Wernher Von Braun once said that we have invented rockets, not to destroy our planet, but to explore the universe. Similarly, we may say that we have discovered thermonuclear energy, not to destroy our planet, but to advance mankind toward a peaceful, galactic culture. Friedwardt Winterberg
Category Archives: Quotes
One Explosion Tests and thoughts on Terribleness
Trinity: the first four seconds. Oppenheimer later told journalists, “If you ask: can we make them more terrible, the answer is yes; if you ask: can we make more of them, the answer is yes; if you ask: can we make them terribly more terrible, the answer is-probably.”
Prandtl (1926)
What I am about to say on the phenomena of turbulent flows is still far from conclusive. It concerns, rather, the first steps in a new path which I hope will be followed by many others. The researches on the problem of turbulence which have been carried on at Göttingen for about five years have …
Oliver Heaviside
Shall I refuse my dinner because I do not fully understand the process of digestion? Oliver Heaviside according to von Karman and Biot, on the subject of turbulence
Daniel Bernoulli on Jean le Rond d’Alembert
“I have seen with astonishment that apart from a few little things there is nothing to be seen in his hydrodynamics but an impertinent conceit. His criticisms are puerile indeed, and show not only that he is no remarkable man, but also that he never will be.” Daniel Bernoulli on Jean le Rond d’Alembert
Matsuo Basho
An ancient pond!With a sound from the waterOf the frog as it plunges in. Matsuo Basho, 1643-1694
Jean le Rond d’Alembert
Music that paints nothing is only noise.
Maxwell
An experiment, like every other event which takes place, is a natural phenomenon; but in a scientific experiment the circumstances are so arranged that the relations between a particular set of phenomena may be studied to the best advantage. James Clerk Maxwell, 1876
Entropy
You should call it entropy, for two reasons. In the first place your uncertainty function has been used in statistical mechanics under that name, so it already has a name. In the second place, and more important, no one really knows what entropy really is, so in a debate you will always have the advantage. …
Qian Xuesen
“An engineering science aims to organize the design principles used in engineering practice into a discipline and thus to exhibit the similarities between different areas of engineering practice and to emphasize the power of fundamental concepts. In short, an engineering science is predominated by theoretical analysis and very often uses the tool of advanced mathematics.” …