The Holographer's Priorities

[Dinesh]

So true! We holographers are easily amused!

[142laser]

The entuire world is a HUGE Physics demonstration; we only need to pay attention. Phil Bergeron, USF Physics Demonstartion Facility, Tampa

[Dinesh]

The entuire world is a HUGE Physics demonstration;

But so few see that. I was once approached by someone about 17 years old who was told I was a theoretical physicist. He asked what it took to become a theoretical physicist. So, I pointed to a cloud and asked, "Why is it white and why is it so bright, especially since the sun is illuminating the backside of the cloud?" I don't think it ever occurred to him to notice that clouds were considerably brighter than the sky, despite being so much smaller than the sky. I then told him that a physicist explains the answer to these questions, but a theorist sets up and solves the pertinent equations so that the answer comes through with greater depth and precision. He was, by the way, a success story of sorts. A few weeks later he called and wanted to do lunch. Then, at lunch, the true purpose came out. He'd come across Schrodinger's equation and his chemistry teacher couldn't understand it, so we spent the whole of lunch with me describing Schrodinger's equation. The last I heard, he'd gone to a Texas university and was actually studying theoretical physics. So, before he left, I advised him, "Physicists love to ponder over questions such as the whiteness of clouds and the colours in a pool of oil. Non-physicists however, think that we're a little bit crazy to ask these apparent 'meaningless', even 'childlike' questions. Bear that in mind before you ask someone why clouds are white!"

[142laser]

yeah and the quantum mechasnics behind propagation of light also...

and why nearly empty beer cans sometimes move accross the counter on their own and...everything we see (and that we din't see also) can be explained by Physics.