physics

Michael Nielsen

Michael Nielsen is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michael Nielsen rather than just read about it. In short: Michael Aaron Nielsen (born January 4, 1974) is an Australian-American quantum physicist, science writer, and computer programming researcher living in San Francisco. Work In 1998, Nielsen received his PhD in physics from the University of New Mexico.

Key takeaways

Michael Nielsen belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michael Nielsen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael Nielsen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michael Aaron Nielsen (born January 4, 1974) is an Australian-American quantum physicist, science writer, and computer programming researcher living in San Francisco.

Work In 1998, Nielsen received his PhD in physics from the University of New Mexico. In 2004, he was recognized as Australia's "youngest academic" and was awarded a Federation Fellowship at the University of Queensland. During this fellowship, he worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Caltech, and at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Alongside Isaac Chuang, Nielsen co-authored a popular textbook on quantum computing, which has been cited more than 52,000 times as of July 2023. In 2007, Nielsen shifted his focus from quantum information and computation to “the development of new tools for scientific collaboration and publication”, including the Polymath project with Timothy Gowers, which aims to facilitate "massively collaborative mathematics." Besides writing books and essays, he has also given talks about open science. He was a member of the Working Group on Open Data in Science at the Open Knowledge Foundation. Nielsen is a strong advocate for open science and has written extensively on the subject, including in his book Reinventing Discovery, which was favorably reviewed in Nature and named one of the Financial Times' best books of 2011. In 2015 Nielsen published the online textbook Neural Networks and Deep Learning, and joined the Recurse Center as a Research Fellow for a year. He then joined Y Combinator Research as a Research Fellow from 2016 to 2019. In 2019, Nielsen collaborated with Andy Matuschak to develop Quantum Computing for the Very Curious, a series of interactive essays explaining quantum computing and quantum mechanics. With Patrick Collison, he researched whether scientific progress is slowing down. Nielsen resides in San Francisco.

Bibliography Nielsen, Michael A.; Chuang, Isaac L. (2010), Quantum Computation and Quantum Information (New ed., 10th anniversary ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-107-00217-3 Nielsen, Michael A. (2011). Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14890-8. This book is based on themes that are also covered in his essay on the Future of Science. Nielsen, Michael A. (2015). Neural Networks and Deep Learning. Determination Press. Nielsen, M. A. (2004). "The bits that make up the Universe". Nature. 427 (6969): 16–17. Bibcode:2004Natur.427...16N. doi:10.1038/427016b. (Review of Information: The New Language of Science (2003) by Hans Christian von Baeyer)

References

External links Michael Nielsen's account on Twitter Personal website of Nielsen

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael Nielsen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael Nielsen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michael Nielsen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michael Nielsen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michael Nielsen

In research: Michael Nielsen appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michael Nielsen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michael Nielsen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1974 births, 21st-century American science writers, Australian textbook writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael Nielsen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michael Nielsen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael Nielsen means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Michael Nielsen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael Nielsen in simple terms?

Michael Aaron Nielsen (born January 4, 1974) is an Australian-American quantum physicist, science writer, and computer programming researcher living in San Francisco. Work In 1998, Nielsen received his PhD in physics from the University of New Mexico.

Why does Michael Nielsen matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michael Nielsen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michael Nielsen.