Comments on: Creativity in Physics

By: My Issues With Physics Education « Morning Coffee Physics

My Issues With Physics Education « Morning Coffee Physics — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:31:52 +0000

[...] encompasses two sentiments that I’ve already blogged about in “Creativity in Physics”, and “It’s not just about access, it’s about accessibility”; overlooking the [...]

By: lbacchus

lbacchus — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:02:11 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with what has been written here! Art and science belong together and there should not be a false division between the subjects. I decided to study physics in college because it fascinated me and I knew nothing about science nor mathematics in general (I had been studying sociology/anthropology). Beginning to learn more about mathematics and physics has given me so much inspiration and I can appreciate art, music, nature… everything really, on a completely different level than I had before. The same happens when physicists are exposed to the arts (you mentioned Feynman), and discover that they can use music or visual art, even dance, as a medium to express scientific theory, phenomenon, and law.
Here’s an interesting example :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7617191.stm

When I study physics, astronomy, mathematics, any science really, I am bombarded with ideas for stories, poems, visual art, and music… it really is the perfect combination! Art=Science::Science=Art. A person can view the world in such a beautiful way by making connections between all subjects.

Very nice reading!
-Lauren

By: Kaz Maslanka

Kaz Maslanka — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:30:18 +0000

Hi Wellcaffeinated,
This is a very interesting subject in which I have spent much time in trying to navigate. I approach math as a language for poetry. In addition I sometimes use equations from physics as a vehicle to carry the poem. I would like to share an example titled the “Power of confidence” http://www.kazmaslanka.com/The_power_of_confidence_visual.html There is many more examples on my blog.
Cheers and thanks for bringing up the topic!
Kaz

By: wellcaffeinated

wellcaffeinated — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:59:15 +0000

@JoAnne
Thanks for that link! I can relate to the idea of mathematics being poetry of the mind. I write a poem once in a while, and I find it feels like doing an interesting math problem… one that requires a real sense of play. Perhaps I’ll share one of them sometime.

@C.Hernandez
Most certainly. Einstein and all of the “great physicists” show immense creativity. I didn’t mention them in my examples because they always seem like exceptional cases that aren’t representative of physics in general. I linked to some “everyday physicists” to try to show the contrary.

By: wellcaffeinated

wellcaffeinated — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:48:47 +0000

@chris
I had a similar experience just before I decided to study physics. I had recently picked up playing jazz guitar and felt like I had a knack for it. I had just been through two years of CEGEP (pre-university), where the physics was taught in a dry, uninspiring way. I seriously considered switching into a music program.

I fortunately had experience with the creative side of physics through the highschool teacher I mentioned who always used to give us, as he called them, “interesting problems”.

Even after beginning my B.Sc., I felt a serious lack of “interesting problems” and began to stray towards computer programming until that first quantum mechanics class. But what really got me hooked again was taking GR early which used Sean Carroll’s book. Through that I found Cosmic Variance which introduced me to the new things in cosmology. Without the discovery of physics blogs, who knows what I’d be doing…

By: C.Hernandez

C.Hernandez — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:42:22 +0000

One of the more obvious examples:

“If i could ride next to a beam of light…”

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:05:00 +0000

It is my view, as a mathematician and poet, that mathematics is a language and that good mathematics is poetry.

Here is a link to a just-released anthology of poetry that relates to mathematics that illustrates the creativity connections: http://www.akpeters.com/product.asp?ProdCode=3417

You may be familiar with the words of a mathematician of the early 20th century, David Eugene Smith: “What, after all, is mathematics but the poetry of the mind, and what is poetry but the mathematics of the heart?”

Keep up the good work.
JoAnne Growney
Silver Spring, MD

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:29:57 +0000

My mom is an art teacher and when I was deciding to study physics she asked me if I had any questions that she could ask the physics professor at her high school on my behalf.

I was pretty decent at drawing, so I asked “How does creativity pop-up in Physics?”

Well, I got a dry experimentalist answer saying I would be able to apply my creativity in designing experiments in the lab. That didn’t really sound as fun as drawing unicorn-riding vampires… but I decided to study physics anyway.

If anything, math has only stifled my imagination: http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/061025_vampire_debunk.html

Still hope for unicorns I guess…