To be fair: "A magnet works because negatively charged electrons repel each other. "
"Why do negatively charged electrons repel each other? "
“… Well … Ok, so hear me out. You’re going to need to understand quantum mechanics and then the fermion principal. Then you’ll know that the electrons aren’t allowed to occupy the same space, and the easiest way to avoid being in the same space is to not touch each other. The electrons know they aren’t allowed to touch because they’ve studied fermions.”
“The stuff that stuff is made of has sticky lines around it, that’s sort of how they stick together. We can line up the stuff that stuff is made of in a way that makes those lines stretch out and stick to things further away. Everything is magnets.”
I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong in simplifying a subject and allowing that simplified answer to be the one the public knows
I think it’s acceptable to simply say that magnets of the same polarity repel each other, and not going to the explanation as to why. It’s up to people if they want to understand that, and they can seek that information out themselves.
Also I think it’s perfectly acceptable to explain gravity as a force that pulls things down. Trying to go into the whole area of space time and light cones is unnecessary for the casual explanation.
I would not think any less of a political leader if their understanding of magnets was simply the basic one that everybody else knows. But I absolutely would think less of my leader if he appeared not to even have a high school level understanding of magnetism. It would make me worry about what other things everybody else knows, that apparently he does not.
Yep. And for the most part the answer you’ll get is just that "these are universal forces. Excepted as observably true, but the why is seemingly unknown beyond “it’s a universal force.”
We can mostly know what magnets are doing, but answering why it’s a universal force that just is, is a different matter. We just know electrons really don’t wanna touch each other, and I’m assuming if they did, matter wouldn’t exist.
I’ve used magnets to cook rice, build motors, and a variety of misc dumb shit between but I have no idea of if any of this or the other post is even real
That dude shared the Nobel prize for Quantum Electrodynamics, and is a legend of teaching physics. That few minutes might not teach you all about magnets, but it might convince you that understanding them is a a big big question.
Another interesting thing about Feyman’s video is that since the time he made this, the reason of why ice is slippery has actually changed, and his long-standing theory is no longer observed as correct. It’s a different reason, involving dipoles.
To be fair: "A magnet works because negatively charged electrons repel each other. "
"Why do negatively charged electrons repel each other? "
“… Well … Ok, so hear me out. You’re going to need to understand quantum mechanics and then the fermion principal. Then you’ll know that the electrons aren’t allowed to occupy the same space, and the easiest way to avoid being in the same space is to not touch each other. The electrons know they aren’t allowed to touch because they’ve studied fermions.”
“The stuff that stuff is made of has sticky lines around it, that’s sort of how they stick together. We can line up the stuff that stuff is made of in a way that makes those lines stretch out and stick to things further away. Everything is magnets.”
On the other hand… ”why do things fall down?” Now THERE’S a rabbit hole.
“down” is “just” a name for the direction everything falls.
Why do things fall? What happened to “a body at rest stays at rest”?
So they can learn to pick themselves up?
I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong in simplifying a subject and allowing that simplified answer to be the one the public knows
I think it’s acceptable to simply say that magnets of the same polarity repel each other, and not going to the explanation as to why. It’s up to people if they want to understand that, and they can seek that information out themselves.
Also I think it’s perfectly acceptable to explain gravity as a force that pulls things down. Trying to go into the whole area of space time and light cones is unnecessary for the casual explanation.
I would not think any less of a political leader if their understanding of magnets was simply the basic one that everybody else knows. But I absolutely would think less of my leader if he appeared not to even have a high school level understanding of magnetism. It would make me worry about what other things everybody else knows, that apparently he does not.
Yep. And for the most part the answer you’ll get is just that "these are universal forces. Excepted as observably true, but the why is seemingly unknown beyond “it’s a universal force.”
We can mostly know what magnets are doing, but answering why it’s a universal force that just is, is a different matter. We just know electrons really don’t wanna touch each other, and I’m assuming if they did, matter wouldn’t exist.
None of that is correct though.
Permanent magnets attract/repel because of aligned current loops in the material. It’s an electrodynamic effect that’s not related to Pauli Exclusion.
Yes it is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermion
I’ve used magnets to cook rice, build motors, and a variety of misc dumb shit between but I have no idea of if any of this or the other post is even real
Just as God intended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0r930Sn_8
That dude shared the Nobel prize for Quantum Electrodynamics, and is a legend of teaching physics. That few minutes might not teach you all about magnets, but it might convince you that understanding them is a a big big question.
Another interesting thing about Feyman’s video is that since the time he made this, the reason of why ice is slippery has actually changed, and his long-standing theory is no longer observed as correct. It’s a different reason, involving dipoles.