Think of it, the primary examples of the irrational, transcendental, imaginary and natural numbers combine to make nothing.
Comrade Bork
Posted on 10/25/2004 1:46:25 AM PDT by accipter
CONSIDER a verbal description of the effect of gravity: drop a ball, and it will fall.
That is a true enough fact, but fuzzy in the way that frustrates scientists. How fast does the ball fall? Does it fall at constant rate, or accelerate? Would a heavier ball fall faster? More words, more sentences could provide details, swelling into an unwieldy yet still incomplete paragraph.
The wonder of mathematics is that it captures precisely in a few symbols what can only be described clumsily with many words. Those symbols, strung together in meaningful order, make equations - which in turn constitute the world's most concise and reliable body of knowledge. And so it is that physics offers a very simple equation for calculating the speed of a falling ball.
Readers of Physics World magazine recently were asked an interesting question: Which equations are the greatest?
Dr. Robert P. Crease, a professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory, posed the question in his Critical Point column and received 120 responses, nominating 50 different equations. Some were nominated for the sheer beauty of their simplicity, some for the breadth of knowledge they capture, others for historical importance. In general, Dr. Crease said, a great equation "reshapes perception of the universe."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Equation? Sorry, I don't know much about riding horses... :-)
Looks like someone threw their Travel Scrabble board out the car window.
No, not at all. We're not talking here about whether they should be eradicated, or whether they can be eraditcated.
Human nature is what it is.
But it would certainly be nice to know that charity, and foregiveness, and humility, and faithfullness are actually something worth while.
As I have expressed it before, there are two choices. Either the universe has some sort of meaning or not.
If it has no meaning, then all our ideals about goodness and kindness, hard work, contribution, all those ideals are wotrhless.
Lately I am inclined to believe the latter.
Think of it, the primary examples of the irrational, transcendental, imaginary and natural numbers combine to make nothing.
Comrade Bork
We all have our destiny. The funny thing is, no matter how rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, brilliant or boring, it is not of our chosing. And I guess the best we can do is walk with a smile for the olde woman we see on the street.
The use of imaginary numbers in calculus was, to me, the most hypocritical concept ever. Here you are studying math, a finite science and they throw in imaginary numbers to make thing come out the way they want. Sheesh.
Aahhhh, but what about the hotel tax?
Could I ask you what exactly was the class and what was he trying to prove? I'd have to assume that it was an advanced physics class, probably graduate level.
(this is why I'm curious:)
I can't imagine any physics professor spending an entire class and six blackboards "proving a theorum" - certainly not in an undergrad physics class anyway.
As far as I know, physics just doesn't use math that's all that hard (relatively speaking anyway) -
for example, you can start with the four Maxwell's laws of electromagnetism and derive that the speed of light is constant for all non-accelerating observers, or you can derive Einstein's e=mc**2, or you can derive the Lorentz contraction for Einstein's relativity, but these can all be done in a few steps. I'd like to know what physics theorum would take six blackboards and an entire class time to prove.
I'd like to retell the story, so please let me know a few more details.
(using E to represent the greek symbol, and assuming x = 1 .. n beneath) :
(E(x))^2 = E(x^3)
(1)^2 = (1^3)
(1 + 2)^2 = (1^3 + 2^3)
(1 + 2 + 3)^2 = (1^3 + 2^3 + 3^3)
It's kind of like the movie "Harvey", where the imaginary rabbit is treated as real by Jimmy Stuart. Harvey might not really be real, but by acting like he's real, Stuart's character can easily accomplish things (like influencing other people) he otherwise couldn't.
Therefore, imaginary Harvey serves a useful purpose, just like imaginary numbers do.
you explained it very well. that's a pretty slick equasion.
Now I wish I could understand why it's so. If you have an insight that explains why this works, please let me know. I'll probably be fiddling with it until I can understand it (if ever).
What Makes an Equation Beautiful?
When you can fit it on the back of your hand during test time, like Maxwell's Equations.
Try this hint:
S(n) = 1+ 2+...+n
C(n) = 1^3 + 2^3 +...+n^3
S(n)^2 = C(n)
Use induction
It is true for n = 1
S(n+1)^2 = C(n+1)
Left side: = (S(n) + n+1)^2= S(n)^2 + 2(n+1)S(n) +(n+1)^2
Right side: = C(n+1) = C(n) +(n+1)^3
Exercise: finish the proof
My favorite?
(Size 40 waist)-(10 lbs.) = Size 36
It is OBVIOUS that you are a DU schill, sent here to FR to show how DEM's understand the economic world: ALWAYS asking the wrong question....
There's nothing "imaginary" about imaginary numbers, they're quite real, even if they aren't "real numbers".
Don't mistake an unfortunate naming convention (which was partly chosen in jest anyway) for some sort of actual "illegitmacy".
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