I do wish I understood physics. I don't want to be a physicist (I have a few friends who are, and I am happy for them, and am glad to have them go at it). I just wish I could "get" some of the basic concepts.
I think I understand (on a basic concept level) the idea that matter and energy are essentially different manifestations of the same thing. E = MC squared, and all that. I get it. LOTS of energy tied up in all these relatively small "things," these pieces of matter we are all so familiar with. Lots of energy in each one of us. I like that.
But as I get older, and time draws down, I am starting to wrestle with the interrelationship of time and space, the "space-time continuum," or "spacetime" as I guess it's also called. I am just not clear on the concept, but it seems like a promising avenue of intellectual engagement. It must have something to do with that phenomenon of "quantum entanglement," that "spooky action at a distance" thing. What is that, really? Maybe nobody knows, but I wish I did!
I have been watching the second season of Orange Is The New Black, the original television series being delivered on Netflix. If you have been watching it, too, you are certainly familiar with the theme song, written and sung by Regina Spektor. It's called "You've Got Time." Click to listen.
"You've Got Time" is an engaging song, but I am just not sure. I have the feeling that time has me!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime
“If you’re not shocked by quantum mechanics, you haven’t understood it.” Niels Bohr
ReplyDeleteSpacetime is relatively simple... (pun intended). Time is a dimension, just as the other three physical dimensions. Spacetime is a four dimensional matrix on which any point in spacetime can be fixed.
Quantum entanglement is far more obscure, holding that when any two quantum "particles" interact, each "particle" cannot be described independently, which means just about everything.
"When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe. " John Muir, July 27, 1869.