I Do Understand Relativity(southampton.ac.uk)
15 points by rramadass | 1 comments
A simple landing page linking to a PDF titled "I Do Understand Relativity" by Douglas Ross of the University of Southampton.
#physics on Hacker News
45 stories tagged physics, newest first.
I don't understand quantum physics (2018)(southampton.ac.uk)
367 points by rramadass | 296 comments
Index page for Douglas Ross's introductory article on quantum physics, with PDF chapters covering wave-particle duality, uncertainty, superposition, and interpretations.
A lost Schrödinger manuscript reveals a twist in quantum physics(sciencealert.com)
62 points by ibobev | 38 comments
ScienceAlert article on a rediscovered unpublished Schrödinger manuscript presenting a hidden-variable model rebutting 1940s claims that determinism was impossible.
![Screenshot of jetp.ras.ru: Propagation of Sound in Strongly Viscous Liquids (1966) [pdf]](https://hn.urlbox.com/shots/renders/2026/10/18/ab54765c-93be-40d0-b752-9edf6ebf6138.jpg)
Propagation of Sound in Strongly Viscous Liquids (1966) [pdf](jetp.ras.ru)
7 points by peter_d_sherman | 1 comments
A 1966 physics paper PDF from the journal JETP on how sound propagates through strongly viscous liquids.
AI was great until it was not(thetheorygirlie.substack.com)
55 points by JohnHammersley | 35 comments
A Substack essay by physicist Nia Robles titled "AI was great until it was not," presented as a cautionary tale about relying on AI.
Orbital Angular Momentum of Light(en.wikipedia.org)
22 points by peter_d_sherman | 4 comments
Wikipedia article on the orbital angular momentum of light, a property of light beams associated with their helical wavefront structure.
New 'super ice' 10 times stronger, bringing it close to the strength of concrete(sciencealert.com)
113 points by andrewl | 88 comments
ScienceAlert article reporting on a new reinforced 'super ice' material said to be ten times stronger than normal ice, approaching concrete's strength.
How to Select an Experiment(chillphysicsenjoyer.substack.com)
4 points by surprisetalk | 0 comments
A Substack essay from Chill Physics Enjoyer on how to choose which scientific experiment to pursue.
Whatever became of holography? (2011)(americanscientist.org)
163 points by cainxinth | 92 comments
An American Scientist article from 2011 examining the history and fate of holography; the capture shows only a browser verification screen.
Sound (2022)(ciechanow.ski)
260 points by dverlaeckt80 | 32 comments
Bartosz Ciechanowski's interactive article explaining what sound is, how it is created, and how it propagates, with playable audio demos.
Thorium 229 based nuclear clocks(jerrycards.com)
4 points by oofbey | 2 comments
News article reporting that two research teams, at Tsinghua and TU Wien, have built the first operating nuclear clocks based on the thorium-229 nucleus.
A nuclear clock synchronized to 229Th(nature.com)
13 points by sbulaev | 3 comments
Open-access Nature research article reporting a nuclear clock synchronized to the thorium-229 nuclear transition.
Teams in Vienna and Beijing have built the first thorium nuclear clocks(nytimes.com)
170 points by gumby | 51 comments
New York Times article on teams in Vienna and Beijing building the first working nuclear clocks based on thorium-229; the capture shows a bot-block page.
Nobel Prize in Physics 2026: Francis Halzen(nobelprize.org)
551 points by solarist | 194 comments
Official Nobel Prize page for the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to Francis Halzen.
Sea Monkeys Show Scientists How to Rewrite a Rule of Turbulence(quantamagazine.org)
7 points by ibobev | 0 comments
Quanta Magazine article on how swimming brine shrimp (sea monkeys) revealed that energy in turbulent systems can flow in the reverse direction.
Scientists build most accurate atomic clock(phys.org)
50 points by wglb | 23 comments
Phys.org news article about scientists building the world's most accurate atomic clock; the capture shows a Cloudflare verification challenge instead.
Coulomb's law remains tricky to test at home(chillphysicsenjoyer.substack.com)
20 points by surprisetalk | 16 comments
A Substack blog post about the author's attempt to test Coulomb's law at home and reflections on developing fluency with physical laws.
An atlas of periodic solutions to the three-body problem(threebodyorbits.com)
350 points by danielmorozoff | 79 comments
An interactive web atlas of periodic three-body orbits with animated visualizations, orbit families, a battle mode, and a leaderboard.
Biggest dark matter detector spots a single weird particle(science.org)
333 points by randycupertino | 122 comments
Science magazine news article about the world's biggest dark matter detector spotting a single unusual particle; captured page shows a Cloudflare verification screen.
Why does kinetic energy increase quadratically, not linearly, with speed? (2011)(physics.stackexchange.com)
354 points by ProxyTracer | 195 comments
A Physics Stack Exchange question from 2011 asking why kinetic energy scales with the square of speed rather than linearly; the capture shows a bot verification page.
Antimatter has been transported for the first time(nature.com)
381 points by leephillips | 173 comments
Nature news article reporting that CERN physicists transported antimatter by truck for the first time.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961-1964)(feynmanlectures.caltech.edu)
455 points by rramadass | 123 comments
Caltech's online edition of The Feynman Lectures on Physics; the capture shows a Cloudflare 'you have been blocked' page instead of the content.
Why is the sky blue?(explainers.blog)
766 points by udit99 | 247 comments
An explainer blog post on why the sky is blue and sunsets are red, building a model of light scattering that also covers the Martian sky.
Airfoil (2024)(ciechanow.ski)
508 points by brk | 59 comments
Bartosz Ciechanowski's interactive article explaining how airfoils generate lift by examining the forces created by airflow around aircraft wings.
Nobel Prize in Physics 2025(nobelprize.org)
448 points by luisb | 91 comments
Nobel Prize popular science explainer for the 2025 Physics prize, titled "Quantum properties on a human scale," from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Candle Flame Oscillations as a Clock(cpldcpu.com)
324 points by cpldcpu | 75 comments
Blog post on Tim's Blog (cpldcpu) about bundling three candles so their flames oscillate at about 9.9Hz and using that oscillation as a clock signal.
Altermagnets: The first new type of magnet in nearly a century(newscientist.com)
388 points by Brajeshwar | 100 comments
New Scientist article on altermagnets, the first new type of magnet found in nearly a century, and how they could enable new kinds of computers.
What Problems to Solve (1966)(genius.cat-v.org)
456 points by jxmorris12 | 54 comments
A 1966 letter from Richard Feynman to former student Koichi Mano advising him that worthwhile problems are ones you can actually solve, hosted on cat-v.org.
But good sir, what is electricity?(lcamtuf.substack.com)
388 points by rapawel | 199 comments
A Substack article by lcamtuf giving an accessible explanation of the physics of conductors, insulators, and electric charges for hobby electronics learners.
Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)(digital.archives.caltech.edu)
486 points by bookofjoe | 239 comments
Caltech Archives image record of Richard Feynman's blackboard as it appeared at the time of his death in 1988.
Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant (1996)(amasci.com)
391 points by Simon_O_Rourke | 215 comments
Bill Beaty's 1996 amasci.com page recounting a reported invisible electrostatic wall formed by charged plastic film at a 3M adhesive tape plant.
On the Nature of Time(writings.stephenwolfram.com)
326 points by iamwil | 221 comments
Stephen Wolfram essay arguing that time is best understood computationally, as the progressive application of computational rules by the universe.
![Screenshot of nobelprize.org: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]](https://hn.urlbox.com/shots/renders/2024/10/8/839f80f0-8c22-4cc5-9aad-2bcf0091ab29.jpg)
Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf](nobelprize.org)
905 points by drpossum | 754 comments
Nobel Prize scientific background document on the 2024 Physics prize awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for foundational work on artificial neural networks.
I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)(jdstillwater.blogspot.com)
439 points by ctoth | 274 comments
A 2012 blog post by physics teacher JD Stillwater recounting washing a toaster in a dishwasher and reflecting on conventional wisdom versus conventional ignorance.
A wonderful coincidence or an expected connection: why π² ≈ g(roitman.io)
465 points by signa11 | 311 comments
A blog post explaining why π² is approximately equal to g (9.81 m/s²), tracing the connection to the historical seconds-pendulum definition of the metre.
An intuitive guide to Maxwell's equations (2020)(photonlines.substack.com)
476 points by gballan | 111 comments
A Substack post giving an intuitive, visual explanation of Maxwell's equations and the history of electromagnetic field theory.
Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)(asc.ohio-state.edu)
341 points by ent101 | 136 comments
Excerpt from "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" where Feynman recounts recovering from burnout by playing with physics, starting with a wobbling plate.
Light can make water evaporate without heat(news.mit.edu)
409 points by Tomte | 171 comments
MIT News article reporting a finding that light can cause water to evaporate without heat, with implications for natural phenomena and desalination.
Tidal energy is not renewable(cs.stanford.edu)
332 points by wyozi | 239 comments
An essay by Jerry Z. Liu of Stanford arguing that tidal power is not renewable because extracting it slows Earth's rotation and could cause tidal locking to the Moon.
So you want to learn physics (2021)(susanrigetti.com)
468 points by weird_science | 150 comments
Susan Rigetti's second-edition guide (2021) to self-studying physics, outlining a curriculum of textbooks and topics for learning physics on your own.
Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)(pages.cs.wisc.edu)
423 points by crummy | 71 comments
A satirical undergraduate physics lab report ranting about a failed experiment measuring the temperature dependence of resistivity in germanium.
LK-99: The live online race for a room-temperature superconductor(forums.spacebattles.com)
489 points by fofoz | 492 comments
A SpaceBattles forum thread discussing claims of the LK-99 room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor and the online efforts to replicate it.
Superconductor news: What’s claimed, and how strong the evidence seems to be(science.org)
1142 points by etiam | 450 comments
Derek Lowe's In the Pipeline blog post on Science.org discussing claims of a room-temperature superconductor and assessing the strength of the evidence.
Why is my dryer radioactive?(physics.stackexchange.com)
629 points by jpitz | 148 comments
Physics Stack Exchange question asking why a Geiger counter reads elevated radiation inside a clothes dryer right after a drying cycle.
Bicycle(ciechanow.ski)
2962 points by todsacerdoti | 336 comments
Bartosz Ciechanowski's interactive explainer article on how bicycles work, covering the physics of riding, steering, and balance with 3D demonstrations.