Comments on "Moscow Stories" by Loren R. Graham
"A Boy from Indiana", whose grandparents had associations with both the Ku Klux Klan and the Wabash Valley Socialist Party{his grandmother said that they both had "wonderful" picnics} visits the Soviet Union, or Russia, perhaps 100 times or more, and they all add up to several years of time. His trips begin in 1960, when he is a 27 year old exchange student, and are still continuing in 2005, when this book was written.
Loren Graham was often accompanied by his wife Pat, who apparently also became fluent in Russian. On Graham's earlier visits he silently encountered the "Old Bolsheviks" Vyacheslav Molotov and Lazar Kaganovich in the Lenin Library; where they all spent a lot of time. He also had short or long conversations with Iurii Gagarin, Trofim Lysenko, and Anna Mikhailovna, the wife of the old and executed Bolshevik, Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. In later years he meets, perhaps more that once, Andrei Sakharov and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Loren Graham, and sometimes his wife Pat, become well acquainted with quite a few other important Soviet scientists and government people, besides many other relatively unknown people in the Soviet Union and Russia.
Needless to say, Loren Graham has had many encounters, and sometimes conversations{usually not very pleasant} with both the FBI and the KGB.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Experimental Blog #108
Quotes and notes from "A Tour of the Calculus" by David Berlinski
"The calculus is the story this ... scientific culture of the West ... first told itself as it became the modern world." "In its largest aspect ... the calculus is a great ... spectacular theory of space and time ..." "The calculus is a mathematical theory ... to represent or recreate the real world in terms of the real numbers."
"The system composed of the natural numbers, the integers, the fractions, and the irrational numbers acquires a new identity as the real number system ..."
The author, David Berlinski, writes that the polynomial functions include: the constant functions, the power functions, and the root functions. He also describes the exponential functions, the logarithmic functions, and the trigonometric functions. The continuities created by these functions, or mathematical equations, have derivatives, which are real numbers at a local point on a Cartesian map of the function; and integrals, which are real numbers representing bounded areas below a Cartesian map of these functions.
"The calculus is the story this ... scientific culture of the West ... first told itself as it became the modern world." "In its largest aspect ... the calculus is a great ... spectacular theory of space and time ..." "The calculus is a mathematical theory ... to represent or recreate the real world in terms of the real numbers."
"The system composed of the natural numbers, the integers, the fractions, and the irrational numbers acquires a new identity as the real number system ..."
The author, David Berlinski, writes that the polynomial functions include: the constant functions, the power functions, and the root functions. He also describes the exponential functions, the logarithmic functions, and the trigonometric functions. The continuities created by these functions, or mathematical equations, have derivatives, which are real numbers at a local point on a Cartesian map of the function; and integrals, which are real numbers representing bounded areas below a Cartesian map of these functions.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Experimental Blog #107
Comments on "Quantum - Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality" by Manjit Kumar
Besides contributors to quantum theory written about by Gino Segre' in his book, "Faust in Copenhagen - A Struggle for the Soul of Physics", commented on in the previous blog #106; the author of this book, Manjit Kumar, adds 3 more physicists to his list of the top 10 contributors to quantum theory. They are: Ernest Rutherford, another Englishman, but from New Zealand; Max Born of Germany; and Louis de Broglie from France.
It seems quite obvious that if someone really wants to understand very much physics, and especially the advanced physics of electromagnetism, relativity, and quantum mechanics, they have to be well acquainted with a lot of mathematics. Beyond the usual algebra, plane and solid geometry, and trigonometry; they must know differential and integral calculus, probability and statistics, differential equations, tensor calculus{which is also called differential geometry}, matrix algebra, complex numbers, and how these are all applied, and maybe more besides.
This would be a curriculum beyond the ability of most people, but in the whole world there must be thousands of people who are capable of mastering it, and relativity and quantum mechanics too.
Although most physicists say that Albert Einstein was the most outstanding theoretical physicist of his time, and some people say of all time; Manjit Kumar reveals that it is questionable that he should be seen as genuinely "saintly".
The leading edges of modern, or advanced, physics might be described as "science fiction that works". That is, it is almost pure imagination, but it consistently explains a great amount of scientific facts, sometimes called "data"; and it makes predictions that can be tested and confirmed.
Besides contributors to quantum theory written about by Gino Segre' in his book, "Faust in Copenhagen - A Struggle for the Soul of Physics", commented on in the previous blog #106; the author of this book, Manjit Kumar, adds 3 more physicists to his list of the top 10 contributors to quantum theory. They are: Ernest Rutherford, another Englishman, but from New Zealand; Max Born of Germany; and Louis de Broglie from France.
It seems quite obvious that if someone really wants to understand very much physics, and especially the advanced physics of electromagnetism, relativity, and quantum mechanics, they have to be well acquainted with a lot of mathematics. Beyond the usual algebra, plane and solid geometry, and trigonometry; they must know differential and integral calculus, probability and statistics, differential equations, tensor calculus{which is also called differential geometry}, matrix algebra, complex numbers, and how these are all applied, and maybe more besides.
This would be a curriculum beyond the ability of most people, but in the whole world there must be thousands of people who are capable of mastering it, and relativity and quantum mechanics too.
Although most physicists say that Albert Einstein was the most outstanding theoretical physicist of his time, and some people say of all time; Manjit Kumar reveals that it is questionable that he should be seen as genuinely "saintly".
The leading edges of modern, or advanced, physics might be described as "science fiction that works". That is, it is almost pure imagination, but it consistently explains a great amount of scientific facts, sometimes called "data"; and it makes predictions that can be tested and confirmed.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Experimental Blog #106
Comments on "Faust in Copenhagen - A Struggle for the Soul of Physics" by Gino Segre'
The theory of quantum mechanics begins in 1900 when the German physicist Max Planck discovered, or defined, a new constant that he named the quantum, which designates the smallest increment, or parcel, of energy. In the next 30 years or so, Albert Einstein would make some basic contributions from his relativity theories, and many criticisms of the developing theory; "God does not play dice! And He is not malicious! ... {or is He?}"
However, the major contributors to the theory of quantum mechanics were the authors of the "Copenhagen interpretation", completed in 1926 and '27. They were: Niels Bohr{"Albert, stop telling God what to do"}, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg{"And then I said to the Fuhrer ... "}, and Paul Dirac.
The author, Gino Segre', gives special attention to the participation of Lisa Meitner, an experimental, not theoretical, physicist and the only female participant, and Max Delbruck and Paul Ehrenfest. Besides also writing about the contribution of Erwin Schrodinger, Gino Segre' describes the input and/or criticism from at least 10 other, mostly German, physicists to quantum theory.
Quantum mechanics, or physics, is not the same as Newtonian or classical mechanics, and it is often called "counter-intuitive". It is very highly imaginative and largely unobservable.
It is said that physics tells us how to think about the world that we live in.
The theory of quantum mechanics begins in 1900 when the German physicist Max Planck discovered, or defined, a new constant that he named the quantum, which designates the smallest increment, or parcel, of energy. In the next 30 years or so, Albert Einstein would make some basic contributions from his relativity theories, and many criticisms of the developing theory; "God does not play dice! And He is not malicious! ... {or is He?}"
However, the major contributors to the theory of quantum mechanics were the authors of the "Copenhagen interpretation", completed in 1926 and '27. They were: Niels Bohr{"Albert, stop telling God what to do"}, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg{"And then I said to the Fuhrer ... "}, and Paul Dirac.
The author, Gino Segre', gives special attention to the participation of Lisa Meitner, an experimental, not theoretical, physicist and the only female participant, and Max Delbruck and Paul Ehrenfest. Besides also writing about the contribution of Erwin Schrodinger, Gino Segre' describes the input and/or criticism from at least 10 other, mostly German, physicists to quantum theory.
Quantum mechanics, or physics, is not the same as Newtonian or classical mechanics, and it is often called "counter-intuitive". It is very highly imaginative and largely unobservable.
It is said that physics tells us how to think about the world that we live in.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Experimental Blog #105
Comments on "God's Equation" - Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe by Amir D. Aczel and "Einstein's Cosmos" - How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time by Michio Kaku
The author of the first book, Amir Aczel, is a well known mathematician, and the author of the second book, Michio Kaku, is a well known physicist.
Both authors write about the works of Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell, and his 8 partial differential equations, and how the works of these two people form the beginning for the developement of Albert Einstein's relativity theories. Then things become even more complicated; with 4 dimensional space-time, differential geometry or tensor calculus, which is the mathematics of curved surfaces in any dimension, "symmetry", "covariance", and many other very technical matters.
In the early 20th century it turned out that the clarity of the "Newtonian clockwork universe" was actually an illusion, although still an extremely useful and a mostly very dependable illusion. After all, America has sent people to the Moon and back, safely, and more than once, while not using any Einsteinian physics or equations.
Albert Einstein's relativity theories and quantum theory, or mechanics, although both very bewildering and not at all clear for most people, and both essentially completed by 1916 or the late 1920s, eventually produced much fantastic technology with world-wide use and application.
The author of the first book, Amir Aczel, is a well known mathematician, and the author of the second book, Michio Kaku, is a well known physicist.
Both authors write about the works of Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell, and his 8 partial differential equations, and how the works of these two people form the beginning for the developement of Albert Einstein's relativity theories. Then things become even more complicated; with 4 dimensional space-time, differential geometry or tensor calculus, which is the mathematics of curved surfaces in any dimension, "symmetry", "covariance", and many other very technical matters.
In the early 20th century it turned out that the clarity of the "Newtonian clockwork universe" was actually an illusion, although still an extremely useful and a mostly very dependable illusion. After all, America has sent people to the Moon and back, safely, and more than once, while not using any Einsteinian physics or equations.
Albert Einstein's relativity theories and quantum theory, or mechanics, although both very bewildering and not at all clear for most people, and both essentially completed by 1916 or the late 1920s, eventually produced much fantastic technology with world-wide use and application.
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