Re: [Phys-L] wordle physics (information theory etc.)

[stefan jeglinski <jeglin@4pi.com>]

Of possible interest, 3b1b has posted a follow-up to the original video.

I would concur with anyone who cites 3b1b as one of the best (the best?) 
mathematics learning channels that crosses into physics. I would also 
recommend Mathologer – similar but different, more mathematical.

Stefan Jeglinski



On 2/13/22 3:59 PM, John Denker via Phys-l wrote:
> Here is a really good 30-minute video:
>   "Solving Wordle using information theory"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v68zYyaEmEA
>   created by "3Blue1Brown" whoever that is.
>
> It explains information theory from scratch, using wordle as
> motivation and illustration.
>
> Students who know what a logarithm is should be able to follow
> it. Gets the science right. Decent production values.
>
> ========
>
> Note: I consider this topic to be part of physics, indeed
> central to physics, for at least two reasons:
>
>  *) Entropy is entropy. There is only one kind of entropy.
>   It would be a blunder to define Shannon entropy differently
>   from Boltzmann entropy.
>   There has never been any serious doubt about this.
>   Any vestige of doubt was annihilated by the work on the
>   physics of computation in the 1980s (by Charlie Bennett
>   among others).
>
>  *) Even if we were engaged in, say, agriculture, where entropy
>   is not one of the central topics of study, it would still have
>   utilitarian value in connection with /design of experiment/.
>
> ===
>
> Pedagogical remark: This seems IMHO in the Goldilocks zone:
>  *) Well motivated.
>  *) Complicated enough to be authentic.
>  *) Simple enough to be comprehensible by non-experts.
>
> In other words, neither oversimplified nor overcomplicated.
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