Seven equations that rule your world

Yep Maxwell's the man, for sure. He must of had a bad agent! :) Arguably, his contributions had every bit as much impact on science/industry as Einstein. Scientists know this; however, he is relatively unknown by the general public. No A-bomb, no publicity, I guess. What does that say about our society?

What does that say about our society?

That they didn't major in physics? But that's okay - the Big Dogs knew:

“The special theory of relativity owes its origins to Maxwell’s equations of the electromagnetic field.” - Albert Einstein

“This paper is the first pointer to the existence of radiation other than light and heat, and ranks as one of the greatest leaps ever achieved in human thought.” -R. V. Jones, on Maxell's presentation ‘A Dynamic Theory of the Electro-Magnetic Field’

“He achieved greatness unequalled” - Max Planck

“From a long view of the history of mankind – seen from, say, ten thousand years from now – there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell’s discovery of the laws of electrodynamics.” - Richard P Feynman

Just tell them that their cell phone wouldn't work without Maxwell. That should get their attention. Better yet, send it in a Twitter ;-)

I hate that Laplace operators can sometimes be right-side up triangles -- the same as the delta operator... grrr..

But the equations were/are beautiful. And you can see one in the Weird Al video for his song White and Nerdy (Schrödinger's) -- darned... I can't type or cut & paste it into here from mathematica.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qYF9DZPdw

Never saw that before, Chirmly. Too good.

I think I have every single thing Al shows in that video, plus several slide rules (including one just like the slide rule in the Smithsonian), books of 6-place logarithms, a Dvorak keyboard, and a spinthariscope from a 1956 chemistry set. And my original Halliday and Resnick.

But no Segway (yet). White and nerdy. Yup.

I still have slide-rules (love them). Showing my son how to use those and play D&D, pick locks ... he's 7 years old. I plan on reading Flatland to him, but he's gotta read Hitchhiker's Guide himself (not as much fun when it's read to you).

But I do check out all the math in movies and shows.. I'll even pause them or take pix with the iphone.

I criticized Spongebob (to my wife and son) for having an impossible circle formula on the blackboard in the background of the classroom.

Lucky kid, Chirmly. The lock-picking reminds me of this:

Los Alamos was isolated; in his own words, "There wasn't anything to do there". Bored, Feynman found pastimes such as picking locks, breaking into safes and leaving mischievous notes to prove that the security at the lab was not as good as people would like to believe.

What a mind that guy had.

Flatland

Haven't read that in at least 3 decades, maybe longer. Great book, along with Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland. My grandkids enjoy that one.