Equations Quotes
More Equations Quotes
If God has made the world a perfect mechanism, He has at least conceded so much to our imperfect intellect that in order to predict little parts of it, we need not solve innumerable differential equations, but can use dice with fair success.
Max Born— "Einstein's Statistical Theories" in Albert Einstein : Philosopher-Scientist (1951) edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, p. 176
What isitthat breathes fire intothe equations and makes a universe for them to describe? Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
— 1988 A Brief History of Time, ch.11.
all the standard equations of mathematical physics can be separated and solved in Kerr geometry.
subrahmanyan chandrasekhar— From Chandrasekhar's Nobel lecture, in his summary of his work on black holes; Republished in: D. G. Caldi, ?George D. Mostow (1989) Proceedings of the Gibbs Symposium: Yale University, May 15-17, 1989 p. 230
The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much too complicated to be soluble. It therefore becomes desirable that approximate practical methods of applying quantum mechanics should be developed, which can lead to an explanation of the main features of complex atomic systems without too much computation.
paul dirac— Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, Vol. 123, No. 792 (6 April 1929)
I don't suppose that applies so much to other physicists; I think it’s a peculiarity of myself that I like to play about with equations, just looking for beautiful mathematical relations which maybe don’t have any physical meaning at all. Sometimes they do.
paul dirac— Interview with Dr. P. A. M. Dirac by Thomas S. Kuhn at Dirac's home, Cambridge, England, May 7, 1963
In the abstract world of American economists, equations run both ways; they believe that by changing the sign of a variable from plus to minus or from minus to plus or the price and quantity of x or y, the direction of historical movement can be reversed.
robert gilpin— Chapter Eight, International Finance, p. 336
It is not particularly satisfactory to see equations set forth as direct results of observation and experiment, where we used to get long mathematical deductions as apparent proofs of them. Nevertheless, I believe that we cannot, without deceiving ourselves, extract much more from known facts than is asserted in the papers referred to. If we wish to lend more color to the theory, there is nothing to prevent us from supplementing all this and aiding our powers of imagination by concrete representations of the various conceptions as to the nature of electric polarisation, the electric current, etc.
heinrich hertz— Electric Waves: Being Researches on the Propagation of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space (1900), p. 28
Baseball players or cricketers do not need to be able to solve explicitly the non-linear differential equations which govern the flight of the ball. They just catch it.
paul ormerod— Part I, Chapter 5, Mechanistic Modelling, p. 108
Poetry is a sort of inspired mathematics, which gives us equations, not for abstract figures, triangles, squares, and the like, but for the human emotions. If one has a mind which inclines to magic rather than science, one will prefer to speak of these equations as spells or incantations; it sounds more arcane, mysterious, recondite.
ezra pound— The Spirit of Romance, p. 5
Differential equations won't help you much in the design of aeroplanes — not yet, anyhow.
nevil shute— Rawdon, the aircraft designer, to Morris, his aspiring protege.
— Stephen Morris, ch. 3, p. 41 (1923, published posthumously in 1961)
My algebra was relatively poor. I found it very difficult to use equations that substituted numbers — to which I had a synesthetic and emotional response — for letters, to which I had none. It was because of this that I decided not to continue math at Advanced level, but chose to study history, French and German instead.
daniel tammet— Chapter 6: Adolescence
It is clear that the building of models is not a purely mechanical process but requires skill of a high order – not merely mathematical skill but a sensitivity to the relative importance of different factors and a critical, almost an artistic, faculty in the selection of behaviour equations which are reasonable, tentative hypotheses in explaining the behaviour of actual economies.
kenneth boulding— p.16-17 as cited in Andrew Mearman (2011).
Any high school boy or girl knows how to calculate the force with which a stone he or she throws will hit someone in the face, but nothing in those equations they use will tell them whether or not to throw it…To solve the problem of values we must know what is valuable. Consciousness is the most valuable commodity…To bring values into science, we need to connect science with what is valuable consciousness.
ravi gomatam— An interview with Ravi Gomatam by Thomas Beardy for Clarion Call magazine (Clarion University's newspaper)"Is There Consciousness Within Science?", 1990.
Symmetrical equations are good in their place, but ' vector ' is a useless survival, or offshoot from quaternions, and has never been of the slightest use to any creature.
william thomson— Letter to G. F. FitzGerald (1896) as quoted in A History of Vector Analysis : The Evolution of the Idea of a Vectorial System (1994) by Michael J. Crowe, p. 120
The equations at which we arrive must be such that a person of any nation, by substituting the numerical values of the quantities as measured by his own national units, would obtain a true result.
james clerk maxwell— Encyclopedia Brittanica article, quoted by Patricia Fara in Science A Four Thousand Year History (2009) citing Simon Schaffer article in The Values of Precision (1995) ed. M. Norton Wise
Think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one: you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn’t be imagined without it.
philip pullman— Ch. 21 : Lord Asriel's Welcome
If you have bought one of those T-shirts with Maxwell's equations on the front, you may have to worry about its going out of style, but not about its becoming false. We will go on teaching Maxwellian electrodynamics as long as there are scientists.
steven weinberg— "The Revolution That Didn't Happen" in The New York Review of Books (1998) [1]
In the abstract world of American economists, equations run both ways; they believe that by changing the sign of a variable from plus to minus or from minus to plus or the price and quantity of x or y, the direction of historical movement can be reversed.
— Chapter Eight, International Finance, p. 336
The Society for General Systems Theory and its publication General Systems was a mixed bag. Few authors were actually doing research -they philosophized, and many prematurely resolved dilemmas by mathematical equations in a language poorly understood by the empirical investigator.
— Roy R. Grinker, Sr. (1976) in General systems. Vol.19, p.57
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
— Robert A. Heinlein, in Time Enough for Love, 1973; cited in: QFinance, the ultimate resource London: Bloomsbury. 2009. p. 1760.
One of the most frequently mentioned equations was Euler's equation, Respondents called it "the most profound mathematical statement ever written"; "uncanny and sublime"; "filled with cosmic beauty "; and "mind-blowing". Another asked: "What could be more mystical than an imaginary number interacting with real numbers to produce nothing ?" The equation contains nine basic concepts of mathematics once and only once in a single expression. These are: e (the base of natural logarithms); the exponent operation; ?; plus (or minus, depending on how you write it); multiplication; imaginary numbers; equals; one; and zero.
— Robert P. Crease, in "The greatest equations ever" at PhysicsWeb (October 2004)
"Linear relationships can be captured with a straight line on a graph. Linear relationships are easy to think about....Linear equations are solvable... Linear systems have an important modular virtue: you can take them apart, and put them together again the pieces add up."
— James Gleick (1987) Chaos: Making a New Science, p.23 as cited in: James R. Hansen (2004) Trees of Texas: An Easy Guide to Leaf Identification. p.246
One of the most frequently mentioned equations was Euler 's equation, Respondents called it "the most profound mathematical statement ever written"; "uncanny and sublime"; "filled with cosmic beauty "; and " mind -blowing". Another asked: "What could be more mystical than an imaginary number interacting with real numbers to produce nothing ?" The equation contains nine basic concepts of mathematics once and only once in a single expression. These are: e (the base of natural logarithms); the exponent operation; ?; plus (or minus, depending on how you write it); multiplication; imaginary numbers; equals; one; and zero.
— Robert P. Crease, in "The greatest equations ever" at PhysicsWeb (October 2004)
If time is treated in modern physics as a dimension on a par with the dimensions of space, why should we a priori exclude the possibility that we are pulled as well as pushed along its axis? The future has, after all, as much or as little reality as the past, and there is nothing logically inconceivable in introducing, as a working hypothesis, an element of finality, supplementary to the element of causality, into our equations. It betrays a great lack of imagination to believe that the concept of "purpose" must necessarily be associated with some anthropomorphic deity.
Arthur Koestler— Arthur Koestler, The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe Epilogue (1959, 1963)
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion , butcher a hog, cone a ship, design a building, write a sonnet , balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
— Robert A. Heinlein, in Quotes about Humankind, p.11
I finally understood that the half page of code on the bottom of page 13 of the Lisp 1.5 manual was Lisp in itself. These were “Maxwell’s equations of Software!”
alan kay— ACM Queue A Conversation with Alan Kay Vol. 2, No. 9 - Dec/Jan 2004-2005
I finally understood that the half page of code on the bottom of page 13 of the Lisp 1.5 manual was Lisp in itself. These were "Maxwell’s equations of Software!"
alan kay— Alan Kay, A Conversation with Alan Kay, ACM Queue 2 (9), (Dec/Jan 2004-2005)
