I just ran across an article that I need to share with you. It’s the kind of article that makes me take in a deep, deep breath and move to a higher level of understanding. I love that feeling, even though the pressure changes sometimes make my ears pop, cognitively speaking.<\/p>\n
Nothing some cognitive chewing gum wouldn’t help.<\/p>\n
The article is called “The Greatest Equations Ever”<\/a> and it’s truly inspiring. Here’s one excerpt that I hope will lead you to read the entire piece–even if, like me, you’re neither a physicist nor a mathematician:<\/p>\n The unifying power of a great equation is not as simple a criterion as it sounds. A great equation does more than set out a fundamental property of the universe, delivering information like a signpost, but works hard to wrest something from nature. As Michael Berry from Bristol University once said of the Dirac equation for the electron: “Any great physical theory gives back more than is put into it, in the sense that as well as solving the problem that inspired its construction, it explains more and predicts new things” (Physics World February 1998 p38).<\/p>\n Great equations change the way we perceive the world. They reorchestrate the world — transforming and reintegrating our perception by redefining what belongs together with what. Light and waves. Energy and mass. Probability and position. And they do so in a way that often seems unexpected and even strange. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n The deep connection for literary people like me is the power of the symbol.<\/p>\n My thanks to David Appel of Technology Review for blogging about this article.<\/a> (Yes, of course, it was an email with links to a blog with links to a website: that’s one of the railroads I like to travel.) My thanks to Robert P. Crease for writing the article. (Short bio from the Physics World website: “Robert P. Crease is in the Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, and historian at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.”) And since there’s an email link at the end of the essay, I’ll soon be writing Dr. Crease a short note of personal thanks.<\/p>\n Some strength for the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I just ran across an article that I need to share with you. It’s the kind of article that makes me take in a deep, deep breath and move to a higher level of understanding. I love that feeling, even … Continue reading