Contributions of Diophantus of Alexandria hold a distinguished place. His seminal work, Arithmetica, unveiled in the 3rd century CE, is a key in the study of number theory, particularly in the realm of integers. This ancient text, encapsulating 130 equations, laid the foundation for what are now known as Diophantine equations—equations constrained to integer solutions. …
Category Archives: Quotes
An Improbable Life by D.C. Wilcox, and the $k-\omega$ Model
I just finished reading the autobiography of D. C. Wilcox. He wrote a number of books that were published through his own company. One of the most popular is on fluid dynamics. A less known book is on turbulence modeling. He was famous for a particular two-equation turbulence model in the form of $k-\omega$. It …
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Talking Oak I spoke
ONCE more the gate behind me falls;Once more before my faceI see the moulder’d Abbey-walls,That stand within the chace.Beyond the lodge the city lies,Beneath its drift of smoke;And ah! with what delighted eyesI turn to yonder oak. For when my passion first began,Ere that, which in me burn’d,The love, that makes me thrice a man,Could …
D’Alembert and Hydrodynamica
“One can see through various memoirs that can be found in the volumes of the science academies in Paris, Berlin, or Petersburg, how the principle of conservation of living forces eases the solution of many problems in Dynamics; we even believe that there as been a time when one would have been most embarrassed to …
Philosophy of Galileo
Philosophy is written in this grand book – I mean the universe – which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, …
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.Keep, ancient lands, your …
Fontenelle on Science
We like to regard as useless what we do not know; it is a kind of revenge; and since mathematics and physics are rather generally unknown, they rather generally pass for useless. The source of their misfortune is plain; they are prickly, wild, and hard to reach …. Such is the destiny of sciences handled …
Teller on Uncertainty
… we have a radioactive substance that emits, on the average, a particle, an alpha particle, once every second on the average. Now, here I have a counter, and I close that counter, so it won’t count, except that I open it for half a second. If, in that half a second, a particle arrives, …
MLK Day 2023
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want …
On Living In An Atomic Age, Lewis
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking …