Physical Laws & Concepts
The wonders of Physics in our lives and making sense of life through physical abstraction. (more concepts to be added)Wave functions
We have formulated that matter is made out of tiny particles, these particles are measured as part of information probability waves. These probability waves describe how likely it is to find a particle at position x at time t – therefore, it is dependent on position and time.Until we measure the wave function, there is no position. You cannot know a position until you actively interact with it and measure it.
Measurement forces the particle to “pick” a position out of all the possible ones. In doing so, the probability function collapses into a concentrated, spiky one at the position the wave has chosen.
If we measure the wave function immediately after a previous measurement, we will get almost the same results. After some time, the wave will continue following Schrödinger’s equation.
In real life, this means that if you measure over and over again for a position of something or someone without letting enough time pass for them to think and evolve, you will get the same answer over and over again. Not just that but also: we cannot possibly know information for certain about a person, a situation, or other things without interacting and measuring them. It is mostly just based on our own probability model of prediction. This, then, ties into our own machine-learning-like model – how does personality or at least behavior form? Maybe through the ability to predict? The speed at which we predict and update?
First law of thermodynamics
Energy cannot be created or destroyed in a system. It is, in a way, just as life, always moving and changing its forms. This particularly reminds me of the Daoist philosophy of life – wu-wei – and letting things flow like water.Not just that but think about the connections you make in life: Sometimes things end but every ending is usually the beginning of something new - a new form of what has ended.
Third law of motion
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In real life, for every “action” you take, you can almost certainly anticipate a counter-action or a reaction in the system. In a professional context, you can see this law apply easily to policy-resistant system archetypes. Imagine you are working to pass a new policy with actors pulling in different, opposite directions, each often trying to push their own interests further. It is no surprise that by intensifying your actions, the actions of your “opponents” also intensify – you gain an advantage toward your objective, leading others to double their efforts to pull it back. Of course, these structures don’t benefit anyone – it is almost like a never-ending loop of reactions and actions.
There are two ways of overcoming such a structure, one being overpowering the resistance and pushing your own interests through, which often leads to not-so-nice results for your human life (again, the action has to come back somehow, even if time-delayed). Another solution, as Donnella H. Meadows writes in her book “Thinking in Systems,” is to “Let go. Give up ineffective policies. Let the resources and energy spent on enforcing and resisting be used for more constructive purposes.” This might seem counterintuitive because it means giving up your own interests, but “If you calm down, those who are pulling against you will calm down too,” simply because “much of the action you were trying to correct was in response to your own action.”
Reference Frames & Special Relativity
Reference frames are coordinate systems that can be laid out in different ways based on points of reference: origin, orientation, and scale. With this frame, we can now determine the positions and velocities of objects in that frame based on the points defined before. Change the reference points, and you will have a different way – sometimes easier, sometimes more difficult – to look at objects within the system. This is quite similar to real life – each of us has a different story and viewpoint of the world: opinions and beliefs, likes and dislikes, background, and much more. However, the observed object does not technically change itself, but it is solely our perception and perspective of it. Take it as positive motivational as you want but this can also mean that our mindset and the way we view things influences people a lot. Someone who worries all the time & is scared will see threats where they go. Someone who wants adventure and novelty, will see it everywhere they go. It is based on the set of variables you have defined your frame of reference with.
Invariance
Invariance, in a broad sense, refers to the property of remaining unchanged under certain conditions or transformations.We often speak about invariant systems in Physics, particularly when looking at reference frames. For example, the laws of physics are invariant in all reference frames but the perception of time might not be.
In our personal lives, this might be the case as well: our basic human needs that we all have (e.g air, energy) - these are invariant of background, religion, opinions, or anything else. There is a lot of general things that are invariant about humans, animals, even plants, and even the universe. Things might not be so different than we may think.