Whenever I think about magnets I remember this Feynman interview where someone asks him why magnets behave the way they do, and he says that to answer a “why”-question you need a foundation where something is agreed to be true, and it seems like for electromagnetic forces we end up in " because that’s how the universe is apparently".
Sure, but between nothing and the axioms of the standard model we end up with a fairly comprehensive description which can predict how different kinds of magnets behave in a wide variety of situations.
No, the theory of electromagnetism and by extension physics in general is knowing how it works. How to use it is engineering, a different set of knowledge which we also have some of.
That is sort of how the universe operates though. You can have a greater and greater understanding of the underlying principles of physics but eventually you do get to “that just how it is”. Why is there no such thing as a negative photon, apparently we just can’t have a negative excitation in the photon field, no one knows why.
Whenever I think about magnets I remember this Feynman interview where someone asks him why magnets behave the way they do, and he says that to answer a “why”-question you need a foundation where something is agreed to be true, and it seems like for electromagnetic forces we end up in " because that’s how the universe is apparently".
Sure, but between nothing and the axioms of the standard model we end up with a fairly comprehensive description which can predict how different kinds of magnets behave in a wide variety of situations.
That’s knowing how to use it, not how it works.
No, the theory of electromagnetism and by extension physics in general is knowing how it works. How to use it is engineering, a different set of knowledge which we also have some of.
Feynman was a bit pedantic sometimes.
This seems to be easily said of anyone trying to popularize science philosophy.
That is sort of how the universe operates though. You can have a greater and greater understanding of the underlying principles of physics but eventually you do get to “that just how it is”. Why is there no such thing as a negative photon, apparently we just can’t have a negative excitation in the photon field, no one knows why.