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Why do we talk so much about 'ideal' stuff in physics? (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by fastandcurious@lemmy.world to c/askphysics@lemmy.world
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Sorry if this is a naive question (I am in high school), but why do we always talk about ‘ideal’ stuff in physics? The conditions are not possible in real life so why bother with them, won’t the numerical values not accurately represent real life situations?

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[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

A critical concept in physics and engineering is Superposition: the net (total) effect on a system is the sum of all component effects.

The "ideal" system is still there in any real physical system. It is not invalid in the slightest. The idealization is simply being modified by an infinite number of other smaller forces and interactions (friction, air resistance, earth rotation, etc) that cannot be easily quantified at your level. Once you learn the idealization, you can use superposition to add more components later on.