The hottest Physics Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Science Topics

4.2 Early Models of Electricity

Fields & Energy • 179 implied HN points • 19 Jun 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Electricity can be understood in two ways: as a fluid traveling through wires or as fields in the space around electric charges. This is still a big question in physics.
  2. Different cultures have unique approaches to explaining scientific concepts. For example, English physicists use hands-on models, while French scientists prefer abstract theories.
  3. Benjamin Franklin was key in shaping the idea that electricity is a single fluid. This foundational concept helps us still today in understanding electricity and electronics.

On RFK Jr., Atrazine and WiFi. Plus a puzzle for you!

An Insult to Intuition • 1454 implied HN points • 26 Jun 23
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Kennedy discussed the potential effects of Atrazine on organisms like frogs and mammals, sparking a debate on environmental toxins.
  2. The story shared analogies between a hypothetical alien civilization and current human societal challenges, emphasizing the importance of humility and balance.
  3. There was a discussion on the perceived health risks of WiFi radiation, highlighting the need for thoughtful consideration and humility in scientific discourse.

3.4.6 Permittivity & Permeability

Fields & Energy • 279 implied HN points • 08 May 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Permittivity describes how a material can allow electric displacement, showing the relationship between electric field and displacement. It helps us understand how electric forces behave in different materials.
  2. Permeability relates to how materials respond to magnetic fields, defining the strength of magnetic interactions. It helps in understanding the magnetic forces within various materials.
  3. Both permittivity and permeability are key concepts that link electrical physics and mechanical physics. They provide important information about how electric and magnetic fields interact with materials.

Reading List for Chapter 3

Fields & Energy • 199 implied HN points • 31 May 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. To understand electricity and magnetism, start with accessible introductory books. These give a good overview but aren't deeply technical.
  2. For more in-depth study, look into undergraduate textbooks. They cover more complex topics and are aimed at those ready to dig deeper into the science.
  3. Supplementary texts and guides can be very useful. They often explain difficult concepts clearly and may include helpful resources like online solutions and podcasts.
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The Emperor’s New Universe

The Egg And The Rock • 687 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Using Dark Matter to solve cosmological problems has become a dangerous addiction
  2. Dark Matter and Dark Energy now make up the majority of the universe's mass-energy
  3. Ordinary matter, like stars and planets, is becoming a small percentage in the universe

3.4.8 Maxwell's Methods and Views

Fields & Energy • 219 implied HN points • 22 May 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Maxwell used physical analogies and models to understand complex electrical and magnetic behaviors. This helped him discover important concepts like the displacement current.
  2. He believed that energy is linked to electromagnetic fields, not just to electric charges. This was a key part of his theory of electromagnetism.
  3. Despite his great contributions, some of Maxwell's ideas were not recognized during his time. His work on gases faced rejection, showing how science can overlook important discoveries.

3.4.2 Maxwell’s Original Equations

Fields & Energy • 339 implied HN points • 10 Apr 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Maxwell's equations describe how electric and magnetic fields interact. They show the principles of electromagnetism in a clear way.
  2. Heaviside simplified Maxwell's original equations, reducing them from twenty to four. This makes them easier to understand and use today.
  3. The concepts of electric displacement and charge continuity are central to these equations. They help us understand how electricity flows and behaves in various situations.

3.4 James Clerk Maxwell & His Equations

Fields & Energy • 359 implied HN points • 27 Mar 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. James Clerk Maxwell was a key figure in understanding electricity and magnetism. He linked these topics together, showing how they relate to light.
  2. Maxwell created a set of equations that describe how electric and magnetic fields behave. These are known today as Maxwell's equations.
  3. Maxwell built on the ideas of earlier scientists, like Gauss and Faraday, and later, Heaviside simplified his work into the four equations used today.

An Intuitive Guide to Black Holes

Photon-Lines Substack • 556 implied HN points • 06 Jul 25
🔬 Science Physics
  1. A black hole is an area in space where the gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. Imagine needing to throw a ball so hard that it never comes back; that's what escaping a black hole is like.
  2. To escape Earth's gravity, you need to reach a speed of about 11 kilometers per second. That's much slower than the speed of light, but black holes need escape velocities even greater than that!
  3. Black holes form from the collapse of massive stars after they've used up their fuel. When the star runs out of energy and can no longer hold itself up, it collapses into a point called a singularity, creating a black hole.

No, Sora has not “learned physics”

Marcus on AI • 3596 implied HN points • 02 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Physics
  1. Sora is not a reliable source for understanding how the world works, as it focuses more on how things look visually.
  2. Sora's videos often depict objects behaving in ways that defy physics or biology, indicating a lack of understanding of physical entities.
  3. The inconsistencies in Sora's videos highlight the difference between image sequence prediction and actual physics, emphasizing that Sora is more about predicting images than modeling real-world objects.

Links for July

DYNOMIGHT INTERNET NEWSLETTER • 531 implied HN points • 08 Jul 25
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Goats have unique eyeballs that rotate to keep their vision horizontal, allowing them to see better while munching or looking around. This is pretty cool and shows how animals adapt physically to their environment.
  2. There's a way to stimulate specific cone cells in our eyes to potentially see new colors beyond what we can normally perceive. It suggests our brains can interpret unusual signals in fascinating ways.
  3. Recent findings indicate that only a small percentage of light-sensitive cells in our eyes control melatonin production, which affects our sleep. It's important to focus on dim lighting at night, rather than just blocking blue light.

Complex systems emerge from simple rules

Tecnica • 55 HN points • 28 Jul 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Complex systems can develop from just a few simple rules, like in the Game of Life. It shows how starting with basic ideas can create amazing patterns and interactions.
  2. Emergence means that new, complex properties appear from simpler components interacting together. This is true for nature, biology, and even technology like AI.
  3. Human thoughts and actions also have an emergent nature. We often wonder where our ideas come from and what rules guide our decisions.

"On Action At a Distance"

Fields & Energy • 219 implied HN points • 03 May 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. There are debates about how forces act over distances. Some people think there's a hidden connection, while others believe that objects can directly affect each other without any medium.
  2. Here’s a fun example: when you ring a bell using a wire, the movement happens gradually, showing that actions often involve a series of connections, not just instant forces.
  3. Scientists like Faraday introduced the idea of 'lines of force' to visualize these actions. Instead of just thinking about pushes and pulls, we can now understand force as stretching and pressing through a medium.

River as a verb

The Egg And The Rock • 963 implied HN points • 21 Feb 23
🔬 Science Physics
  1. A river is more than just a static object, it is a dynamic process that is constantly changing and flowing.
  2. Our language often limits our understanding of the world by categorizing things as objects rather than actions.
  3. The river is part of a larger cycle, influenced by natural forces like gravity and the sun, showing the interconnectedness of all elements in nature.

3.4.3 Gauss’s Laws

Fields & Energy • 259 implied HN points • 17 Apr 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a brilliant mathematician known for his early talent, like solving a tricky addition problem in second grade. He made significant contributions to math and physics, including the development of formulas to calculate important dates, like Easter.
  2. Gauss's Law describes how electric fields and charges relate to each other. For instance, electric field lines begin at positive charges and end at negative ones, while magnetic field lines always form loops.
  3. Gauss and Wilhelm Weber worked together to measure the Earth's magnetic field. They created detailed maps of magnetic intensity that are still referenced today, showing the long-lasting impact of Gauss's work in science.

3.4.4 Ampère’s Law

Fields & Energy • 239 implied HN points • 24 Apr 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Ampère’s Law explains how electric currents create magnetic fields. You can use the right-hand rule to find the direction of the magnetic field around a current.
  2. We visualize magnetic fields using 'dot-x' notation. A 'dot' shows current coming toward you, while an 'x' shows it going away, helping to understand how fields form around currents.
  3. Maxwell introduced the idea of displacement current, which means a changing electric field can create a magnetic field. This is important for understanding how electromagnetic waves travel.

3.2 Michael Faraday

Fields & Energy • 359 implied HN points • 12 Mar 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Michael Faraday discovered that moving magnets can create electricity, a process called induction. This was a major breakthrough in understanding how electricity and magnetism work together.
  2. Faraday also introduced the idea of 'lines of force' to visualize magnetic fields. This concept helps us understand the direction and strength of magnetic effects.
  3. He believed scientific discoveries should come from direct observations of nature, not just complicated math. Faraday's practical experiments made him one of the great experimental physicists.

3.4.5 Faraday’s Law & Electromagnetic Waves

Fields & Energy • 219 implied HN points • 01 May 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Faraday's Law shows that a changing magnetic field can create an electric field. This means electricity and magnetism are like partners that can influence each other.
  2. When electric and magnetic fields change together, they can create electromagnetic waves, which is how light travels. It's like a dance between the two fields that lets energy move through space.
  3. In history, scientists like Faraday and Maxwell noticed that light might be connected to electromagnetism. They found evidence that light behaves like an electromagnetic wave, leading to important discoveries about how we understand light and energy.

The unlit space between the stars

lifeboat • 530 implied HN points • 20 Dec 23
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Darkness can reveal different kinds of understanding and truths that are often hidden in the light.
  2. The universe is much wilder and darker than we once thought, with most matter invisible and elusive like dark matter.
  3. Dark matter, although invisible, plays a crucial role in creating stars and light, showing that the source of substance and energy is found in the unlit spaces between things.

O-Day - Flower of Life

Remote View • 432 implied HN points • 07 Jan 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Exploring the concept of the 'Flower of Life'
  2. Investigating spherical and toroidal Ball Lightning formation
  3. Using sacred geometry structure for better understanding

What Makes a Mature Science

Asimov Press • 348 implied HN points • 21 Jul 25
🔬 Science Physics
  1. For a science to mature, it needs to explain its subject clearly using specific entities, properties, and rules. Just having a mechanism isn't enough.
  2. Fields like biology and psychology are still developing because they struggle to define their key entities and rules, making it difficult to fully understand their subjects.
  3. To progress, sciences must move beyond descriptions and start building models that predict outcomes, much like how chemistry evolved from alchemy to a mature science.

New Algorithms, Not New Particles

Bzogramming • 45 implied HN points • 31 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Physics
  1. Most practical technology is built from atoms, electrons, and photons, so discovering new high-energy particles isn’t what drives usable engineering; progress comes from better math, materials, and system design.
  2. Condensed-matter and materials science (like semiconductors and superconductors) are where real, applicable breakthroughs live, because emergent behaviors of many atoms produce useful properties we can actually engineer.
  3. The next big advances will come from new algorithms, mathematical tools, and using physical and biological systems as computational substrates (aided by ML), not from finding exotic particles; building bigger, smarter systems from known primitives is the path forward.

3.3 Potentials, Energy, & Fields

Fields & Energy • 239 implied HN points • 20 Mar 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. There's a debate in science about how we understand forces, like whether they act at a distance or through fields in space. Two main theories exist: one says forces happen instantly, while the other suggests they spread out gradually.
  2. George Green, a self-taught baker turned mathematician, made important contributions to the math behind electromagnetism. His work, which included ideas about electric potential and field theory, changed how we study these forces.
  3. Fields and potentials are two simple ways to describe how electricity and magnetism work. They help us understand how energy moves and behaves in different situations, like around charges or between capacitor plates.

3.0 The Birth of Electromagnetism

Fields & Energy • 279 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Coulomb created the torsion balance, a tool that helped him measure tiny forces between electrically charged objects. This was a big step in understanding electricity and magnetism.
  2. His findings showed that electric forces follow a similar pattern to gravitational forces, which Newton discovered. This means both types of forces can be explained using related mathematical laws.
  3. Coulomb's work laid the foundation for modern electromagnetism, even though he faced challenges during the French Revolution. His contributions are still recognized today, as the unit of electric charge is named after him.

WORM MOON 2023

The Lunar Dispatch • 648 implied HN points • 08 Mar 23
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Progress in creating theoretical spacetime tunnels like wormholes has been slow.
  2. Albert Einstein, known for his scientific achievements and humanitarianism, had a complex private side.
  3. With the advent of quantum computers, concerns arise about privacy and the need for mutual forgiveness in the face of revealed dark sides.

2.6.3 The Misinterpretation of Newton

Fields & Energy • 299 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Newton did not explain why gravity exists. He focused on describing what gravity does instead of offering guesses about its cause.
  2. Many scientists after Newton misinterpreted his ideas, leading to a belief that gravity was an essential quality of matter, even though Newton disagreed with such views.
  3. Over time, Newton's concepts became viewed as abstract ideas rather than being connected to real evidence from the physical world.

Intrigue

Remote View • 334 implied HN points • 28 Jan 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. The post discusses the concept of intrigue both as a verb and a noun.
  2. The post announces a livestream on January 28, 2024, at 22:00 CET, discussing thoughts from a book by Robert Temple.
  3. The post provides various references, including books, articles, and research papers on topics like science, plasmoids, and cold war technology.

A Bridging of Dimensions

ᴋʟᴀᵾs • 628 implied HN points • 15 Jun 23
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Former government officials have revealed details about UFO crash retrieval programs involving non-human intelligence and advanced materials.
  2. The use of topological materials in UFO technology could explain exotic properties, like strange isotopes and materials able to deform into higher dimensions.
  3. Connections between the human brain's multi-dimensional functions and UFO phenomena could suggest a link between consciousness and unexplained aerial phenomena.

3.1 The Discovery of Electromagnetism

Fields & Energy • 239 implied HN points • 06 Mar 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Hans Christian Örsted proved that electricity and magnetism are connected by running a current near a compass, making them part of the same field called electromagnetism.
  2. André-Marie Ampère built on Örsted's work, showing that moving electric currents can attract or repel each other just like magnets do.
  3. Many scientists assumed forces acted at a distance, but Michael Faraday later suggested that closer particles must interact to create these forces.

Last-minute gravitational wave predictions, June 28th 2023, hot damn

The Egg And The Rock • 589 implied HN points • 28 Jun 23
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Tomorrow there will be an announcement about predictions on gravitational waves from the International Pulsar Timing Array.
  2. Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime caused by accelerating masses; they're detected by length changes.
  3. The International Pulsar Timing Array uses pulsars and telescopes to hunt for supermassive black hole mergers, with the potential for groundbreaking discoveries.

2.6.1 Newton’s Methods

Fields & Energy • 299 implied HN points • 31 Jan 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Newton believed that geometry should be connected to real-world observations, rather than just logical deductions from axioms. He saw math as a tool to understand the physical world.
  2. He emphasized that we should always seek the simplest explanation for natural phenomena, following the principle of parsimony. If a simpler explanation fits the facts, it should be preferred.
  3. Newton argued that conclusions drawn from experiments should be regarded as generally true, even if new evidence could change our understanding later on. This highlights the importance of adapting our views as we gather more information.

THOR - How?

Remote View • 294 implied HN points • 21 Jan 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. The post discusses THOR and its workings
  2. The post includes a link to learn more about Bob Greenyer
  3. A livestream is scheduled for January 21, 2024 at 22:30 CET

Fields & Energy

Fields & Energy • 459 implied HN points • 29 Oct 23
🔬 Science Physics
  1. The author is working on a book called 'Fields & Energy' that explores electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. He plans to share sections of the book weekly over about two years.
  2. The book argues that electromagnetism involves two different phenomena: fields and energy, which could help explain various puzzles in physics. It also ties these concepts to historical and philosophical insights.
  3. The author aims to make the book accessible to both professionals and non-specialists, blending technical details with general concepts to engage a wider audience.

1.0 On Generation & Corruption

Fields & Energy • 459 implied HN points • 25 Oct 23
🔬 Science Physics
  1. In physics, our understanding has greatly improved over time, but some concepts can still feel confusing or counterintuitive. We often have to rely on complex math that works well, even if it doesn't make total sense at first.
  2. Michael Faraday challenged the common ideas of his time by introducing the concept of 'fields' instead of just focusing on point particles. This helped explain how forces work in a way that made more sense to him.
  3. Today, we still face similar questions about our understanding of reality in physics. As we develop new mathematical tools, we should ask if we need to rethink our basic ideas about how things work, just like Faraday did.

Reading List for Chapter 1: On Generation and Corruption

Fields & Energy • 359 implied HN points • 07 Dec 23
🚌 Education Physics
  1. Reading is important for understanding complex topics like calculus and physics. Books like 'Calculus Made Easy' can help beginners grasp the basics more easily.
  2. Narratives and storytelling are essential in both fiction and non-fiction writing. They shape how we understand and connect with concepts.
  3. Scientific revolutions often depend on the context of ideas rather than just rational evidence. This means new theories can take time to be accepted.

Epistemic Hell

Secretum Secretorum • 1768 implied HN points • 27 Jan 24
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Through history, reasoning based on limited information has led to dangerous outcomes, like chronic cyanide poisoning and scurvy.
  2. Some scientific problems, like understanding heredity, have been challenging due to complexity and the need for exceptional datasets.
  3. To escape epistemic hells, radical ideas, serendipity, unlearning prior knowledge, and persistence are vital.

Energy in electronic circuits

lcamtuf’s thing • 2244 implied HN points • 16 Oct 23
🔬 Science Physics
  1. Designing electronic circuits has become more stringent over the years due to advancements in technology.
  2. Understanding how energy travels through electronic circuits is crucial for circuit stability and efficiency.
  3. High-speed signals in electronic circuits can lead to significant energy expenditure and signal integrity issues.