This (arguably unhelpful) phrase seems to be taught across schools all over the world. What are some other phrases like this that are common ?

  • Nawor3565
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    4 months ago

    It’s pretty hard though. Without mass, everything travels at the speed of light and doesn’t experience the flow of time, which don’t really mesh well with classical physics (or quantum mechanics, and definitely not relativity).

    • wuphysics87@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Define the speed of light to be 1 (gaussian units). Then Einstein’s E=mc^2 becomes E=m. Mass is energy. In physics mass is not fundamental. Energy is.

      • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        In biology mitochondria are not essential, hydrocarbons are. Life sprung up without mitochondria, but it wouldn’t be what it is without them. Chemistry is fundamental to biology, mitochondria aren’t, but I think you’d agree physics wouldn’t be what it is today without mass, nor would biology be without the mitochondria

        • wuphysics87@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          Depends what you mean by “what it is today.”. Mass isn’t fundamental. It is a particle’s coupling to the Higgs Boson which generates mass. The Lagrangian of the Standard Model is an energy equation. Not a mass one.

          • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Do you watch a lot of v-sauce? There’s a certain argumentative style that he instills in his audience that I’m picking up when reading your comments. There’s a lot of nuance and acceptability outside of the strict definitions that goes into the scientific process (as much as strict adherents don’t like it, science is done when we close those gaps, it isn’t immediate nor absolute)