Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Happy Birthday Schrödinger!
It's Erwin's birthday today, which I found out completely randomly. I've got one of his equations on my arm so I thought I'd give the old physics dude a shoutout. Here's some info I found on wikipedia to help explain his scientific achievement:
The nonrelativistic wave equation that Schrödinger assumed to govern the behavior of the electron in the hydrogen atom was of course the equation now universally known as the Schrödinger wave equation, the fundamental equation of wave mechanics. In less than 2 months he discovered his equation and began applying his elegant and beautiful theory to enough physical situations to carry complete conviction of its correctness. The capstone of his achievements was his proof of the logical equivalence of wave mechanics and "matrix mechanics," the latter discovered almost simultaneously by Werner Heisenberg in 1926.
Schrödinger was born on this date in 1887 and died in 1961. He was very interested in philosophy and ancient history and believed that an interdisciplinary study was the only way to truly understand the nature of the universe and man. More from wiki:
According to Schrödinger, this world in common is discovered through observation in combination with insights of a metaphysical nature - hunches, spontaneous creative thought, and the like - that guide the interpretation of the observations. He believed that this world in common, to be comprehensible, had to be to a large degree a deterministic, causal world. Chance elements could enter only through the "intersection of causal chains"; these chance elements are precisely the sort of events that scientists prefer not to talk about, but that theologians and philosophers are profoundly interested in. Thus, once again, Schrödinger was led to conclude that the only way to achieve a complete world picture is to take account of nonscientific as well as scientific knowledge. He felt this to be particularly true when discussing questions like the origin and nature of life, as well as the profoundly interesting role that chance played in Darwinian evolution.
He seems like a pretty cool dude. Happy Birthday, Erwin.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
critically funny
I found this picture (by badrobot68) on a seattle blog. Count on CityMarket to keep up on current affairs.
Those of you not aware of the recent clash between critical mass cyclists and a big gay car - the stranger has an article here.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Friday, August 01, 2008
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