Unsolved Problems in Physics | Hacker News Reader

Unsolved Problems in Physics

oglethorpe.edu

27 pointssplat13 comments

I think there are far more unsolved problems than just this. As Feynman said, physics is like watching two grandmasters play a game of chess. A novice might learn the rules by watching but wont understand why masters chose a move or know all the rules from watching one game.

This list is rather one-sided. What about gravitational waves, nuclear fusion, turbulence, super high energy cosmic rays?

This list only includes problems from theoretical physics, I prefer a list that also includes some problems from experimental physics and applied physics. Problems about superconductivity, neutrino detection, among others areas.

Also worthy: the physics of mathematical objects. E.g., Why doesn't the square on the hypotenuse just slide off?

Er... What!?!

> Why doesn't the square on the hypotenuse just slide off?

This is nonsensical to me. Could you please elaborate? You seem to be asking why an idea isn't effected by gravity...

I'm sure ideas are affected by gravity (think Aristotle, and the idea of rest), generously understood, and according to one story about an apple even effected by gravity, but as for the square falling off the hypotenuse, that was just a joke, which has itself fallen quite flat.

+1 for this thread

To the "why not X" comments:

It's a list with eleven entries. Do you really expect a comprehensive set?

And the black hole information problem (#8) is neatly solved by having all data in the black hole revealed on a the event horizon. Granted, just a theory, but you're welcome to go and look. Bring a camera ;)

don't forget the yang-mills mass gap and the navier-stokes initial value problem, both clay millennium problems and both rather important. Well the yang-mills one is probably more important, this list is a bit m-theory biased.

I think the m is originally for membrane, not "magic" but apparently its open to interpretation.

The way those problems are posed, by the Clay Institute, they're more math problems than physics problems. Check out the price lectures on their site to see what I mean.

What about dark matter?

Or dark energy.

The answer is "Chuck Norris". Or you can typecast "Chuck Norris" to integer, that is 42.

For real, the quality of my answer equals to the quality of these questions.

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