when I can explain them to people in narrative form. But I also understand that it's a waste of time to try and explain them directly.

>>9737688
Yes, feed the (you) farmer, he'll have a nice (you) harvest this year

>>9737689
Thank you, will read

>>9737774
The reason drugs are perceived in others as "temporary insanity" is because the drug only lowers your capacity to understand things. You can contemplate things in their smaller, simpler forms.

However, this does not help when one tries to apply these concepts to a larger scale. When one tries to get other people to understand.

But if i'm right, the reason the collective human consciousness has thrived for so long is we don't need these very small concepts explained to us. We already understand many of them subconsciously, and all we're doing by studying advanced sciences and mathematics is becoming consciously aware of subconscious processes. But we don't really need to.

This is again why the arts and narrative form attract me much more than the sciences and technical form. With art we've discovered a way to communicate these universal truths without needing to awaken everything in our conscious minds.

That's why reading scientific journals creates no emotional reaction, yet books and movies cause us to cry.

>and thanks for pointing out the (you) farmer

>>9737776
Pretty much this

Philosophy is the marriage of art and science. For a while, they were considered the same thing (back when philosophy was just asking questions about every little thing). Now that we've come so far in sciences and still haven't even scratched the surface of philosophy, only now do we separate the two.

>>9737791
he's right tho, see above

>>9737872
You're not wrong.

Like I've been saying, the drug only lowers one's capacity for understanding. Not communicating.

>>9737923
Thank you, sounds interesting

>>9737985
>Like I've been saying, the drug only lowers one's capacity for understanding. Not communicating.

>>9738051
Ask /sci/. There's a reason I asked /lit/ and not them. /lit/ understands that you don't need advanced knowledge of mathematics to understand these principals (even if we're not willing to admit it.)

>>9738063
Added to my list, thank you

>>9738071
Will look into him, thanks

>>9738102
>The thing with those is that they do more harm than good (unless they direct you to actually studying it)
That's what I'm trying to do. Understand it and learn to communicate it, perhaps indirectly but still in some fashion.

>You can't make it simple
If what I've been thinking about is right, I don't have to. All I have to do I understand where the simple starts getting complex again.

>you will be disappointed most likely.
I might. My only real goal is to scratch the surface, test the waters. If I decide it's worth pursuing I'll dive right in. If not, I'll move on.

I'm honestly hoping I decide not to dive in. For some reason, progress into this scares me immensely. I'm more horrified by the idea that I could be on to something than that I might just be crazy.

>>9738187
>Like I've been saying, the drug only lowers one's capacity for understanding. Not communicating.

>>9738195
Thank you anon

>>9737774
Did you mean Time Cube?
http://timecube.2enp.com/

Also you're obviously right but OP won't listen to you any way.
Glad I never fell for the psychedelic drugs meme desu.

>>9737023
You wont really get anything too substantial out of pop quantum books. Actually learning the math is pretty much required to understand what's going on. It's very hard to put in words.

If you want to know whats going on read 'Principles of Quantum Mechanics' by Dirac. He pretty much invented a lot of the subject, and it's extremely well written. 99% of the book is text with very few equations, although it is a high level textbook with advanced math. You wont understand the mathy parts, but maybe you can get something out of the text.

Pretty much anything aimed for a general audience is dribble.

>>9738616
You've never even used it. How can you profess to understanding it completely?

Note what the message above the site reads.
>I wish to preserve this fascinating artwork.
>fascinating artwork

Despite it's clear lack of coherence, I can still detect some level of understanding in what he writes. But to understand something is only half the battle. His problem was he couldn't think straight enough to fight the other half: communicating it to others.

>>9738643
>You've never even used it. How can you profess to understanding it completely?
I don't, I'm just glad I never used it.

>>9738643
You're clearly retarded if you think there's any value in that schizophrenic word salad.

>>9738668
And yet, you still read it. If there isn't anything there, why did you read it? There's no value in spending time studying something with no substance.

>>9738674
Joke's on you, I didn't read it.

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>>9738675
>didn't read it
>claims to understand it

lol heres your (you)

>>9738521
>You don't need advanced knowledge of mathematics to understand these principals.
If you don't understand the math you don't understand the principles. This misconception is a real problem.
>>9737818
I don't want to argue about what intuition means. Once you thoroughly understand the math and have a lot of experience working on quantum mechanics problems you can develop an instinctive understandings of how certain quantum systems behave and what properties they have.

>>9737023

Quantum mechanic is just math, there is nothing to understand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC8Vh76vy0w

>>9737045
Drug or no drug dont take any answer as completely factual

Read Witty

>>9740170
>jew having a hard time taking a bribe

hahahahaha

what movie is this?

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>>9737330
>implying I don't do both
I just think it's important to dive deep, and when it comes to diving deep non fiction is the best fiction.

One thing I learned from Brief History is the fact that the planets actually don't orbit in a circle. They move straight in curved space-time. Gravity literally dictates the form of the universe. Energy is gravity (e=mc2) and the there is energy / mass in the biological correlates that give birth to consciousness.

On a quantum level we're still not sure if we can determine the exact position and velocity of a particle (pre-determination is still an unknown as far as science is concerned) .

It's insane to think that consciousness can dictate the course of the future AND/OR we are experiencing one point in an already completely line of time.

I've honestly only read Brief History and watched a few talks. There's so much more.

I like movies but it's still nice to 'dive deep' on a real topic. Right now I'm on the fence between history / politics, spirituality and the blockchain (which I know the least of).

>>9740170
You can understand how software works without knowing code and "quantum mechanics" isn't math - but the models we use to learn about it are completely mathematical I think. There's still probably room for progress to be made without from a person without technical knowledge desu, but math is probably the final frontier

>>9741556
There's a difference between being woke to the kike and an anti-semetic faggot. You're the latter.

Learn the Cohen brothers better you ignorant child.

>>9741917
i didn't say kike or use (((brackets))) how am i anti-semetic?

>>9737023
If you really want to understand it just get a physics textbook, the basics of quantam mechanics and general relativity are actually pretty simple, you just need to be willing to sit down and go through a few of the problems, it helps you understand the relationship between the variables and truly understand it
> I'd like to gain a greater understanding of how the very small affects the very large.
mostly inconsequential,
>something I understood but can't explain
if you cant explain it i dont think you can understand it. Try explaining it to yourself and work out where the gaps are. Don't let your brain sift through vague ideas that summon up a general sense of something, dig deeper and try to find the specifics and if you can't its probably just junk. Pro tip, Don't take acid revelations beyond the trip without some serious scrutinisation

>>9741882
>that image
kek, how retarded can you get?

>>9741882
Bro half of what you're saying is sort of true, but the rest is dribble. If you don't know the math you're wasting your time. If you really want to learn about conciousness look up 'bhom' quantum mechanics.

>>9742055
If you don't know basic calculus and linear algebra you won't get much out of it. With the basics of both of those you could get the gist of GR and QM, but most people don't have that at all.

The relationships between the variables make no sense if you can't do matrix multiplication, and understand what a differential equation means. It would just be gibberish.