“The object that strikes the air develops a force equal to that of the air that strikes the object. Observe how the beating of its wings against the air suffices to bear up the weight of the eagle in the highest and thinnest air. Observe too that, conversely, the air fills the sails and pushes …
Author Archives: saemiller
Lucasian Professor George Gabriel Stokes
“I was capable of being moved, mathematically, as it were, by the belief that a particular course was right; and I do believe that God put these views in my mind, working by means of that which was in me to supply that which was wanting,” Lucasian Professor George Gabriel Stokes “Then it is right …
Leonardo da Vinci
“The great bird will take its first flight on the back of a great swan; filling the universe with wonders; filling all writings with its fame and bringing eternal glory to the nest from which it came,” Leonardo da Vinci
Constatin
The Reynolds equations are still a riddle. They are based on the Navier-Stokes equations, which are still a mystery. The Navier-Stokes equations are a viscous regularization of the Euler equations, which are still an enigma. Turbulence is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. ~Constatin, P. “Euler equations, NSE and turbulence,” Mathematical Foundations …
Euclid
What has been affirmed without proof can also be denied without proof. ~Euclid
Pierre-Simon Laplace
“Were she then to watch me live through it, she might smile condescendingly, as one who watches a marionette dance to the tugs of strings that it knows nothing about” Causal Determinism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Pierre-Simon Laplace “The curve described by a simple molecule of air or …
Leonhard Euler
“Mathematicians have tried in vain to this day to discover some order in the sequence of prime numbers, and we have reason to believe that it is a mystery into which the human mind will never penetrate.” Simmons, G., Calculus Gems (1992) Leonhard Euler “God, when he created the world, arranged the course of all events so …
John von Neumann
“Young man, in mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.” Zukav, G., The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics (1984) John von Neumann
Wernher von Braun
“Basic research is when I am doing what I don’t know what I am doing.” Simons, Y. R. M., “Work, Society, and Culture,” New York Times (1957) Wernher von Braun
Sir Winston Churchill
“If you are going to go through hell, keep going.” and “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.”