Classical physics might not get its fair share of attention in contemporary science writing. But it can feel every bit as weird and awe-inspiring as so-called mysterious and spooky quantum mechanics!
Statistical physics introduces you to spheres in trillions of dimensions whose volume is concentrated in a thin layer beneath their surfaces. Our intuition fails already when we try to grasp the motion of a spinning top or what a Helium balloon would do when a car accelerates.
Maybe we like quantum physics better “for entertainment” as “we do not have a chance to understand it”. The motion of the gyroscope, on the other hand, is something we feel we ought to understand.
Probably we think that quantum physics requires genius Feynman-level advanced math while mechanics is just boring force equals mass times acceleration. But you can reformulate classical mechanics in ways that make it look and “feel” very similar to quantum mechanics!
I have touched on these subjects often in my blog posts, especially in my “science writing phase”, about 2013. But I believe it is nearly impossible to convey what I feel when reading about, say, the action function of classical mechanics being turned into the phase of a quantum mechanical wave function. You can only introduce so much terminology in a single, self-contained blog post. It’s the same with books of seasoned science popularizers in my opinion: At the beginning, they go to great lengths to explain oscillations and waves in excruciating details, heuristically introducing quantum mechanics. But suddenly the pace increases and there are quantum fields and symmetry breaking – and no way of following along unless you already know the math. Worse than that, metaphors might create and illusion of understanding.
This is maybe why I switched from trying to explain science to – sort of – visualizing it through art, without claiming that my creations would really make you understand mathematical physics. I am adding technical information for science geeks who might be interested, but my artworks should stand on their own – as abstract art that happens to be grounded in physics.
I have been thinking about all of this after I have created a unique double-sided artwork from two of my drawings. I have mounted Poinsot’s Gyroscope and The Over-All Space-Time View onto foam boards, and glued the boards together.
The combination of classical mechanics and quantum field theory was accidental – two sides of physics, classical and quantum, down-to-earth and mysterious.
This is my first attempt at building a prototype of a stand:
The stand is just a piece of black wire.
This has been version 2 – reviving something I did not do in ages:
The little “sculpture” is built from with polymer clay, silver wire and aluminum wire.
As the foam boards are so light-weight and small (A5 – about 5 x 8 inches) a single stand is enough to keep the double-sided artwork upright.
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