5 ms·

Most Physicists Don't Agree on Most Things

9 points by Luc 21d ago

JohnFen 21d ago
The title is radically untrue. Most physicists agree on the overwhelming majority of physics. The body of the article makes clear that the title is deceptive: > asking physicists what they actually believe about ten of the most contested questions in physics. In other words, most physicists don't agree on ten specific questions that have not been settled. That's a tautology and is a very far cry from "most things".
- umpalumpaaa 21d ago
  Yeah. And they are contested not because physicists can’t agree but because there is a lack of evidence. With evidence most will agree.
  - JohnFen 21d ago
    Excellent point. It's a little sad that this has to be explained, but it very often does.
    - streetfighter64 21d ago
      It's a tautology, who would need explaining of it? The fact that "if there is evidence for something, people will agree with that thing". That's like, pretty much the definition of evidence...
- xscott 21d ago
  There's a link you can click to see the personal background of the respondents. It's tough to know what "researcher in a field not listed" means, but it's possible that over 60% are not even physicists: 30.8% - A researcher in a field not listed above 21.2% - A science enthusiast 18.0% - A researcher studying quantum physics 12.0% - A researcher studying astrophysics or cosmology 9.2% - A researcher studying gravity 8.8% - Other
chermi 21d ago
Trash. When you say "most", your sample should at least pretend to cover the range of "things".
- hangsi 21d ago
  It sounds like you might be a physicist who disagrees?
  - chermi 21d ago
    Yeah. But I think its a little more complicated than my quick dismissal. The headline would be true of any honest field. Both the question and the answer are biasing toward thoughts of controversial things. A better approach would be pre-compilation or "things" irrespective of the activity and public perception, then ask opinion on each. If you only ask about unsettled things, how couldn't there be disagreement? Otherwise they would be settled!
streetfighter64 21d ago
Surprised at the quick dismissals in the comments here. Of course the title is a bit sensationalist, that's the case for all pop-sci articles. I don't think anybody would reasonably believe physicists disagree about for example Newtonian mechanics. Aren't the following facts still pretty interesting? > The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics came in at 36%. > Although it's often reported in the press that the black hole information paradox has been resolved in favour of information preservation, the survey found that 19% of physicists still side with Stephen Hawking's earlier view that information is lost. To see how the survey is useful, consider the "null hypothesis" so to speak, that a majority of physicists agree that one answer is most likely. Such as the Collatz conjecture from mathematics, where if surveyed, probably around 80% of mathematicians would agree that it's true, even though it's not been settled yet. Clearly this is not the case for most of the ten questions in this survey.
- JohnFen 21d ago
  The title isn't a bit sensationalist, it's a straight-up lie. That matters because most people won't actually read the article but will see the title and take it at face value. I see the erroneous title as disparaging to science. > Aren't the following facts still pretty interesting? Well, firstly, as another commenter pointed out, it's not clear that the respondents are actually representative of physicists. But regardless, how interesting it is that those 10 questions are subject to debate depends, I suppose, on how familiar you are with the field of physics. I would feel better about the article if it addressed the same topic with higher quality.
  - streetfighter64 21d ago
    > That matters because most people won't actually read the article but will see the title and take it at face value. Welcome to, like any news article in the history of mankind. Also I disagree that it's a lie. Clearly it depends on your interpretation of "most", but any reasonable person would interpret it as "most of things that can have disagreement", i.e. "questions that have not been settled".
- chermi 21d ago

9 points by Luc 21d ago

The title is radically untrue. Most physicists agree on the overwhelming majority of physics. The body of the article makes clear that the title is deceptive: > asking physicists what they actually believe about ten of the most contested questions in physics. In other words, most physicists don't agree on ten specific questions that have not been settled. That's a tautology and is a very far cry from "most things".

umpalumpaaa 21d ago
Yeah. And they are contested not because physicists can’t agree but because there is a lack of evidence. With evidence most will agree.
- JohnFen 21d ago
  Excellent point. It's a little sad that this has to be explained, but it very often does.
  - streetfighter64 21d ago
    It's a tautology, who would need explaining of it? The fact that "if there is evidence for something, people will agree with that thing". That's like, pretty much the definition of evidence...
xscott 21d ago
There's a link you can click to see the personal background of the respondents. It's tough to know what "researcher in a field not listed" means, but it's possible that over 60% are not even physicists: 30.8% - A researcher in a field not listed above 21.2% - A science enthusiast 18.0% - A researcher studying quantum physics 12.0% - A researcher studying astrophysics or cosmology 9.2% - A researcher studying gravity 8.8% - Other

chermi 21d ago

Trash. When you say "most", your sample should at least pretend to cover the range of "things".

hangsi 21d ago
It sounds like you might be a physicist who disagrees?
- chermi 21d ago
  Yeah. But I think its a little more complicated than my quick dismissal. The headline would be true of any honest field. Both the question and the answer are biasing toward thoughts of controversial things. A better approach would be pre-compilation or "things" irrespective of the activity and public perception, then ask opinion on each. If you only ask about unsettled things, how couldn't there be disagreement? Otherwise they would be settled!

streetfighter64 21d ago

Surprised at the quick dismissals in the comments here. Of course the title is a bit sensationalist, that's the case for all pop-sci articles. I don't think anybody would reasonably believe physicists disagree about for example Newtonian mechanics. Aren't the following facts still pretty interesting? > The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics came in at 36%. > Although it's often reported in the press that the black hole information paradox has been resolved in favour of information preservation, the survey found that 19% of physicists still side with Stephen Hawking's earlier view that information is lost. To see how the survey is useful, consider the "null hypothesis" so to speak, that a majority of physicists agree that one answer is most likely. Such as the Collatz conjecture from mathematics, where if surveyed, probably around 80% of mathematicians would agree that it's true, even though it's not been settled yet. Clearly this is not the case for most of the ten questions in this survey.

JohnFen 21d ago
The title isn't a bit sensationalist, it's a straight-up lie. That matters because most people won't actually read the article but will see the title and take it at face value. I see the erroneous title as disparaging to science. > Aren't the following facts still pretty interesting? Well, firstly, as another commenter pointed out, it's not clear that the respondents are actually representative of physicists. But regardless, how interesting it is that those 10 questions are subject to debate depends, I suppose, on how familiar you are with the field of physics. I would feel better about the article if it addressed the same topic with higher quality.
- streetfighter64 21d ago
  > That matters because most people won't actually read the article but will see the title and take it at face value. Welcome to, like any news article in the history of mankind. Also I disagree that it's a lie. Clearly it depends on your interpretation of "most", but any reasonable person would interpret it as "most of things that can have disagreement", i.e. "questions that have not been settled".
chermi 21d ago