Why does everybody think that...?

Question

Why does everybody think that physics topics like quantum mechanics and relativity are so hard to understand? Its like a stereotype that you have to be a college Ph.D physicist to understand quantum mechanics, but its not true. I know at least three people that know a lot about wave interference and stuff like that. Why does everybody think this way?

Answer 1

Almost all of the background information and data that support these theories are rooted in complex mathematics.

You might think you understand, but it's most like you really don't. Regurgitating knowledge is not the same as understanding.

Answer 2

Most of the world we experience is a world of end results. Effects of processes that have taken place prior. Because we have a world view that takes physical reality to be whats "real", non-physical behaviors are rather strange and don't fit our world view. To understand deeper principles, you have to be able to change or expand your world view to allow for other perspectives. Some have a hard time with that. But the less physical you go, the more generalized, the less localized things get. Power and potential increase. Time and space change.

There is also a language barrier, so it takes an exceptional scientist to "translate" for those not immersed in the subject.

The other half of the equation is one that even many scientists don't allow for - the role of the observer. And there is always an observer. Without that self-awareness, our biases are not conscious and we introduce variables into the interaction that can affect the results or our perception of the results. In other words, we can loose our objectivity by not correcting for subjectivity. Your question is exactly about that - peoples subjective impression of the understandability of QM. Their own impression affects their ability to communicate it.

Because science is only just beginning to explore consciousness, they are as yet only vaguely aware of its causal potential.

Answer 3

Knowing and understanding are not the same thing.

I know that when you fire a beam of electrons (particles) at a double slit you get an interference pattern (as you would with waves). I know that this interefence pattern is still produced even if you fire one electron at a time. I also know that if you fire one electron at a time and actually observe which slit the electrons go through the interference pattern goes away. That means that if you watch the slits the electrons go throug them just as if they were simple particles. If you don't they interfere with each other as waves do. And if you send them through one at a time without watching the slits they appear to pass through both slits at once and interfere with themselves. So electrons behave as both particles and waves depending on the observations you make, and even show interference when there should be no other electrons around to interfere with them.

I'm blowed if I can UNDERSTAND that, however....

Answer 4

I have a very hard time understanding quantum mechanics- but I believe in what little I know.
Maybe it has to do with the way we are taught?
or, maybe it is that I am more of an artistic person than a scientific one?

Answer 5

Both are completely alien to actual normal human perception and experience. They are mathematical constructs and therefore require a great deal of effort for most to grasp, even to get just the basics.

Answer 6

everybody thinks because of the vocabuary that is used