11 BIG IDEAS OF PHYSICS

via @BlasMoros of @LTCWRK

(Thread 👇)

1. Galilean Relativity

We can never fully grasp, define, or understand a system we are part of.

“Distance provides perspective” and wisdom in life is often about perspective.
2. The Laws of Thermodynamics

The study of the large-scale behavior of systems exchanging work and heat with connected systems or their environment.

- The Transitive Law

- The Law of Conservation

- The “Contrast Advantage” Law

- The “Absolute Zero” Law
3. Newton’s Laws of Motion

Describe how objects in the world move and react to forces.

- The Inertia Law: An object at rest, stays at rest

- Force = Mass * Acceleration (F = ma)

- The Law of Reciprocity: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
4. Complexity

A complex system exhibits emergent behavior due to the collective interaction of many individual agents according to simple rules.

Complex systems are sensitive to original conditions, influenced by feedback loops, and buffeted by random outside variables.
5. Chaos Theory

Chaos leads to complicated, non-periodic behavior from iteration of a simple rule(s), whereas complexity leads to rich, collective behavior from simple interactions between large numbers of subunits.

Complexity lies in between order and chaos.
6. Emergence

A process where higher-order behavior emerges from the interaction of lower-order components.

These smaller or simpler entities do not exhibit the properties that the higher-order entity ends up exhibiting.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
7. Momentum

The quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity: Momentum = Mass * Velocity

Momentum is broadly applicable outside of physics as it can help you understand how things change and how difficult or easy it is to change them.
8. Velocity

Velocity has magnitude and direction whereas speed does not.

While nobody knows why nature favors velocity over mass, she does, and we should harness it.

There's a stark difference between potential energy and kinetic energy.
9. Friction

Friction is the force that causes the resistance felt when two objects are moving against one another.

Inertia is a prime example of friction.
10. Equilibrium

Equilibrium is a state of balance between opposing forces, powers, or influences.

In dynamic equilibrium, you have a system that stays the same though it is always changing (inflows exactly equal outflows).
11. Hysteresis

Hysteresis is when the state of a system is dependent on its history – what happened previously influences what happens next.

It can also be thought of as delayed feedback, where a result lags behind that which causes it. Another word for this is springloading.

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So it turns out that an organization I thought was doing good work, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (associated with Center for Inquiry, James Randi, and Martin Gardner) was actually caping for pedophiles. Uhhhh oops?


Since this, bizarrely, turned out to be one of my longest videos ever (??) here's a quick thread to sum it up for those of you like myself with short attention spans. 1/10

In the '90s the False Memory Syndrome Foundation was founded to call attention to the problem of adults suddenly "remembering" child abuse that never actually happened, often under hypnosis. Skeptics like James Randi & Martin Gardner joined their board. 2/10

A new article reveals that the FMSF was founded by parents who had been credibly and PRIVATELY accused of molestation by their now-adult daughter. They publicized the accusation, destroyed the daughter's reputation, and started the foundation. 3/10

The FMSF assumed any accused pedo who joined was innocent, saying "We are a good-looking bunch of people, graying hair, well dressed, healthy, smiling; just about every person who has attended is someone you would surely find interesting and want to count as a friend" 😬 4/10
Hard agree. And if this is useful, let me share something that often gets omitted (not by @kakape).

Variants always emerge, & are not good or bad, but expected. The challenge is figuring out which variants are bad, and that can't be done with sequence alone.


You can't just look at a sequence and say, "Aha! A mutation in spike. This must be more transmissible or can evade antibody neutralization." Sure, we can use computational models to try and predict the functional consequence of a given mutation, but models are often wrong.

The virus acquires mutations randomly every time it replicates. Many mutations don't change the virus at all. Others may change it in a way that have no consequences for human transmission or disease. But you can't tell just looking at sequence alone.

In order to determine the functional impact of a mutation, you need to actually do experiments. You can look at some effects in cell culture, but to address questions relating to transmission or disease, you have to use animal models.

The reason people were concerned initially about B.1.1.7 is because of epidemiological evidence showing that it rapidly became dominant in one area. More rapidly that could be explained unless it had some kind of advantage that allowed it to outcompete other circulating variants.

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