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Feynman on Magnets and 'Why?" questions

  • 09-11-2010 12:06pm
    #1
    ClutchIt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 709 ✭✭✭


    Here is a great video that I hope you will like. Feynman explains the difficulty in answering questions relating to science...

    Tagged:


Comments

  • #2
    Michael Collins
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 1,852 Mod ✭✭✭✭Michael Collins


    Brilliant!


  • #3
    Fringe
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,082 ✭✭✭Fringe


    Michael Collins wrote: »
    Brilliant!

    Why?


  • #4
    Michael Collins
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 1,852 Mod ✭✭✭✭Michael Collins


    I don't know if he had that answer practised or not, but he explains the difficulty with 'Why' questions so well. It's something I would have thought a lot about myself when I was learning Physics in school - OK so we know that positive charge attracts negative charge, but WHY is this the case, would have been a question that always entered my head.

    He explains how stuff we come across in everyday life - his Aunty Minnie story - which have perfectly logical answers to us as human beings, but when you break it down, there are really so many questions, that lead to other questions, but so much is assumed by us that it appears logical. In the physics world, we really start off assuming nothing, and so even the simplist of questions, such as why does + and - attract, may seem to have no answer initially, but really if you keep searching you'll find some logical reason for it (I still don't know the answer to it though!).

    It touches on when should we stop asking Why? questions? For example take m-theory. I've heard a little bit about this from bits of documentaries I've watched, really haven't much of a clue of it. But it seems that currently there's no way to experimentally verify the mathematical background, but the theory seems to fit other theory or whatever and it works within itself - so is this a scientifc theory not? Some people suggest it's more of a religion. As in, this answer to a Why? question cannot be proven (yet), so is it really worth anything?

    I just liked his philosophical way of anwering the question - you know he's thought about it before and has spent time trying to rationalise it in his own head. I find too many researchers today are content in their own very narrow fields, they don't care about other fields, much less the philosophical basis for science in general, all they care about is their next publication. Feynman was a real scientist, who thought about everything!


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