I often wonder what is charge? We say that the charge on an electron is q. And we assume the electron to be fundamental unit of charge. But what is charge physically? Is the whole premise of charge on an electron just a way to beguile ourselves that we understand the mysterious force between two electrons that is 10^42 times stronger than the gravitational force?
Debate with me or make me understand.
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Nature is strange. And we almost understand nothing of her. We are like blind ants trying to guage how does an elephant look. Here I seek to put forth some fundamental questions about nature that I dont understand..
Do you think a Theory of Everything exists?
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6 comments:
I have asked myself this question several times, and have drawn a blank each time.
There would have been point in debating with you if you and I had any answers, but I am sure I don't and I doubt that you do...
I always try and console myself with an explanation that is on the lines of....a manifestation of energy, which again more than a physical concept, is a metaphysical one.
This question poses a similar problem like asking oneself, what is a point?
Until we understand what energy is, it is difficult to understand its manifestations...and I doubt we do understand what energy is..we again console ourselves with explanations like...it is the capacity to do work, which seems quite laughable, but is the only way in which we can communicate a metaphysical concept...in terms of known physical 'realities'.
Actually the problem with all the theories we have is, we try to fom theories with quantities on which conservation principles-like energy,mass,charge etc...we dont exactly know what these correspond to..but still its easy mathematically..probably thats the reason why all the physical laws are mathematical
We all know E=mc^2, but I cant grasp why should there at all be a relation between these two...should there be a relation between E and q too?
Well, you reinforce my point (If I ever had one ;) ). E=mc^2 doesn't only give a relation between matter and energy, but also goes to prove that matter is nothing but energy. Whichever way you want to look at it, you have this concept of energy that is all-pervading but impossible to define physically. The E that is present in the relation is in terms of things we understand, e.g. K.E which presents itself as the motion of the mass m in question. But what is it that actually drives motion is an intangible concept, something that neither present mathematics, nor ordinary human perception can grasp.
E=Vq right? So we know that such a relation between E and q exists. In other words we can say that charge is a manifestation of energy. You can obviously look at it the other way also, i.e. express energy as dependent on mass and energy dependent on charge. Intuitively speaking, though, to me it makes sense to have a single independent quantity in terms of which other quantities can be expressed.
I have no definite answer to your original question, though.
http://www.dctech.com/physics/features/0801.php
reading string theory might re-'charge' you, this link suggests :)
Thanks for the link. Will try out string theory now... :)
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