Difference between revisions of "User talk:Mathoreilly"

Revision as of 18:57, July 2, 2008

Can you write about quantum mechanics in a way that a bright high school student could follow your meaning? --Ed Poor ^Talk 21:10, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

What I have written is not graduate-level material, it's college-level. Quantum mechanics is, after all, a college-level subject. If someone is interested in learning quantum mechanics and comes to this page, I think it would be nice to have the essential postulates of the subject summarized precisely and succinctly. If people want a more general description of the theory as well, they should by all means add that to the beginning of the section. Unfortunately, there's no way that I know of to simplify the material I added to make it accessible to a high school audience. For those people who have the necessary background to even begin to study quantum mechanics (calculus and linear algebra), the material I added should be accessible.--Mathoreilly 22:06, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

Well, I have a year of high school physics and a year of college physics, and I can't understand it. I might be stupid (seriously, I'm considering this), but on the other hand it might just be that the topic deserves a better explanation and that we haven't found a suitable author yet.

Please make an attempt to make it accessible, even at the cost of being succinct. --Ed Poor ^Talk 22:22, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

Well, what don't you understand or recognize? That will help me a lot to determine what needs to be changed. The more specific you are, the better a job I can do. --Mathoreilly 22:23, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

The postulates section. --Ed Poor ^Talk 22:27, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

yeah, but what part of it?--Mathoreilly 22:42, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

The first five bullet points. For example, what's an eigenvalue, what is Hilbert space (and how might that involve a unit vector)?

Don't assume your readers know this. And if you aren't up to the task of explaining the lofty to the earth-bound, you might want to try writing on another topic - I can simply delete the entire section. --Ed Poor ^Talk 22:52, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

Well, there's a link to Hilbert space. I'm not going to write a whole book on quantum mechanics in one day. I never said that the whole section is complete, and I welcome anyone to come and add more detailed explanations. But I do think this information should be somewhere in there.--Mathoreilly 23:07, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

Writing level and competence

Don't write anything more about math or physics without clearing it with me first. Make your suggestions an article talk pages only. Your recent contribs have been substandard: jargon-laden and confusing at best, and possibly misleading.

Educational resources must be accurate and accessible. --Ed Poor ^Talk 14:45, 2 July 2008 (EDT)

Well, I respectfully disagree. I think I'm one of the few people here who actually understands the mathematical topics he/she is writing about. I have found some absolutely shameful explanations of various mathematical topics in just a few hours of searching. Accurate and a little technical is much better than confusing and wrong.--Mathoreilly 14:56, 2 July 2008 (EDT)

Trust me, by the way, my contributions are quite accurate. I have a Ph.D. in mathematics.--Mathoreilly 14:57, 2 July 2008 (EDT)