Physicist Richard Feynman returned over and over to an idea that drove his groundbreaking discoveries. His approach was documented by his Caltech colleague David Goodstein in the book Feynman’s Lost Lecture about physics classes Feynman taught in the 1960s: Continue reading
The life of a star is brilliant, furious and explosive. Although the countless twinkles in the sky may look one and the same, their journeys vary considerably depending on their mass. Today we will recount the various paths of these stars from birth until death. Continue reading
Today’s post will be explaining the workings of the Event Horizon Telescope and the recent efforts to capture for the first time an image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Continue reading
Today we look to the future, focusing on how quantum mechanical phenomena can be harnessed to vastly increase our computing capabilities. Leaving aside quantum computing for a second – computing itself has pushed the human race forward phenomenal amounts. It’s often said what you know isn’t as important as what you know how to know – possessing the knowledge of how to acquire information is just as useful as the information itself. In reality you are only ever one step away from it. Continue reading
I have been meaning to write an opinion piece titled: Has a generation of theory been stolen by the strings? when it came to my attention we have never had a post outlining the basics of string theory. To ensure a more natural ordering for those who do follow RTU on a regular basis, today we will look at some of the central ideas in string theory and why it is has been such a luring prospect for some of the most intelligent minds on the planet. Continue reading
In today’s post we’ll be presenting a go-to in every theoretical physicist’s toolkit, the thought experiment. I’ll present its pros and cons while giving a few examples of noteworthy thought experiments across the ages. Thought experiments occur across the sciences and are by no means confined to physics, though the ones I’ve presented below belong to my favourite discipline. So without further ado let’s discover the beauty of what excellent work can be accomplished inside the mind… Continue reading
Since HG Wells first popularized the idea in 1885, time travel has remained a steady theme in science fiction. But in reality, it might be more feasible than you’d think. Continue reading
I was thinking over topics I had never written on, and one of the things that immediately sprung to mind was statistics. This may strike some as odd, since it lies at the heart of modern physics however there is a good and simple reason for this: myself and Mekhi don’t enjoy it as much. Continue reading
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