Dear Emilysky,
You are about to start on a journey that I know you will enjoy and although your science assignment may seem to be sent as a task to fast track by a given date take all the time you can to understand everything you can and be happy to find there will always be more questions than answers... and one day if you understand you may find an answer that has stumped all before you...
AND rather than wish you luck mention that old gem...the harder you practice/work the more good luck you have
MArks words are profound and I would encourage you to embrace the approach he outlines
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesti
Why don't you do one on the history of relativity? I mean, there's tones of information available AND it's really, really interesting. Lot's of people incorrectly think relativity is 'old hat', or perhaps a 'done deal', or worse, that it's boring, it's not. Very few people know the real history.
There are so many ‘unsung heroes and contributors which are very interesting in both what were thinking and what they found, as well as how they went about it. Einstein’s role, although significant, was not ‘Pat Malone’.
I guarantee you, it will educate you no end.
You can start at Aristotle, and then follow the path of Galileo, Newton, Euler, Gauss, Riemann (my favorite!), Maxwell, Lorentz & FitzGerald, Michelson & Morley, Minkowski, Christoffel, Ricci-Curbastro & Levi-Civita, Hilbert, and end with Einstein.
To be totally honest with you-you should already know who all these people are and their contributions intimately, if you were to tackle Black Holes, because Black Holes were theorized through the theories and studies of SR & GR, they were not discovers through direct observation.
Although Black Holes are interesting and exciting in their own right, the murder-mystery-thriller of the evolution of relativity is far more amazing!
Did you know that when Gauss’s servant came into his study to inform him that his wife was dying, he replied, “tell her to wait a moment-I’m in the middle of something”? Did you know that Riemann didn’t die of Tuberculosis, he committed suicide; believing his theorems were leading science down a dead-end he fell into depression? Did you know Einstein had at least one nervous break-down and that Hilbert gave him assistance with the final piece of GR, the field equations, even though Hilbert was about to publish his own [correct] version of GR? Did you know that not one of Aristotle’s questions on the nature of the world has been answered, and we’re not even close?
And you can put as much math with the history of relativity as you like; it's all there and in varying degree of complexity.
Just my perspective.
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Wonderful post Mark more than hinting at your wisdom and understanding
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I wish more people could embrace your understanding of the lives of the great men behind the gathering of our accumulated knowledge.
I dont know how science is taught in school but I feel a greater understanding of the people behind the ideas would be helpful... all the great minds listed should be the inspiration for people not ..with the greatest of respect..Mick Jagger or Brittknees Speers and the like...
I always find inspiration in knowing how some of these wonderful minds could function often in personal torment to still develope their hypothisis to scientific theory.
On a cloudy night we must present those ancient unanswered questions on the forum as it would be interesting discussion I am sure.
alex
