Poynting Vector Or Something

Physicists get unreasonably excited about harmonic oscillators because they're basically the mathematical equivalent of comfort food. It's just a mass on a spring going back and forth, yet somehow it shows up in everything from pendulums to quantum mechanics. The perfect system where you can actually solve the equations without wanting to throw your calculator across the room. Finding a harmonic oscillator in physics is like finding the one ingredient that makes every recipe better. No wonder they're ready to cook with it.

Someone's got their particles in a twist about CERN's collider ambitions! 🔬⚛️ This hot take compares building bigger particle accelerators to... well... compensating for something! The poster is having a meltdown over CERN's $68 billion plan for a larger hadron collider, claiming physicists should focus on better theories first rather than smashing particles at higher energies hoping for discoveries. It's like accusing scientists of playing an extremely expensive game of "hit things harder and see what happens!" In reality, particle physics has always balanced theory and experiment—sometimes you need to smash things at higher energies to discover particles predicted by theory (hello, Higgs boson!) and sometimes unexpected experimental results lead to revolutionary theories. It's not an either/or situation—it's scientific tango!

The internal struggle of every engineering student when someone brings up perpetual motion machines! First instinct: "I don't have time to explain thermodynamics to you." Second instinct: "But if I don't correct this fundamental misconception, I might spontaneously combust." This perfectly captures the engineering dilemma - do you politely ignore scientific impossibilities in casual conversation, or do you become that person who can't help but explain why the laws of thermodynamics make perpetual motion machines impossible? The struggle is real!

The meme pokes fun at the beauty standards in chemistry equations! On the left is the complex van der Waals equation of state (with all those pesky parameters and squared terms), while on the right is the elegantly simple ideal gas law (PV = nRT). Chemistry textbooks and professors often treat the ideal gas law as "less accurate" or "less attractive" than its complicated counterparts, but let's be honest—the simplicity of PV = nRT is the equivalent of supermodel-level hotness in equation form. Why use many variables when few variables do trick? Justice for the ideal gas law! It's the equation equivalent of that friend who rolls out of bed looking perfect while the rest of us need two hours of prep.

The ultimate physics bamboozle! This student's essay starts like a serious tribute to Niels Bohr but quickly descends into a magnificent rickroll. Hidden in the highlighted text is the immortal chorus of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up"! Look closely at the first words of each line: "Never going to give you up, never gonna let you down..." Quantum mechanics meets 80s pop in this devious academic prank! The teacher probably expected discussions of electron orbits but got serenaded instead. Einstein may have said God doesn't play dice, but this student definitely plays tricks! *adjusts safety goggles while cackling maniacally*

118 years. That's how long it took us to go from barely getting off the ground on Earth to flying a helicopter on another planet. The Wright brothers' contraption flew for 12 seconds. Ingenuity has now completed over 60 flights on Mars, where the atmosphere is 1% as dense as Earth's. Flying there is like trying to generate lift in what we'd consider a near-vacuum. Next time your drone gets stuck in a tree, remember we have one flying around on Mars and nobody can climb up to get it.