Science Memes

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I don’t understand quantum physics (mander.xyz)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

This implies the majority of people believe they understand quantum mechanics, which I'm sure is not true. In reality, the overwhelming majority of people would say they don't understand quantum physics.

Bell curve is the wrong meme format for what you're trying to convey

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I misread and thought top guy was also saying he didn't understand quantum physics, and thought it was a way better meme than it was.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

Make it and post it!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Probably the bell curve of physics students, and not just of all people on Earth.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's a meme. Memes change meaning over time and can detach from the original/ literal meaning.
Even when taken literal, you don't know the group of people in the plot. It's obviously not every single person on earth since where are those who don't even know about quantum physics. It might include students, interested lay people, .... It's bad science not to include that but it's against just a meme. You don't even know the y axis. It might be confidence and not the number of people

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

This meme is bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Thanks for clarification!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yes, there are a lot of intuitive understandings in the literature if you're willing to look for it. The problem is that most people believe in a Newtonian view of the world which just is not compatible with quantum physics, so it requires you to alter some philosophical beliefs, and physics professors don't really want to get into philosophical arguments, so it's not really possible to reach a consensus on the question in physics departments. Even worse, there's rarely a consensus on anything if you go to the philosophy department. So it's not really that there are not very simple and intuitive ways to understand quantum mechanics, it's that it's not possible to get people to agree upon a way to interpret it, so there is a mentality to just avoid interpretation at all so that students don't get distracted from actually understanding the math.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yeah maybe shift the X scale by 40 IQ points and it would be more accurate.