During my RAF National Service (1955 – 1957) my technical competence was examined and, astonishingly, I was deemed capable of repairing complex electronic equipment carried in warplanes. I wasn’t convinced but when The Military says “Do this.” you do it. And the Military was right. During an 8½-month course I passed 25 exams and emerged as a Junior Technician.
Thus I learned about electrical systems and, especially, some of their associated mathematics, an interest later stretching all the way to quantum mechanics. Ah, quantum! Hard stuff which revolutionised techno-thought and led to misunderstandings about Schrödinger’s Cat.
I must confess my useful knowledge is virtually zero but my curiosity remains enormous. Rovelli’s book (see Self-Torture?) was reviewed, I think, in The Guardian so the prose is not considered hopelessly specialised. In fact, Rovelli’s aim is to reveal – as simply as possible - a decades-long quest to find out how the force of gravity can be incorporated, mathematically, into what is known about the atom.
Beyond this I cannot explain. That’s up to Rovelli. But I can hint at the weirdness.
How about: “… Planck’s length… in numerical terms… is equivalent to approximately one millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth (ten to the power of minus thirty-three) of a centimetre.” Never mind about the “what”, just consider its smallness. Rovelli puts it into context: “It is at this extremely minute scale that quantum gravity manifests itself.”
And it’s not just numbers. “Energy makes space curve. A lot of energy means that space will curve a great deal. A lot of energy in a small region results in curving space so much it collapses into a black hole…”
You see my problem. The mental images are inexplicable but I can’t stop reading (ie, letting the images form in my brain).
We have a friend who is a quantum physicist working at the Perimiter Institute in Waterloo. When she talks about her work I have no idea what she is talking about! Her husband teaches physics at the University of Waterloo and he can leave me in a fog too.
ReplyDeleteDMG: As I say, I have only the slightest inkling of these difficult subjects. But the urge to understand still remains. And, very occasionally, a light burns dimly and I imagine (no doubt delusionally) I am briefly in touch with the nature of matter. Especially the way the physical world can be expressed in the unequivocal language of mathematics. That I've moved on from the pig-headed oaf of 15 who passed through formal education without it barely touching me.
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