Why quantum physics is a WASTE OF TIME

[RiceAWay]

 

Ironic that you post this using a device that is only possible because of our knowledge of quantum physics ...

 

 

We are already travelling at over 99.99% of the speed of light (relative to something).

 

Why you know - I didn't know that Benjamin Franklin was a quantum physicist. I can't think of a single improvement in the art of electronic engineering due to any of the wild guesses of quantum physics beyond the existence of the electron.

 

As for your other ridiculous statement - prove it. While the speeds of atoms or subatomic particles accelerating into a black hole may approach the speed of light that is theoretical since the only proof we have of the existence of black holes is conjecture due to hypothetical gravity fields. And due to the relationship of mass it would be the subatomic particles going near the speed of light in relationship to the rest of the universe and not us to them.

Even if quantum physics is a waste of time, so what? Peoples' time is theirs to waste and there is no end of works that don't 'benefit' humanity. Knitting doilies comes to mind. Damnable doily knitters anyway! No skin off my shins.

 

And this is the way I see it as well. Though you must admit that Dr. Hawkings is rather up a tree seeing his life's work go up in smoke with the discovery of particles that do not fit his standard models.

Sorry, your view that qm doesn't help people is jest false. Walk into a hospital and turn off every device with a micro controller or CPU and head watch as not only do patients suffer immediately but no one can be easily summoned to help them. This is one of the worst arguments against qm research I've ever seen, and frankly that's saying something.

Where ever did you get that idea? Neal's Bohr is given the honor of really being the first quantum physicist (though others are often given credit). But we did not need ANY knowledge of the fact that there were electrons to use electricity. Certainly Edison used cut and try. Nikola Tesla was an engineer and the modern world turns arounds his inventions.

 

While William Shockley invented the transistor that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the subsequent growth of IC's. That was a logical extension of Shockley's invention and the transistor could just as well come from some chemist somewhere playing with methods to identify materials. We need not know that electrons protons or neutrons exist until the Manhattan Project.

 

Do NOT give excessive credit to any physicist anywhere when we know that most of this world's present condition is from people that had little to no idea of what they were doing. Physicists EXPLAINED them afterwards.

[Strange]

 

Why you know - I didn't know that Benjamin Franklin was a quantum physicist. I can't think of a single improvement in the art of electronic engineering due to any of the wild guesses of quantum physics beyond the existence of the electron.

 

 

OK. So you don't know how transistors work. Feel free to ask some questions in a new thread.

 

 

 

As for your other ridiculous statement - prove it.

 

There are trillions of neutrinos passing through you every second. They are moving at pretty close to the speed of light.

http://ase.tufts.edu/cosmos/view_chapter.asp?id=37

While William Shockley invented the transistor that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the subsequent growth of IC's. That was a logical extension of Shockley's invention and the transistor could just as well come from some chemist somewhere playing with methods to identify materials.

 

 

The transistor was designed based on knowledge of semiconductor physics (i.e. quantum theory).

 

 

Though you must admit that Dr. Hawkings ...

 

Five points on the Crackpot Index, right there.

[Sensei]

Why you know - I didn't know that Benjamin Franklin was a quantum physicist. I can't think of a single improvement in the art of electronic engineering due to any of the wild guesses of quantum physics beyond the existence of the electron.

1. Smoke detector is using radioactive isotope of Americium-241 produced in nuclear reactors..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americium-241

(see applications section)

 

2. Laser

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser

(and as a consequence CD/DVD/Blu-ray, Laser Distance Meters, etc. etc.)

 

3. LED (light emitting diode)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode

(and as a consequence LCD/LED/OLED screens etc. etc.)

 

4. photo elements.

photodiode https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodiode

phototransistor

photoresistor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoresistor

 

5. Solar panels

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_panel

 

6. Geiger counter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiger_counter

 

7. Decay of Plutonium-238 is used in RTG (Radioisotope thermoelectric generator) to create electricity for satellites flying in cosmos too far from the Sun to be able to use its energy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium-238

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator

 

Just a few examples, in random order of importance..

While the speeds of atoms or subatomic particles accelerating into a black hole may approach the speed of light that is theoretical since the only proof we have of the existence of black holes is conjecture due to hypothetical gravity fields.

 

If you look at center of our galaxy, you will see that stars are orbiting around nothing visible (in visible spectrum)..

Edited January 19, 2017 by Sensei

[Acme]

 

Even if quantum physics is a waste of time, so what? Peoples' time is theirs to waste and there is no end of works that don't 'benefit' humanity. Knitting doilies comes to mind. Damnable doily knitters anyway! No skin off my shins.

And this is the way I see it as well. Though you must admit that Dr. Hawkings is rather up a tree seeing his life's work go up in smoke with the discovery of particles that do not fit his standard models.

 

Boy, you had to go back a ways to find that quote. As the old saying goes, if you see a theoretical physicist in a wheel chair up a tree, you know he didn't get there by himself.

[Strange]

Though you must admit that Dr. Hawkings is rather up a tree seeing his life's work go up in smoke with the discovery of particles that do not fit his standard models.

 

 

1. Hawking not Hawkings

 

2. What particles are those, that do not fit the standard model?

 

3. Stephen Hawking is a cosmologist and expert in expert in general relativity, not a particle physicist, so it is not "his" standard model.

[BenSCBSc]

 

1. Smoke detector is using radioactive isotope of Americium-241 produced in nuclear reactors..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americium-241

(see applications section)

 

2. Laser

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser

(and as a consequence CD/DVD/Blu-ray, Laser Distance Meters, etc. etc.)

 

3. LED (light emitting diode)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode

(and as a consequence LCD/LED/OLED screens etc. etc.)

 

4. photo elements.

photodiode https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodiode

phototransistor

photoresistor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoresistor

 

5. Solar panels

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_panel

 

6. Geiger counter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiger_counter

 

7. Decay of Plutonium-238 is used in RTG (Radioisotope thermoelectric generator) to create electricity for satellites flying in cosmos too far from the Sun to be able to use its energy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium-238

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator

 

Just a few examples, in random order of importance..

 

 

If you look at center of our galaxy, you will see that stars are orbiting around nothing visible (in visible spectrum)..

 

Why you know - I didn't know that Benjamin Franklin was a quantum physicist. I can't think of a single improvement in the art of electronic engineering due to any of the wild guesses of quantum physics beyond the existence of the electron.

 

As for your other ridiculous statement - prove it. While the speeds of atoms or subatomic particles accelerating into a black hole may approach the speed of light that is theoretical since the only proof we have of the existence of black holes is conjecture due to hypothetical gravity fields. And due to the relationship of mass it would be the subatomic particles going near the speed of light in relationship to the rest of the universe and not us to them.

 

 

And this is the way I see it as well. Though you must admit that Dr. Hawkings is rather up a tree seeing his life's work go up in smoke with the discovery of particles that do not fit his standard models.

 

Where ever did you get that idea? Neal's Bohr is given the honor of really being the first quantum physicist (though others are often given credit). But we did not need ANY knowledge of the fact that there were electrons to use electricity. Certainly Edison used cut and try. Nikola Tesla was an engineer and the modern world turns arounds his inventions.

 

While William Shockley invented the transistor that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the subsequent growth of IC's. That was a logical extension of Shockley's invention and the transistor could just as well come from some chemist somewhere playing with methods to identify materials. We need not know that electrons protons or neutrons exist until the Manhattan Project.

 

Do NOT give excessive credit to any physicist anywhere when we know that most of this world's present condition is from people that had little to no idea of what they were doing. Physicists EXPLAINED them afterwards.

To continue the list

8.understanding the mechanics of the Sun and other stars

9.NMR, fMRI and other medical scanning equipment

10. Electron microscope

11. Telescopes (outside visible spectrum)

12. Just about every electronic device you can think of.

13. Water purification

14.cancer treatments

I can go on and on but I think the point has been made.

[Thorham]

I can go on and on but I think the point has been made.

 

Not to mention that not knowing anything about the world around us and being stuck in the stone age simply isn't acceptable.

[BenSCBSc]

 

Not to mention that not knowing anything about the world around us and being stuck in the stone age simply isn't acceptable.

Quite and very well stated. I have had this argument before with a 'physicist', or so he claimed? I can kind of understand why people might want to dismiss quantum mechanics as being irrelevant. Having a classical understanding of the universe works on the macro scale for harmonic motion, velocity, mass etc and one can consider oneself educated on the natural world, but then somebody goes and throws quantum mechanics into the mix and you know nothing anymore, you've been relegated to the learners bench again. So instead of learning what is a hard and complex subject, it is easier to disclaim it as theoretical and purposeless.

I think that if people that already understand Newtonian mechanics, took a look at qm they would be surprised that it isn't completely out of reach, it just takes a bit of hard work and some effort. In fact some of it is simpler than the classical stuff. At least everything is quantised and so is all just multiples of the same thing!

[seriously disabled]

Studying physics is a waste of time in my opinion.

 

Physics is an extremely difficult subject for most people and many professional physicists also do not make a lot of money.

 

So why study physics when you can get into a good business school and study economics or business administration and get rich quickly?

[DrKrettin]

So why study physics when you can get into a good business school and study economics or business administration and get rich quickly?

 

Yes, why not if getting rich is your priority. You could even become POTUS, or as is now, SCROTUS, and then you could display your utter ignorance of just about everything else publicly on TV. You wouldn't be the first.

[swansont]

Studying physics is a waste of time in my opinion.Physics is an extremely difficult subject for most people and many professional physicists also do not make a lot of money.So why study physics when you can get into a good business school and study economics or business administration and get rich quickly?

Not everyone has the goal of getting rich at the expense of other things, e.g. enjoying their work.

[BenSCBSc]

Time travel & wormholes are in the realm of special and general relativity? Not quantum mechanics, as for dimensions? Maybe string theory, M theory? Or just plain old geometry? It would appear that your argument was flawed from the outset as the last 100 yrs has seen a huge surge in knowledge with respect to quantum mechanics. It is key to every electronic device you can think of in modern society. It has aided all the other sciences from biology and the discovery of the structure of DNA to palaeontology and NMR spectroscopy and Imaging. Our modern way of life would be extremely different without the advances in qm that have been achieved, it seems quite apparent that you don't really know what quantum mechanics is responsible for.

[felpeyu2]

Basic research is never a waste of time and it is the origin for the long term achievements. Without basis research we would still be living in caverns and I can imagine one of these human beings grunting that language or painting is a waste of time and that it is more important to get a bigger club...

[_amonso]

I think it's because people are undeniably curious about the world and physically can't stop themselves from exploring.