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So how does theoretical physics "work" exactly? (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 days ago by ConcreteHalloween@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net

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To explain, I'm just a big old ignorant layman, but with other scientific fields I at least CONCEPTUALLY understand how they came to their findings.

Like if a Geologist tells me something about rocks I'm like: "Okay, idk how geology works, but I assume you did some kind of experiments involving rocks so you probably know what you're talking about."

Or if a neurologist tells me something about the human brain: "Okay, idk shit about neurology, but I assume you did some kind of brain scan or took some brain samples or did some kind of scientific experiment thingy to know this stuff about brains. I don't know the exact details but I can at least abstractly understand the process by which you learned this thing you're telling me now."

Then I'll see some news report about some finding a theoretical physicists made and it'll be like: "The Universe is made of strings! And also the sun is a black hole! The universe is shaped like a doughnut!"

And my honky ass is just like: "How the fuck do you know that shit? What are you looking at? How did you figure that crap out?"

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[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

String theory is just some math* that people like that got hyped up, and it's a fringe view in modern physics because it doesn't have the ability to predict anything that other theories can't. Angela Collier is a theoretical physicist who posts lots of youtube videos about her field and other subjects, including a weird one about string theory where she's playing the Binding of Isaac for some reason while complaining about how string theory destroyed the reputation of theoretical physics in the popular imagination.

Geology seems like it could be a good point of comparison because a lot of geology is based on things that we can't exactly demonstrate in experiments because it takes place over millions of years, but there are a lot of more directly testable things that we do know and we can synthesize those conclusions to draw conclusions about things that can't be directly tested.

*Theoretical physics in general has lots of math but more popular views also present testable hypotheses.