The complexity of physics

Social/behavioral/cognitive scientists such as myself sometimes grumble that research in our profession is difficult because theories and measurements involving people are squishy, not like in the hard sciences like physics.  On the other hand, my father is a physicist and he often tells me that physics is not as clean as we think it is.   I just read this article on the Mpemba effect–the phenomenon where cold water can freeze more slowly than hot water–and it inclines me to think that my father is right.  In grade school I learned that hot water can indeed freeze more quickly, and it’s because it evaporates while it cools.  But the story is not actually that simple.  Who ever imagined that life for physicists was this complicated?

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