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Greatest Equations Ever
sgant writes "What is your favorite equation? This was the question asked by Physics World in a recent poll. This is also covered in a New York Times article about the same poll. Some of the equations mentioned were the simplistic 1+1=2 and Euler's equation, ei + 1 = 0. What are some of your favorite equations?"
thats buttsex for those of you who dont know how to write an integral
"What is your favorite equation? ..."
Shashdot has already covered this in a poll! We all already know that E=mc^2 is the overall favorite, closely followed by F=ma.
http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=804
Anyway, just thought I'd share that because E=m^2c^4 + p^2c^2 is my favorite equation and most people think it looks a little familiar but wouldn't know what it was without a little additional explanation.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
It combines the 5 most important numbers in all of mathematics into a single formula.
It's also got the other important mathematical concepts - exponentiation (i.e. raising something to the power of something else), multiplication, addition and equals. Essentially, it's a huge nugget of maths in a tidy little wrapper.
I've got an old Sharp graphics calculator, which has both proper notation layout and a complex numbers mode. I still like keying in the 'e^(pi*i)+1', pressing 'Enter', then getting the zero, all perfectly laid out on a little LCD display...
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
There's a difference between "Euler's formula" and "Euler's Formula", depending on whether you're referring to one of his formulae or the specific formula called "Euler's Formula".
Guy created so many darn formulae that "Euler's formula" is ambiguous.
No, everybody is correct.
The only thing is that schematix (grandparent) misread the Pi as a 'n', which look very similar, indeed (on my screen anyway).
It was my mistake in the original posting. Not the article from Physics world, as I couldn't put in special characters.
Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater!
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
Obviously another person who never uses AC.
What's wrong with AC. R is resistance, not impedance or reactance. If you add reactance to the equasion, then you need a new formula, but that equasion has current, voltage and resistance. The formula holds true. Don't read in inductance and capacatance where there isn't any.
This is Ohm's law, not Kirkoff's law.
For formulas that include reactive components, they are listed here;
http://www.tpub.com/neets/book2/6.htm
The truth shall set you free!
You're making a big mistake- you're assuming R has to be a constant. It doesn't need to be. R is the resistance, which can be a formula. Actually, it is a formula- R=l*psi/A where l is length, A is cross sectional area, and psi is the resistivity of the substance (which again, can be a formula that takes in temperature, or may be a constant for given material and temperature).
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Come on, folks? The Schrödinger equation!
H*Psi = E*Psi
(note: H is an operator folks, not a number)
Perhaps not as famous as E=mc^2.. or as exact as the Dirac equation (relativistic version of the S.E.),
but.. in terms of practical benefit to mankind, I think this one has done more than any other equation during the last century.
Atoms. Molecules. Semiconductors. Lasers.
The number of things explained and modelled by the Schrödinger equation are just uncountable. You can explain almost* all of chemistry with that thing.
Relativity is nice, but it hasn't had the technical uses quantum physics has.
(*Relativistic effects are important in heavy elements. For instance the yellow color of gold is a relativistic effect.)
The answer is simple. The most beautiful equations, hands down, are those from which all of mathematics can be derived. These are the axioms of ZFC set theory. What could possibly be more beautiful or more important than that? And it's a shame so few people know about them. See Zermelo-Fraenkel Axioms and Metamath Proof Explorer.
that is Pi up there, not n. It's a very small font, so it may look like an n, but it's actually a PI symbol...
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
Actually, it's not named after Euler, just by him. He did pick the name for the constant, but only picked 'e' because a, b, c, and d were already common elsewhere.
- Albert Einstein, Sidelights on Relativity
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.