Physicists will say that a certain system has $G$ symmetry, where $G$ is some group, such as $SU(2)$ or $S_3$ or whatever. To show that this is the case, they will conjure up an explicit representation $\rho_G$ of that group and show that the equations of motions—or the action, or whatever—are st...

When a crystalline material breaks, it often does so along planes in its crystalline structure. As such this is a result of its microscopic structure. When glass breaks however, the shapes along which it breaks are typically very smooth as well, rather than being very irregular or jagged. Being a...

This is inspired by this music.SE question, which I attempted to offer an answer for, but the more I think about it I am still quite unsure about it. As physicists, we often try to describe features of experimental data using minimal models to capture the essential details of the system. I'm hop...