Dungeoneer
First Post
I'm in the same boat as you, man.This is why I ask these kinds of questions. Because I want to understand how it all works, not because I think I've found a flaw. When I see a "logical flaw" in physics, I figure I just need to have it explained more/better, not that I'm the first person to see the "flaw."
And I'm very thankful to have people here who are able and willing to take the time to explain things more and better (mo' betta) to me. I love science, but I'm only a layman, and many papers and books are written above my level. Having peers, like here, who can explain things to my level without making me feel like a complete moron is quite lovely.
Bullgrit
Have you ever read anything by Paul Davies? He's a physicist who write books that make arcane concepts fantastically accessible to laymen. I never really understood what relativity was about until I stumbled across his book "Other Worlds" a few years ago. Since then I've gobbled up anything I find by him. He has an amazing gift for explaining stuff: quantum mechanics, gravity waves, dark matter, unified field theory and even a bit of string theory (although even Davies admits that string theory is pretty much pure math). Also, he's not afraid to dabble in more speculative stuff like the possibility of alien life, whether we're all living in a computer simulation, and the ever-popular question of whether god exists (Davies is agnostic).
Personally, I wish I could understand a bit of the math, but mathematics really is its own language. When someone says "Here's the basic equation behind X..." and then there is a string of Greek characters, I feel a bit out of my depth.