After reading this sequence I felt like I could say one or two things about QM, but I didn’t actually understand anything. I couldn’t look at a particle in a box and predict where it could be. I couldn’t explain x-ray diffraction, double-slit experiments, blackbody radiation, or why the heck we find certain cosmic rays at the surface of our planet where they shouldn’t have been according to classical physics.
The point of the quantum physics sequence is not to teach quantum physics, or else it would be a textbook requiring difficult math that most people can’t understand without an unreasonable amount of study. In terms of the science, it is there to teach you how to make sense of quantum mechanics once you’ve learned the difficult math behind it, because the way it’s taught in universities makes it extremely unlikely the truth will bubble up in a given person’s head on its own.
But that’s still not the point of the quantum physics sequence. In fact, there are many reasons why Eliezer wrote it, and most of them have little to do with quantum mechanics and are really about rationality. That’s why instead of explaining quantum mechanics in detail, it explains exactly enough to allow readers to see for themselves the explanation that makes sense and how scientists get it wrong.
Going over famous experiments does not require difficult math. For instance, the photoelectric effect can be entirely summed up by KE = hf—w. It’s easy math, but it has important results.
the way it’s taught in universities makes it extremely unlikely the truth will bubble up in a given person’s head on its own
The point of the quantum physics sequence is not to teach quantum physics, or else it would be a textbook requiring difficult math that most people can’t understand without an unreasonable amount of study. In terms of the science, it is there to teach you how to make sense of quantum mechanics once you’ve learned the difficult math behind it, because the way it’s taught in universities makes it extremely unlikely the truth will bubble up in a given person’s head on its own.
But that’s still not the point of the quantum physics sequence. In fact, there are many reasons why Eliezer wrote it, and most of them have little to do with quantum mechanics and are really about rationality. That’s why instead of explaining quantum mechanics in detail, it explains exactly enough to allow readers to see for themselves the explanation that makes sense and how scientists get it wrong.
Going over famous experiments does not require difficult math. For instance, the photoelectric effect can be entirely summed up by KE = hf—w. It’s easy math, but it has important results.
What “truth” are you talking about here?