What I learned as a hired consultant to autodidact physicists
I&#x27;m hardly a physicist, but I have a degree in &quot;general engineering&quot; (long story about how I managed to escape specialization there) and a master&#x27;s in software engineering, and I&#x27;ve taken a few advanced math courses, including partial differential equations, computational theory, scientific computing, and a math-heavy course on relativity. I also spent a year and a half working for a Harvard physics professor, alongside his team of grad students. So, while I can&#x27;t &quot;do physics&quot; I think I know enough to understand a little about what it takes to _be_ a physicist, and appreciate the work that they do.<p>My husband and I were listening to a radio program (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thisamericanlife.org&#x2F;radio-archives&#x2F;episode&#x2F;293&#x2F;a-little-bit-of-knowledge" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thisamericanlife.org&#x2F;radio-archives&#x2F;episode&#x2F;293&#x2F;a...</a>) about a man convinced that he had found a mistake in Einstein&#x27;s theory of relativity, and trying to communicate this idea to a physicist (futilely, obviously). My husband, who was a music major for a year before dropping out of college, and I started getting in an argument about this episode that was so heated, I felt like we were listening to two completely different stories!<p>I kept insisting that the advanced math and education wasn&#x27;t just some funsies shibboleth the physicists had to keep the hoi polloi out of physics -- the devil&#x27;s in the details and the man in the story didn&#x27;t even understand the big picture correctly. My husband was angry and insulted that the physicist dismissed the man&#x27;s theory out of hand, and felt that anyone could make a contribution to physics with perhaps a little help from a calculus book -- just look at history! I thought the hero of the story (if there was one) was clearly the physicist, while my husband was solidly on the side of the electrician with a little learning, trying dangerous things.<p>I was really shocked. We don&#x27;t usually fight like that, and especially over something so seemingly trivial, but, in retrospect, I thought that it displayed huge tension in society as a whole, between academics and non-academics. We hear so much about the &quot;one percent&quot; and income-based class distinctions, but relatively little about academic barriers in society, whether real or artificially imposed. Should physics open up in a real way (not just &quot;pop science&quot; articles and occasional books for laymen)? Should we put a stronger &quot;academic&quot; focus in early public and high school education? Should we provide more resources for &quot;physicists who just need a little help with the math&quot; whether they&#x27;re right or wrong?<p>Although I was staunchly in favor of the hallowed halls of academe, and it still holds a special place in my heart, I suspect that the correct solution lies somewhere in the middle. Anyway, fantastic article, and it really brings up an important point that is too seldom addressed, by physicists, or society as a whole!