r/SubredditDrama • u/IAmAN00bie • Apr 21 '16
Rare User in /r/Physics takes issue with Dark Matter, others React.
/r/Physics/comments/48ogjf/whats_wrong_with_the_big_bang_theory/d0lnav8?context=337
u/cdstephens Apr 21 '16
Ultimately this is an issue of people assuming scientists use the rudimentary scientific model taught in high school (as he brings up at some point). This is not really what physicists do....we don't throw out a whole theory because we get unexpected results, and we don't make hypothesises in a vacuum. Frequently, new physics is anticipated not just by some new observation that doesn't jive with current theories or models, but also contradictions or signs within the theory itself. Examples include the ultraviolet catastrophe, incongruence between Maxwell's equations and Newtonian mechanics regarding how EM is manifestly relativistic, and in modern times the issue of quantum mechanics and gravity. These self consistency issues that can lead to new groundbreaking experiments. Instead of throwing out old theories you adapt them, because these old theories are robust and work in some limit. Like, regardless of how quantum mechanics works, it needs to produce Newton's laws at the end of the day. When physicists test things, they make well tested and supported assumptions of the behavior of the system because if they didn't, physics would progress painfully slowly. This also means that experiments that defy well tested assumptions (see the neutrino faster than light experiment) are very suspect and have to be thoroughly tested.
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u/kookingpot Apr 21 '16
Did anyone else think they were referring to the SyFy show Dark Matter at first?
I was probably 15 comments in before it dawned on me that they were talking about actual dark matter as in the astronomical phenomenon and not Dark Matter the TV show.
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u/justcool393 Apr 21 '16
When I first read the title, the capitalized React immediately made me think of The Fine Bros.
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Apr 22 '16
When I saw the title of the video in the linked thread, I thought it was going to be about the show, The Big Bang Theory.
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u/whatplanetisthis Apr 21 '16
The way the title of this post was capitalized is weird. I was also thinking of the show.
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u/fuckmyasspissboy Apr 22 '16
I was thinking the poet duo and their recent unsettling post, but then again most drama of that kind sticks to tumblr.
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Apr 22 '16
This guy being angry about dark matter isn't really rare. He is quite possibly Reddit's angriest cosmologist and has been featured on SRD before.
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u/superiority Apr 22 '16
The guy doesn't seem to understand the difference between "this theory cannot predict this particular measurement" and "this theory cannot make testable predictions".
Like... the existence of dark matter is inferred from the motion of galaxies (in short: "These galaxies aren't moving the way we'd expect them to based on our knowledge of gravity and our observations of where stars are. One explanation is that there's more stuff floating around the universe that gives off gravity, but we just can't see it."). So yeah, that does mean that you can't then truly predict the motion of galaxies using a model of dark matter., because those models are constructed to fit these existing observations. Like the guy says, this would indeed be circular logic.
But that doesn't mean your model of dark matter can't predict something else.
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u/Psychofant Apr 21 '16
I should stay out of r/Physics. That guy hits all my pet peeves and is getting aggressively downvoted for it. You can't see Dark Matter. You can't explain it. But if you assume that it exists, you can explain things you couldn't otherwise explain.
That brings it frighteningly close to being religion.
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u/PhysicsIsMyMistress Apr 21 '16 edited Apr 21 '16
I hate that some people ascribe a certain undue significance to the term dark matter while completely missing the real significance. It's not called dark matter because its mysterious or hidden or because it's "made up." It's dark because to doesn't interact with the electromagnetic force. People need to understand that the way we interact with things are through gauge bosons and when you see something is because it interacts with photons. Dark matter doesn't, therefore you can't see it.