[FRIAM] Watch "The Most Important Idea in Physics: The Principle of Least Action - Ask a Spaceman!" on YouTube

Mon Jul 3 10:39:47 EDT 2023

“hairball heterarchy of metaphor“

Now there’s a Wikipedia article in need of writing.

On Mon, Jul 3, 2023 at 9:14 AM glen <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yeah, Sutter triggered me when he said "but you don't have to worry about
> that if you don't know what an integral is". I mean ... maybe? This stuff
> is like heroin to an addict, right? Models upon models upon models. And not
> just in a simple stack, but a hairball heterarchy of metaphor.
>
> You kinda do need to know what an integral is, right? I mean ... [sigh]
> ... I guess that's a rabbit hole, too. The only way you can understand what
> an integral *is* (not merely those pesky aspects like what a particular
> type of integration is *good for* ... noooooo, we don't need to know that,
> we're after the *essence* of integration) is to use it to do work. To
> understand integration, you must integrate some particular thing over some
> particular domain.
>
> That same principle ("What I can't create, I don't understand.") applies
> to Action ... and brewing ... and cleaning your carburetor. You will never
> understand carburetors until you *use* carburetors to do some particular
> thing ... like drive across the country in broken down jalopy.
>
> I feel like there's an analogy waiting to be made between
> [mal|mis|dis]information and the popularization of [physics|math|biology].
> Books like Thiel's "The Straussian Moment" seem similar to books like
> Kaku's "Quantum Supremacy". And the category they compose seems similar to
> arm-chair opining on:
>
> • foreign affairs like Prigozhin's mutiny,
> • epidemiology like the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and
> • deep sea physics and the Titan submersible.
>
> I've probably mentioned this before. But I learned a new word awhile back:
> ultracrepidarian cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutor,_ne_ultra_crepidam.
> Yes, I'm as guilty as the next shoemaker. But sometimes it's good to simply
> stay in one's lane, at least until you've done some homework.
>
> Just to complete the arc of this rant, am I crazy for getting a distinct
> Cult Prophet vibe circa 13:39 in the video:
> https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M?t=819 ? When Sutter says, with cadence
> envied by every budding preacher in every small town church across the
> country: "The Least Action Principle is a generator of Physics. The Least
> Action Principle is a Creator of Physics. It is a Mother Principle that
> allows Physicists to generate Laws of Physics and Equations of Motion. It's
> . right . there. Folks you can write down a Lagrangian ..." I mean, that's
> some good ole down home fever-eyed preachin' right there. Reminds me of
> Keith Raniere of the NXIVM sex cult.
>
> Do you see it?!?! Do you?!? It's right there! The Secret <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(Byrne_book)> to the universe.
>
> On 7/2/23 23:16, Stephen Guerin wrote:
> > The Action is the integral of the Lagrangian along the whole path, not
> just a single instant.
> >
> > On Sun, Jul 2, 2023, 9:12 PM Nicholas Thompson <thompnickson2 at gmail.com
> <mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> >     So the difference is at a positive max when the ball hits the ground
> and at a negative maximum when the ball reaches its highest altitude?  So
> how am I to understand positive and negative?    vectors?
> >
> >     Instantaneious Action is at a minimum when the two terms are equal?
> >
> >     I have no intuitive sense of what is going on here.
> >
> >     But thanks for trying, Frank.
> >
> >     N
> >
> >
> >
> >     N
> >
> >     On Sun, Jul 2, 2023 at 12:27 PM Nicholas Thompson <
> thompnickson2 at gmail.com <mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> >         Frank,
> >
> >         Thanks SO  MUCH for forwarding this to me.  To any other
> defrocked english majors on Friam, who have listened to these guys blather
> on about LaGrangians for all these years,  I highly, HIGHLY recommend the
> video. Pretty short, AND, you might possibly, conceivably understand Steve
> Guerin when you  get to the end.   Yeah.  Really.
> >
> >         Nick
> >
> >         ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> >         From: *Frank Wimberly* <wimberly3 at gmail.com <mailto:
> wimberly3 at gmail.com>>
> >         Date: Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 2:53 PM
> >         Subject: Fwd: Watch "The Most Important Idea in Physics: The
> Principle of Least Action - Ask a Spaceman!" on YouTube
> >         To: Nicholas Thompson <thompnickson2 at gmail.com <mailto:
> thompnickson2 at gmail.com>>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >         ---
> >         Frank C. Wimberly
> >         140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
> >         Santa Fe, NM 87505
> >
> >         505 670-9918
> >         Santa Fe, NM
> >
> >         ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> >         From: *Frank Wimberly* <wimberly3 at gmail.com <mailto:
> wimberly3 at gmail.com>>
> >         Date: Thu, Jun 29, 2023, 12:51 PM
> >         Subject: Watch "The Most Important Idea in Physics: The
> Principle of Least Action - Ask a Spaceman!" on YouTube
> >         To: Thompson, Nicholas <nickthompson at earthlink.net <mailto:
> nickthompson at earthlink.net>>, Barry MacKichan <
> barry.mackichan at mackichan.com <mailto:barry.mackichan at mackichan.com>>
> >
> >
> >         https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M <https://youtu.be/UuqpCBZoX3M>
> >
>
>
> --
> ꙮ Mɥǝu ǝlǝdɥɐuʇs ɟᴉƃɥʇ' ʇɥǝ ƃɹɐss snɟɟǝɹs˙ ꙮ
>
> -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
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