The Most Misunderstood Concepts in Physics

Dive deep into the misunderstood realms of quantum physics and astrophysics! Unravel the truth about theories vs. hypotheses, the "unbreakable" speed of light, Schrödinger’s Cat, and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Mind-bending revelations await!

[johnhawkins]

Scientists are still trying to calculate how many YT channels simon is a presenter on.

[ailivac]

Heisenberg's wife was unhappy with their marriage because when he had the time he didn't have the energy, and when he had the position he didn't have the momentum.

[ShootAUT]

Simon himself is the next best thing we have to an actually observable quantum particle - talking about any and every topic simultaneously, existing on all channels at once, with varying degrees of probability.

[TheNeonParadox]

Just a couple of corrections that fall into my particular wheelhouse. Dark matter and dark energy aren't really hypotheses. They're more place-holders that are there to explain a couple of phenomena that don't make sense under our current understanding of the universe. Another correction is a common misunderstanding. It's not that matter cannot travel faster than the maximum speed of light in a vacuum, it's that matter cannot accelerate past that speed. Many things in our universe travel faster than light because of the expansion of the fabric of the universe itself. A good way to think of it is that your car under no circumstances could accelerate to over 66, 000 miles per hour. However, even when it's sitting still, it's traveling faster than that because of the speed of the earth is traveling around the sun. Then we could tack on top of that the fact that our entire solar system is rotating around the center of our galaxy at about 448, 000 miles per hour. Then on top of that our galaxy is moving through space at about 1.3 million miles per hour. And so on, and so on... It's best to think of speed as being, um... relative.

[alexk]

I remember awkward comparisons in macro-world and micro-world in a book, when I was a teenager. Something along the lines of how an egg, once broken, can't be returned to prior unbroken state, but in micro-world things could (but the explanation was incomplete). Then I remember when we had quantum mechanics (as part of a chemistry course, taught by a college professor). She threw out some phrase about electrons in energy levels of an atom and when I tried to ask specifically what it meant, she was puzzled and couldn't explain. With this video I at least understand what is meant, even though, admittedly, it's still impossible to visualize or experience. Thank you for the explanation. I also didn't know that Schrodinger was trolling with his cat analogy.

[RobertHawthorne]

I remember seeing an interview with one of the Star Trek Next Gen writers. He said they had had received question from someone that asked how the transporter could properly map the structure of a person being transported because of the Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. So the writers just added to the shows cannon a reference to a Heisenberg’s filter being part of the transporter system. I remember hearing that filter being mentioned in a couple of shows. The writer said he got a question from a physicist once wanting to know how a Heisenberg’s filter worked. The only answer the writer could come up with was, "Very well".

[dorsk]

A past Physics Professor told me, and I quote, "Quantum Physics is the dreams that stuff is made of!". I never forgot that and still get a chuckle out of it.

[ignitionfrn]

0:35 - Chapter 1 - Theory vs hypothesis
3:55 - Chapter 2 - The unbreakable speed of light
7:20 - Chapter 3 - Schrödinger's cat
10:45 - Chapter 4 - Heisenberg's uncertainty principle

[NKA]

Heisenberg gets pulled over by a cop, because he is driving 50kph over the speed limit. "Do you know, how fast you drove?" the angry cops asks him. Heisenberg shrugs his shoulders and replies "No, of course not....I knew exactly where I was the whole time."

[HeatherHolt]

I love the crossroads of physics and philosophy.
It’s the stuff that causes me existential dread at 3am (like now).

[claywest]

After centuries of study by humanity's finest minds and observations from the most sophisticated equipment that are available, we can honestly and confidently say that the Universe is going to behave as it damn well pleases!!

[OptimiSkeptic]

Fact: We observe Simon hosting an infinite number of channels in the Whistlerverse. Theory: Simon is both host and not-host until you click on the thumbnail. "Schroedinger's Simon, " if you will.

[SassePhoto]

Our physics professor had a very appealing explanation of quantum physics: Understanding is nothing else than getting used to things. Our classical world just makes sense because it is all we know.

[bgclarinet]

As a musician, I feel like an analogy for Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is that if you hear a note, it is impossible to determine what kind of note it is (quarter-note, eighth-note, etc.) until you hear the note after it, and have a scale against which to measure both notes (tempo).

[NanoBurger]

A police officer pulls over a partial physicist for speeding: Do you know how fast you were going? No, officer, but I know exactly where I am. You were going 83 miles per hour. Great, now I'm lost. Just a little uncertain humor.

[kacheek]

That's got to be the best explanation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle I've ever heard. Absolute props to the writer and editor

[the-chillian]

I took a class in quantum chemistry in college as an undergrad. It was essentially quantum mechanics, only taught by a chemistry professor and with attention to implications for chemical behavior of elements. The class consisted of solving Schrodinger's equation over and over again with incrementally more accurate versions of the potential function, which is a component of the Hamiltonian (the Ĥ term.)

It wasn't easy.

[euttdsiggh]

Jokes on you, i dont understand most of the things.

[jimglover]

It is appalling how frequently some of these concepts are misunderstood, even by people trusted to provide authoritative information. Bravo for getting it right AND with such clear explanations. Very well done.

[starrywizdom]

EXCELLENT summation of Heisenberg's principle. "Uncertainty" makes it sound like there are properties we humans can't be certain of, but the actual principle is that there are properties that tiny particles DON'T EVEN HAVE. Good job!