World at the End of Time followup-"5th Grade Astrophysics"

[phoenix]

Upon further reflection, the discussion around the above topic isn't sitting right with me. I 'd like some clarification.

For the people who described Pohl's explanations as "5th Grade Astrophysics", why didn't you like it? Was it because you were familiar with the science and didn't need the information? Or was it an inherent flaw in the book? If it's the latter,why? Too dumbed down? Inaccurate? Not enough detail?

[Saffi_Anne]

I didn't find the physics in the book at all easy, and I think to call them "5th grade" it would be necessary to have been a really, really smart 5th grader.

However, their importance (if not their complexity) was diminished by Pohl usually explaining out the consequences of what was going on with the various particles immediately after introducing them. I'm still not sure what a [something]* particle is, but according to Pohl it did x, thereby advancing the plot so that y happened. So even if I didn't quite understand the physics, I was at least able to keep up with the story.

That's why I asked whether others felt that the science was so esoteric that it approached fantasy - you didn't need to know the consequences of a particular phenomenon because the author immediately told you. As far as I was aware, Wan-To could have been waving a magic wand just as easily as manipulating sub-atomic particles

* The [something] particle being any particle - I'm still not sure what any of them do. Except tachyons. I think I get the tachyons thing. Except for whether physicists think they actually exist.

[wathomasson]

I've just emerged from a combination of work pressure and trying to finish all the fiction Hugo nominees. Just enough to get back to the forum.

I was the one who referred to 5th-grade astrophysics. It's true that I already knew all this, but what I was referring to was that Pohl was explaining it at a level and in language appropriate for a bright 5th grader rather than at the 10th-grade level we usually see in SF books.

The particle physics that Saffi_Anne talks about is distinct from the astrophysics of star birth and evolution -- indeed, the evolution of the universe. Don't worry about the particle physics: Pohl has it wrong. He clearly does not understand entanglement, so far as we can be said to understand it at all. Tachyons looked like a bright idea at the time he was writing, but further exploration of the idea's details has shown it won't work. And I've never heard of the third type of particle he mentioned. Probably it was a speculative possibility someone tossed out that no one but Pohl ever picked up on.