[Phys-L] theoretical physics FAQ

[John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>]

Hi --

I found the following:
   http://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~neum/physics-faq.txt

It's Arnold Neumaier's collection based on discussions on the
sci.physics.research netnews group.

The discussion of each item is brief, but still surprisingly
clear.  Some entries are a bit more technical than the typical
traffic here on phys-l (quantum field theory and the like).

It appears that Prof. Neumaier is interested in the foundations
of physics, and is particularly good at pointing out places
where the foundations are shaky.  This is valuable information,
because it shows where future progress is likely to be made.
Information on this is hard to get from textbooks, partly
because the frontier keeps moving, and partly because many
authors are too vain to admit there is stuff they don't know.

At the very least, I recommend all physics teachers should
at least read the table of contents here, so that if some
student walks up and asks (e.g.) "what is a dressed state"
you won't be completely blind-sided.

Also, near the end there are a few valuable links to other lists.

I followed one of these links to find:
   http://www.mth.kcl.ac.uk/~streater/lostcauses.html

which is a hoot ... a list of "lost causes" in physics, i.e.
bad ideas that seem to persist in a zombie-like undead state.

In particular I approve of what it says about the many-worlds
"interpretation" :

> There is nothing to the many-worlds theory. There are no theorems,
> conjectures, experimental predictions or results of any sort, other
> than those of Hilbert space.

Similarly it has nothing nice to say about Mach's principle.
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