This post was inspired by Don Lincoln’s YouTube video “Subatomic Stories: Is the Planck length really the smallest?” In his Q&A (where he responds to questions from prior videos), he notes a caveat about the law of conservation of energy. Energy may not be conserved … because space-time can change. He offers some links for… Continue reading When conservation of energy goes out the window?
[Communicating science series] While we’re all doing stay-at-home, theoretical physicist Sean Carroll created a chat-from-home series on his YouTube channel. Usually each informal talk (so not lecture-like organization) has a followup Q&A video. The Biggest Ideas in the Universe is a series of videos where I talk informally about some of the fundamental concepts that… Continue reading Biggest ideas in the universe – Sean Carroll chats concepts
Today’s post is somewhat different than usual. I’m highlighting a YouTube channel. Communicating science to a general audience has a long history. The bibliography for my physics blog contains some books by authors to this purpose. Modern physics has many great stories, and the just plain strangeness of quantum physics lends itself to great storytelling.… Continue reading Communicating what physics says — The Science Asylum
I studied thermodynamics as an undergrad. Online resources really help refresh my understanding; so, here’s a summary of my notes about entropy. Hopefully these agree with how the term is used in physics. Statements Equation: S = k ln Ω [Wiki] “The second law of thermodynamics states that an isolated system’s entropy never decreases. Such… Continue reading More about entropy — reality vibrates
When I started reading some of the latest books by well-known physicists, I realized that there were some foundational concepts and terminology that I needed to revisit and review. Thanks, Wikipedia (to which I have indeed donated money). So, I’m not talking about Einstein’s famous E = mc^2. No, something more basic: energy and entropy.… Continue reading Starting with ‘e’ it’s a mystery
