Musings about Physics: Spring Theory
I have recently read "The trouble with physics" by Lee Smolin. An excellent book for the un-initiated. And an excellent book for the initiated but non practitioner. I have a PhD in theoretical physics. Although I must admit my PhD was mostly bullshit. My masters, however, was a deep training in all things modern in theoretical physics. I spent a year studying field theory, string theory, the standard model and particle physics. I must admit, I didn't get it. I could do the math in string theory, it was actually quite easy, that was not the problem. The problem was that I could not understand what I was doing, the "meaning" of it all completely escaped me. I was and remain a 19th century type physicist, I was quite at ease with classical mechanics and electro-magnetism. That EM waves would propagate through vacuum was to me such an absurdity that I never really believed it. Yes I could model particles with "fields" but fields of what, through w...