793: Physicists
explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
| Physicists |
 Title text: If you need some help with the math, let me know, but that should be enough to get you started! Huh? No, I don't need to read your thesis, I can imagine roughly what it says. |
[edit] Explanation
This comic shows a view that many physics students believe every field can modeled using an over-simplified model. This argument is similar to the Spherical cow and idea that basic models taught in early physics classes only working in friction-less vacuums as shown in 669: Experiment.
[edit] Transcript
- [Cueball stands at a blackboard covered in equations and diagrams, an open laptop and scattered paper at his feet. His fists are balled in anger and there is a little angry squiggle over his head. A friend stands behind him, arms out in a shrug.]
- [Words in <> are gray.]
- Friend: You're trying to predict the behavior of <complicated system>? Just model it as a <simple object>, and then add some secondary terms to account for <complications I just thought of>. -- Easy, right? -- So, why does <your field> need a whole journal, anyway?
- Liberal-arts majors may be annoying sometimes, but there's nothing more obnoxious than a physicist first encountering a new subject.
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