Could this depend on your definition of “physics”? Like, if you use a narrow definition like “general relativity + quantum mechanics”, you can learn that in a few years. But if you include things like electricity, expansion of universe, fluid mechanics, particle physics, superconductors, optics, string theory, acoustics, aerodynamics… most of them may be relatively simple to learn, but all of them together it’s too much.
Maybe. I don’t feel like that’s the key thing I’m trying to point at here, though. The fact that you can understand any one of those in a reasonable amount of time is still surprising, if you step back far enough.
Could this depend on your definition of “physics”? Like, if you use a narrow definition like “general relativity + quantum mechanics”, you can learn that in a few years. But if you include things like electricity, expansion of universe, fluid mechanics, particle physics, superconductors, optics, string theory, acoustics, aerodynamics… most of them may be relatively simple to learn, but all of them together it’s too much.
Maybe. I don’t feel like that’s the key thing I’m trying to point at here, though. The fact that you can understand any one of those in a reasonable amount of time is still surprising, if you step back far enough.