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No More Neutral ⚛ (thelemmy.club)
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[-] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 63 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

"Wish granted. Electrons, being a human construct, have now always been defined slightly differently. Just as Franklin got the polarity wrong and you still use his labeling system, J.J. Thompson will now have fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the electron, leading to a cascading assumption by later scientists that the number of electrons in a neutral atom is one greater than the number of protons. Even though this completely breaks the math of quantum mechanics, everyone is just used to subtracting one at this point. This is a minutely worse world, but as a bonus, every physicist who sees you will now be preternaturally certain that you are personally to blame. You're welcome."

[-] Juice@midwest.social 30 points 16 hours ago

It is way too common to confuse the abstractions we use to understand reality with reality itself. Like the scientists who work with this stuff are really consistent in keeping the two separated, but the moment a theory gets in the hands of a journalist or god forbid a politician, it starts wreaking havok

[-] AlfalFaFail@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 hours ago

It is way too common to confuse the abstractions we use to understand reality with reality itself. Like the scientists who work with this stuff are really consistent in keeping the two separated

I wish this was true. I remember seeing a physicist talking about how the laws of physics are mathematical in nature and that the laws of physics needed to exist before the universe do the universe is made of math. I don't think the vast majority of physicists have a philosophical grounding for the types of ontological claims they make. Even less so since "shut up and calculate" became the professional axiom.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 20 points 15 hours ago

They're making the electrons gay!

[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago

Never met a gay electron. They're always so damn negative.

this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
534 points (97.8% liked)

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