(Feynman does not, in fact, rule)
this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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I tried a game that came free with my GOG account years ago, MagRunner.
Overpopulation, huge zaibatsu that is into digitizing people and they develop an incredible new technology in space: MagTech! Magnetic technology!
I guess the devs were being tongue-in-cheek at the time, but now it's not funny anymore.
Terrible Portal wanna-be, by the way.
From what I've seen Feyman was more than a little pedantic and he liked to emphasize that science doesn't answer "why" it answers "how". So if ICP asked that question Feyman would say "take an undergrad physics course because its not easy to explain in a soundbite"
Feynman. Invents modern plastic. Contributes to the atom bomb. Thanks Feynman
Magnets aren't even real. Have you ever actually SEEN one? Of course not.
Birds are magnets
That line was actually Trump being his narcissistic self. In context he's saying, "Nobody knows how important magnets are but me." And then he mumble fucks around about magnets being in everything.
Somebody whispered in his ear that China halting rare earth exports is going to fuck up a broad range of industries. His dementia locked onto, "Magnets good. China has magnets. China no give magnets." He then goes to mumbling how he's threatening and begging Xi.
That also explains his idiot rant to our Navy in Japan week before last. He's explaining that we need to get away from magnetic aircraft and ordnance lifting systems and go back to steam.
He's trying to explain all this without admitting that he poked the tiger and the tiger poked back.
Insert that clip of him from years ago saying that you drop magnets in water, they stop working...
What's funny is I think he was thinking of electronics (remember the shark vs electric boats dementia babble he did?) but if he had said fire instead of water it would be correct wrt magnets.
I like how the guy who was elected because he says what he thinks always has to have his comments put into context. He didn't literally mean that nobody knows what a magnet is (despite literally saying "nobody knows what a magnet is"), he meant something totally different!
I'm explaining what he means through the lens of his dementia. Aw, shit. Forgot I'm on lemmy where "explanation" = "agreement", "explanation" = "condoning".
How well did you do on those reading comprehension tests in school?
It's a textual medium, and text is not a native medium for tone. Their response to you didn't seem like they were arguing to me, just an unfortunate miscommunication.
I know you've got beef with the way the users here respond to you, but I'm starting to wonder if there's an element of implicit tone mismatch to it.
I intend this to come off as respectful and well intentioned, if I'm missing something blame it on the lack of coffee at 7 am.
How well did you do on those reading comprehension tests in school?
Probably better than you, considering you read a whole ton of shit that I didn't write. When did I say you were condoning him??? I just said that it's funny that the guy that conservatives say "speaks his mind" has to have every statement interpeteted nonliterally
Someone better give him a new sound byte before he tries carving up the Gerald Ford for maga fridge magnets
haha little spinny balls go brrr
To everyone saying "Feynman did explain it" you're missing the point - his answer is that there isn't really an answer to why magnets attract; he never says in that interview that there is, other than that is how the universe works.
He can explain the precise way in which they attract each other, can explain what properties of materials give rise to magnetism, and so on, but this is all ultimately a description. The only way science can answer a "why" question is with a description of general behaviour that encompasses what is asked about, so: why do magnets attract, because of spins and magnetic fields and so on. But why do spins and magnetic fields cause the attraction? There is no known general behaviour that encompasses that behaviour, and if there were, it would be subject to the same questioning. Ultimately, all "why" questions reach an end.
Why does gravity cause two things to attract? Why does the strong nuclear force hold protons together? Why is the speed of light 3 x 10^8 m/s and not half that, or 1000x as fast?
It's often possible to figure out how certain initial values of the universe cause it to behave in certain ways. But, as for why those initial values are the ones that they are, that's like asking about angels dancing on the head of a pin.
Ultimately, all "why" questions reach an and.
I see you have not recently interacted with a toddler in the "why" phase.
The secret to this, which works on all children, mine included, is to turn it and ask them what they think. Leads to more fun answers as well. Not right, but fun.
Never discourage that phase, imagine if our population never grew out of questioning the world. Just don't be afraid to say "I don't know, maybe you will figure out why and can teach me someday."
I work with kids, including a bright little boy who told me that "Why?" is his favorite question. I explicitly tell him that I hope he never stops asking it. His questions challenge the depths of my knowledge and compel me to look up questions I never thought of before. I love it.
I call him my "little scientist." He's only 4 and he teaches my coworkers new things all the time. I feel so lucky to get to work with a little knowledge-sponge that's as curious as I am!
I read somewhere that a good response is: why do you think?
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Feynman actually did try to explain it, and could do the math and other work to show why magnets attract one another. Having watched the Todd in the Shadows video about Miracles, I kind of find the question wholesome - he's not asking out of willful ignorance, but rather that it's something he knows is beyond his grasp but amazes him (and wants to share that joy in the world with his kids and family).
Trump is just willfully ignorant and small-minded.
Nice try sewer clown
ICP is an ode to ignorance, fuck anyone trying to rehab that shit.
Fucking magnets, how do they work?
And I don't wanna talk to a scientist
Y'all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed
Those are not lyrics promoting wonder to children. They’re anti-intellectualism.
It's a lot harder to make that argument in the context of the rest of the lyrics
Music is a lot like love, it's all a feeling And it fills the room, from the floor to the ceiling I see miracles all around me Stop and look around, it's all astounding Water, fire, air and dirt Fucking magnets, how do they work? And I don't talk to a scientist Y'all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed Solar eclipse, and vicious weather Fifteen thousand Juggalos together And I love my mom for giving me this Time on this planet, taking nothing for granted
It's not anti-science, it's frustration at the world for being the complicated, messy place it is, and a longing to go back to the simple innocence of childhood where even basic physical processes are magical. It's not a rant that nobody should do science, it's his own disillusionment, and a plea for people to allow a little bit more wonder into their world.
It's a powerful lyric because even in a song about how magical the world is, it still slips in and ruins it, the pebble in your shoe that doesn't allow you to ever truly experience that pure feeling again, always gnawing at you in the background no matter what you do.
Can't dress up the scientists lying lyric in a way that isn't blatantly anti science, but the rest tracks.
To drop my reply from a similar post:
To be fair: "A magnet works because negatively charged electrons repel each other. "
"Why do negatively charged electrons repel each other? "
"..... Well .. Ok, so hear me out. You're going to need to understand quantum mechanics and then the fermion principal. Then you'll know that the electrons aren't allowed to occupy the same space, and the easiest way to avoid being in the same space is to not touch each other. The electrons know they aren't allowed to touch because they've studied fermions."
To be fair: "A magnet works because negatively charged electrons repel each other. "
This is the Coloumbic (electrostatic) force, which is related to magnetism but this explanation would be insufficient to explain magnetism.
"..... Well .. Ok, so hear me out. You're going to need to understand quantum mechanics and then the fermion principal. Then you'll know that the electrons aren't allowed to occupy the same space, and the easiest way to avoid being in the same space is to not touch each other. The electrons know they aren't allowed to touch because they've studied fermions."
This is the Pauli exclusion principle, which does act like a force, but is not the same as the electrostatic force or magnetism.
Magnetism is moving electrons repel/attract/affect each other depending on the direction they are moving.
The simplest explanation for that I know of is that force needs to exist alongside the electrostatic force for the motion of electrons to be consistent with relativistic time and space dilation effects.
And no, that’s not a simple explanation, and it requires explaining relativity, and at the end of the day the best explanation we’ve got for the electrostatic force is more or less “electrons repel each other because they do”.
All models are wrong, some models are useful. A model that is 100% correct is just reality. Science and physics boils down to observation followed by explanation which comes in the form of modeling.
New physics started when plank discovered quantization while integration raleigh-jean and weins laws for blackbody radiation. Schrodinger proposed a model among several proposed models and his fit the best.
Anyone who is surprised by science not knowing all the answers had fundamentally misunderstood science.
Finally, five fields: electromagnetic, gravity, strong, weak, and higgs. Magnetism is just an effect of leptons interacting with the electric field. That's the model, one day when we can explain more with another model there will be more questions.
Bonus points for anyone who knows the quote "who ordered that?"
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"Look man, shit just be doing what it does because it is what it is. If weren't that way everything would be soup or darkness."
Physics at any point when you ask "why" enough.
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch...
So glad we got to see what it looks like for Carl Sagan to toke up before they CGI'd it away (believable conspiracy I just invented).
You must first invent the universe. - some nerd no doubt
Pretty much. You get towards the bottom and on a fundamental level, there are some things that science just doesn't know. We really don't know how magnets work, when you get down to it.
To clarify: Feynman could explain it, but can't dumb it down enough for us mortals.
Magnetism is complex and difficult to reduce down succinctly, but the real issue is that at the very base level, "why does magnetism exist" is no more explainable than "why do particles have spin?"
They didn't know it, but ICP were asking an epistemological question.
I looked for a non-yt source, but the best explainer for how magnetism in everyday objects is built up from quantum mechanics that I could find easily was this by minute physics: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hFAOXdXZ5TM
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