Physics: How Vocabulary Distorts Our Perception of Reality

“What’s worse,” he continues, “is that many simple words like ‘mass’ don’t have the same meaning that physicists originally gave them.” He teaches theoretical physics at Harvard and has published in various media outlets. This satirical text was committed In the popular magazine The New Scientist.

It's true that unlike many scientific disciplines that use their own unique words—whether we think of plate tectonics in geology or molecules with obscure names in chemistry—physics uses everyday words as metaphors, even though many people don't realize that they are metaphors.

For example, the word “force.” In physics, its use dates back to the 17th century, when Isaac Newton used it to describe the “force” with which one object pushes or pulls another. But 200 years later, when we began measuring the effects of electromagnetic fields on everything around them, we began using the term “electromagnetic force,” and much later, “gravitational force,” which does much more than just “push” or “pull.”

Another example is the word “particle.” Over time, it has had two conflicting definitions. In one, it is equivalent to a grain of sand, on a much smaller scale. In the other, it is like an electron, which behaves more like a wave than a grain of sand.

These two examples do not change anything in most people’s daily lives, but they do obscure part of the reality they purport to describe. The fact that “elementary particles” like electrons are not really particles lies at the heart of some of the most important scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. When people realize this, Strassler points out, they will blame themselves for not understanding science, not realizing that the vocabulary physicists use has fooled them. “The language we use can influence our imagination. When we hear a familiar word, our brains immediately import its conceptual baggage, with its connotations, metaphors, and images.”