I'm not surprised by the copenhagen one, but it also isn't really load bearing for most of physics. Not discounting it as a true disagreement, it just doesn't have the impact popular science would have you believe.
Physics is an enormous field. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who knows the latest majority opinion on every problem, not to mention finding someone who thinks they are qualified to give an informed opinion. I guess the whole thing is kind of circular and the poll could be formed to give any answer.
For example your first sentence, if you DIDNT ask physicists if they thought newtons mechanics were disproven, then you have a biased poll. If you DID, you would think it was a kind of silly poll (although I guess it would be good signal to reject data). I don't know where you draw the line. I guess my true objection is how this poll will be interpreted, which is more about popular perception of how science works than anything else.
My example of newtonian mechanics was actually to exemplify a simple model that's obviously correct to everybody (given that you use it for what it's useful for). Like, everybody would agree that a magnifying glass (newtonian mechanics) works for looking at stuff at a normal human scale, but an electron microscope (quantum mechanics) is something there can be more disagreement about among experts.
I guess my true objection is how this poll will be interpreted, which is more about popular perception of how science works than anything else.
I don't know if I'm interpreting you correctly, but I for one have enough faith in people to guess that most people wouldn't interpret the poll as implying physicists disagree about the wavefunction of the ground state of hydrogen or something.
"I don't know if I'm interpreting you correctly, but I for one have enough faith in people to guess that most people wouldn't interpret the poll as implying physicists disagree about the wavefunction of the ground state of hydrogen or something."
I guess I'm on the opposite end. I think many people will have any idea what a ground state is and those very people will come away most confidently believing physicists don't understand shit.
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I'm not surprised by the copenhagen one, but it also isn't really load bearing for most of physics. Not discounting it as a true disagreement, it just doesn't have the impact popular science would have you believe.
Physics is an enormous field. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who knows the latest majority opinion on every problem, not to mention finding someone who thinks they are qualified to give an informed opinion. I guess the whole thing is kind of circular and the poll could be formed to give any answer.
For example your first sentence, if you DIDNT ask physicists if they thought newtons mechanics were disproven, then you have a biased poll. If you DID, you would think it was a kind of silly poll (although I guess it would be good signal to reject data). I don't know where you draw the line. I guess my true objection is how this poll will be interpreted, which is more about popular perception of how science works than anything else.
I'm not sure what you mean with "load bearing"?
My example of newtonian mechanics was actually to exemplify a simple model that's obviously correct to everybody (given that you use it for what it's useful for). Like, everybody would agree that a magnifying glass (newtonian mechanics) works for looking at stuff at a normal human scale, but an electron microscope (quantum mechanics) is something there can be more disagreement about among experts.
I don't know if I'm interpreting you correctly, but I for one have enough faith in people to guess that most people wouldn't interpret the poll as implying physicists disagree about the wavefunction of the ground state of hydrogen or something.
"I don't know if I'm interpreting you correctly, but I for one have enough faith in people to guess that most people wouldn't interpret the poll as implying physicists disagree about the wavefunction of the ground state of hydrogen or something."
I guess I'm on the opposite end. I think many people will have any idea what a ground state is and those very people will come away most confidently believing physicists don't understand shit.