1.2: Thinking Like a Scientist

Fighting Intuition

It is important to remember to fight one’s intuition when applying the scientific method. Certain theories, such as Quantum Mechanics, are very counter-intuitive. For example, in Quantum Mechanics, an object can be described as being in two locations at the same time. In the Theory of Special Relativity, it is possible for two people to disagree on whether two events occurred at the same time. These particular predictions from these theories have not been invalidated by any experiment.

There is no requirement in science that a theory be “pretty” or intuitive. The only requirement is that a theory describe experimental data. One should then take care in not forcing one’s preconceived notions into interpreting a theory. For example, Quantum Mechanics does not actually predict that objects can be in two locations at once, only that objects behave as if they were in two locations at once. A famous example is Schrödinger’s cat, which can be modeled as being both alive and dead at the same time. However, just because we model it that way does not mean that it really is alive and dead at the same time.

Thinking Like a Physicist

In a sense, physics can be thought of as the most fundamental of the sciences, as it describes the interactions of the smallest constituents of matter. In principle, if one can precisely describe how protons, neutrons, and electrons interact, then one can completely describe how a human brain thinks. In practice, the theories of particle physics lead to equations that are too difficult to solve for systems that include as many particles as a human brain. In fact, they are too difficult to solve exactly for even rather small systems of particles such as atoms bigger than helium (containing several protons, neutrons and electrons).

We have a number of other fields of science to cover complex systems of particles interacting. Chemistry can be used to describe what happens to systems consisting of many atoms and molecules. In a living being, it is too difficult to keep track of systems of atoms and molecules, so we use Biology to describe living systems.

One of the key qualities required to be an effective physicist is an ability to understand how to apply a theory and develop a model to describe a phenomenon. Just like any other skill, it takes practice to become good at developing models. Students that graduate with a physics degree are thus often sought for jobs that require critical thinking and the ability to develop quantitative models, which covers many fields from outside of physics such as finance or Big Data.