How do magnets work? Seriously.

[Tero]

It is certainly true that it's fallacious to insist that what applies within a system applies to the system itself (fallacy of composition), but it's equally fallacious to insist that it doesn't.

what??!!

[JimC]

Energy is a very human-centric notion. I doubt it is very likely to help in a precise and accurate description of the cosmos at large. I'd like to abandon terms that can be related to human experience when describing the universe. If biology can achieve this with genetics and still be a massively informative discipline then it should be possible with physics and its numerous observations. And that way something progressive might come with regards unifying the large and small systems approach to the universe?

It's actually quite a robust concept, and extremely useful, but incredibly well-understood, at least by physicists.

I was tempted earlier to slightly critique the section Pappa found helpful, but decided not to, because I didn't want to muddy the waters and because it was only minor niggles I had with it, largely centred around the language.

Energy is the ability to perform work, rather than being equivalent to work, work is the application of force, and force is the equalisation of differentials.

That was all, really.

I shall quibble.

Work is an application of force over a given displacement, and its magnitude is the dot product of those two vector quantities...

[pErvinalia]

Geek fight!!

[hackenslash]

Energy is a very human-centric notion. I doubt it is very likely to help in a precise and accurate description of the cosmos at large. I'd like to abandon terms that can be related to human experience when describing the universe. If biology can achieve this with genetics and still be a massively informative discipline then it should be possible with physics and its numerous observations. And that way something progressive might come with regards unifying the large and small systems approach to the universe?

It's actually quite a robust concept, and extremely useful, but incredibly well-understood, at least by physicists.

I was tempted earlier to slightly critique the section Pappa found helpful, but decided not to, because I didn't want to muddy the waters and because it was only minor niggles I had with it, largely centred around the language.

Energy is the ability to perform work, rather than being equivalent to work, work is the application of force, and force is the equalisation of differentials.

That was all, really.

I shall quibble.

Work is an application of force over a given displacement, and its magnitude is the dot product of those two vector quantities...

Not much of a quibble, more of an expansion. Coolio.

[hackenslash]

It is certainly true that it's fallacious to insist that what applies within a system applies to the system itself (fallacy of composition), but it's equally fallacious to insist that it doesn't.

what??!!

Any conclusion is equally fallacious.

[rainbow]

It is certainly true that it's fallacious to insist that what applies within a system applies to the system itself (fallacy of composition), but it's equally fallacious to insist that it doesn't.

Any conclusion is equally fallacious.

Is that your conclusion?

[pErvinalia]

And will there be fellatio?

[Pappa]

It's funny. I have no problem understanding cosmology and quantum mechanics. I read and understood The Elegant Universe, A Brief History of Time and others. But fucking magnets.

[hackenslash]

It is certainly true that it's fallacious to insist that what applies within a system applies to the system itself (fallacy of composition), but it's equally fallacious to insist that it doesn't.

Any conclusion is equally fallacious.

Is that your conclusion?

It isn't a conclusion regarding the point in question.

[pErvinalia]

It's funny. I have no problem understanding cosmology and quantum mechanics. I read and understood The Elegant Universe, A Brief History of Time and others. But fucking magnets.

I tried to explain waves (the ocean kind) the other day to my 7 and 5 yr old. That was a challenge..

[JimC]

It's funny. I have no problem understanding cosmology and quantum mechanics. I read and understood The Elegant Universe, A Brief History of Time and others. But fucking magnets.

I tried to explain waves (the ocean kind) the other day to my 7 and 5 yr old. That was a challenge..

A bath-tub, and a length of wood to move up and down would be a good start...

I always use a ripple tank with my physics students...

[pErvinalia]

We were driving back from the coast in a car. No props available...

[Tero]

It's funny. I have no problem understanding cosmology and quantum mechanics. I read and understood The Elegant Universe, A Brief History of Time and others. But fucking magnets.

It's the atoms. They have lonely electrons. If those lonely electrons have erections in the same direction, you get a magnetic field.

Bringing two magnets together produces motion, work. If you reverse the polarity(see penis above) they repel. You can reverse it in eg electric motors. This is the cycles of AC current. We use it to run motors.

[pErvinalia]

"ekectrons"... "penis"... "usevit"...

[Tero]

Hey I fixed it! I'm on a phone in Mexico.