Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann was an Austrian physicist and philosopher who made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics and the statistical explanation of the second law of thermodynamics. Born in Vienna on February 20, 1844, Boltzmann graduated from High School in 1863 and passed the Austrian High School examination “Matura” in 1863. He was educated at Linz and Vienna, receiving his doctorate in 1867 from the University of Linz.
The Boltzmann equation, or Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), describes the statistical behavior of a thermodynamic system not in a state of equilibrium. In 1872, Boltzmann devised the equation, which is the current definition of entropy. The physical meaning of entropy was interpreted in the 1890s by Boltzmann.
During his honeymoon in the French Alps, Boltzmann compared the physical meaning of entropy to the number of atoms in a system. He later visited the Worlds Fair in St Louis, USA, lecturing on applied mathematics and visiting Berkeley and Stanford.
Boltzmann’s work has been a subject of debate and controversy, with some arguing that his life work was insufficient and that his work was not significant enough to warrant his death. However, his contributions to the field of statistical physics and the development of statistical mechanics continue to be influential in the field today.
📹 Moshe Kasher (The Endless Honeymoon podcast) on TYSO – #183
If you’re a TYSO favorite, you know we hate writing descriptions. So here is a little info on Moshe, but if you wanna know more …
Where is Boltzmann buried?
Ludwig Boltzmanns grave in Viennas Central Cemetery bears a cryptic epitaph: S = k log W. This equation was Boltzmanns great discovery, and it contributed significantly to our understanding of the second law of thermodynamics. In Anxiety and the Equation, Eric Johnson tells the story of a man and his equation: the anxiety-plagued nineteenth-century physicist who did his most important work as he struggled with mental illness.
Johnson explains that “S” in Boltzmanns equation refers to entropy, and that entropy is the central quantity in the second law of thermodynamics. The second law is always on, running in the background of our lives, providing a way to differentiate between past and future. We know that the future will be a state of higher entropy than the past, and we have Boltzmann to thank for discovering the equation that underlies that fundamental trend. Johnson, accessibly and engagingly, reassembles Boltzmanns equation from its various components and presents episodes from Boltzmanns life—beginning at the end, with “Boltzmann Kills Himself” and “Boltzmann Is Buried (Not Once, But Twice).” Johnson explains the second law in simple terms, introduces key concepts through thought experiments, and explores Boltzmanns work. He argues that Boltzmann, diagnosed by his contemporaries as neurasthenic, suffered from an anxiety disorder. He was, says Johnson, a man of reason who suffered from irrational concerns about his work, worrying especially about opposition from the scientific establishment of the day.
Johnsons clear and concise explanations will acquaint the nonspecialist reader with such seemingly esoteric concepts as microstates, macrostates, fluctuations, the distribution of energy, log functions, and equilibrium. He describes Boltzmanns relationships with other scientists, including Max Planck and Henri Poincaré, and, finally, imagines “an alternative ending,” in which Boltzmann lived on and died of natural causes.
What was Boltzmann’s theory?
Boltzmann universeedit. In 1896, the mathematician Ernst Zermelo advanced a theory that the second law of thermodynamics was absolute rather than statistical.6 Zermelo bolstered his theory by pointing out that the Poincaré recurrence theorem shows statistical entropy in a closed system must eventually be a periodic function; therefore, the Second Law, which is always observed to increase entropy, is unlikely to be statistical. To counter Zermelos argument, Boltzmann advanced two theories. The first theory, now believed to be the correct one, is that the universe started for some unknown reason in a low-entropy state. The second and alternative theory, published in 1896 but attributed in 1895 to Boltzmanns assistant Ignaz Schütz, is the Boltzmann universe scenario. In this scenario, the universe spends the vast majority of eternity in a featureless state of heat death; however, over enough eons, eventually a very rare thermal fluctuation will occur where atoms bounce off each other in exactly such a way as to form a substructure equivalent to our entire observable universe. Boltzmann argues that, while most of the universe is featureless, humans do not see those regions because they are devoid of intelligent life; to Boltzmann, it is unremarkable that humanity views solely the interior of its Boltzmann universe, as that is the only place where intelligent life lives. (This may be the first use in modern science of the anthropic principle).78.
In 1931, astronomer Arthur Eddington pointed out that, because a large fluctuation is exponentially less probable than a small fluctuation, observers in Boltzmann universes will be vastly outnumbered by observers in smaller fluctuations. Physicist Richard Feynman published a similar counterargument within his widely read Feynman Lectures on Physics.9 By 2004, physicists had pushed Eddingtons observation to its logical conclusion: The most common observers in a universe with a lot of thermal fluctuations would be tiny brains that pop up in a universe that doesn’t have much going on. In the universe’s eventual state of heat death, every possible structure (including every possible brain) will get formed via random fluctuation. The timescale of this is related to the Poincaré recurrence time. A Boltzmann brain (or body or world) need not suddenly form, argue Anthony Aguirre, Sean M. Carroll, and Matthew C. Johnson. Rather, it would form in a sequence of smaller fluctuations that would look like the brain’s decay path run in reverse. Boltzmann-style thought experiments focus on structures like human brains. However, smaller structures that meet the criteria are much more common than larger structures. It’s like the odds of a single English word showing up when you shake a box of Scrabble letters are greater than the odds that a whole English sentence or paragraph will form. The average timescale for a Boltzmann brain is much longer than the current age of the universe. In modern physics, Boltzmann brains can be formed by quantum or thermal fluctuations.
What are some interesting facts about Ludwig Boltzmann?
In the 1870s, Boltzmann explained the second law of thermodynamics using the laws of mechanics and probability. He showed that the second law is about statistics and that a system approaches equilibrium because it is the most probable state of a material system. Boltzmann worked out how energy is distributed among different parts of a system at a specific temperature. He also derived the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution law. This law says that the average amount of energy in each direction is the same. He created an equation for how energy is shared among atoms and laid the foundations of statistical mechanics. Boltzmann was one of the first scientists to recognize the importance of the electromagnetic theory proposed by James Clerk Maxwell. His work on statistical mechanics was attacked and misunderstood, but his conclusions were supported by discoveries in atomic physics and the understanding that Brownian motion could be explained only by statistical mechanics.
This article was last updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
What is Boltzmann’s brain paradox?
A brain with fake memories formed of particles in a randomly oriented system is more probable than a real brain. This is known as a Boltzmann brain.
Imagine that in this vast universe of ours, some brains have come into existence right this very second. Why brains? Because theyre enough for our consciousness and cognitive abilities—and thats all one needs for the idea of their existence!
Everything in these brains formed right that second, and is false: the memories of life until that moment, their origin, their ideas, their perspective of the universe…they came with a ready-made set of memories and thoughts that never happened and are therefore artificial! These brains will perceive themselves to be real and everything they know to be real.
What mental illness does Boltzmann have?
Boltzmann displayed behaviours that have, in hindsight, been pathologized as signalling mental illness, possibly bipolar disorder. In his text Johnson argues that it was more likely an anxiety disorder. Although he caveats his comments with a reminder that hes not a health professional, Johnson draws some rather strong conclusions, both about the possibility of an anxiety disorder and the nature of anxiety, which he calls a “21st-century disease”. He goes on to explain that by this he means that one can only feel anxious in a context where ones basic needs are already taken care of, and that in fact, anxiety is irrational. Along with his casual use of “crazy”, this explication of anxiety disorder troubled me. An alternative interpretation that he does not grapple with at all is that in the 21st century, we are becoming more conscious of how the brain works, rather than that we are becoming more sensitive. Does this mean that those of us who have experienced poverty could not be diagnosed with anxiety disorders because we only felt fear in those moments? Many racialized people experience racism-related anxiety, even if they are from comfortable income backgrounds. Do the conclusions that Johnson draws apply outside of the Global North? If not, does this mean that the Global South is not in the 21st century?
My wish is that Johnson had chosen – or been encouraged to – engage with disability justice literature, which problematizes the common use of “crazy” because of the way casual uses of this language actually harms disabled people. My worry about sharing this with undergraduates is that we know they experience significant amounts of anxiety, and I would be concerned that this text could make them feel bad about it, although thats clearly not Johnsons intention. Johnson in fact ends his book by saying Boltzmann was “a kind man with a generous mind”. I wish I had learned more about Boltzmann’s life from the book. It didn’t explain how anxiety affected him.
Who has 270 IQ?
William James SidisBornApril 1, 1898 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.DiedJuly 17, 1944 (aged 46) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.Other namesJohn W. Shattuck Frank Folupa Parker Greene Jacob MarmorAlma materHarvard University (BA) Rice Institute.
- John W. Shattuck
- Frank Folupa
- Parker Greene
- Jacob Marmor
- The Animate and the Inanimate
- The Tribes and the States (c. 1935)
William James Sidis (; April 1, 1898 – July 17, 1944) was an American child prodigy with exceptional mathematical and linguistic skills, for which he was active as a mathematician, linguist, historian, and author (whose works were published covertly due to never using his real name). He wrote the book The Animate and the Inanimate, published in 1925 (written around 1920), in which he speculated about the origin of life in the context of thermodynamics.
Are Boltzmann brains possible?
Look around you. What do you see? Your computer? A desk? Maybe you see a loved one: a family member or a close friend. Think about the last time you did something with that person. Maybe you went to the shops, or the cinema, or out for dinner. Ill bet you had a good time, that its a happy memory. Now what if I told you that none of it is real. It never happened. You dont exist. They dont exist. Your desk, your computer? They dont exist either. You are a mere statistical fluctuation in a cold, dark, unending spacetime. You are a Boltzmann Brain.
Or, well, statistically speaking you are. The idea of a Boltzmann brain emerges from two observations. First, that even extremely unlikely events happen if you wait long enough, and second, any mechanism which produced the universe must be capable of producing a human observer since, clearly, we exist.
Well come back to the second point in a moment, but for now lets tackle the first. Imagine you had a box of gas, and all the particles suddenly crammed themselves into one corner of the box. Its not physically impossible, but its very, very unlikely. If we imagine the universe as a similar, if far larger, box of particles, then we can see how the Big Bang looks a lot like all the particles in the universe were jammed into the same spot and allowed to expand.
Of course, this is yet more unlikely to happen for the universe than in our box of gas, but if you leave the system for long enough—say an infinite period of time—such unlikely fluctuations not only become likely but guaranteed. And, clearly, the smaller the fluctuation, the more likely it is to occur. It is far more likely for only half of the gas in the box to find itself in one corner of the box than all the gas, for instance.
Ok, lets add in our second ingredient. Lets say what we observe as our universe emerged from a low probability fluctuation. Whats the smallest—and therefore most likely—fluctuation which could result in a human observation of our universe? Well, its a brain! A brain whose neurons are so arranged that it thinks its a living observer which can perceives a vast, endless universe teeming with stars and planets. A brain which thinks its sitting at a desk reading an article on a computer screen.
After all, what is our human experience but a collection of neurons connected in exactly the correct way? We normally think of those connections having been generated by years of life experience and eons of evolution. Professor Graeme Ackland, of the University of Edinburgh and Researcher at the Higgs Centre, gives some insight into the thermodynamic origins of the brain as we know it: “The brain evolved over time as a way of increasing the entropy production of living things. Theres no problem with that in thermodynamics.”
For the Boltzmann brain, however, none of this is the case. It is a quirk of probability, a remarkable collection of particles which exists for a fraction of a nanosecond before returning to the void of an infinite universe.
The Boltzmann brain is usually seen as a reductio ad absurdum, a sign that theres a flaw in our theory of the evolution of the universe. The easiest way to avoid Boltzmann brains is for the universe to have a death day such that it doesnt exist long enough for sufficiently low probability fluctuations as Boltzmann brains to become likely. However, our current best theories do not provide such an ending. So maybe, just maybe, you are not real.
What was the IQ of Boltzmann?
IQPersonIQ estimates— 12Gilbert Lewis (1875-1946) ↑ CR=389=190-200— 13Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) ↓ CR=92=194 =205 =182 =200— 14Pierre Laplace (1749-1827) ↑ CR=86=190— 15Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906) CR=336=190-195.
143. Mazzini (IQ=165)144. Mendelssohn (IQ=165)147. Newman, J.H. (IQ=165)150. Robertson (IQ=165)151. Sainte-Beuve (IQ=165)153. Scott (IQ=165)154. Shaftesbury (IQ=165)155. Sheridan, R.B. (IQ=165)156. St. Simon (IQ=165)160. Webster (IQ=165)161. Winckelmann (IQ=165)162. Wordsworth (IQ=165)163. Zwingli (IQ=165)
Bulwer (IQ=155)Pitt (the Younter) (IQ=155)Cobden (IQ=155)Danton (IQ=155)Durer (IQ=155)Fox, G. J. (IQ=155)Fox, George (IQ=155)Fulton, R. (IQ=155)Gambetta, L.M. (IQ=155)Hamilton, A. (IQ=155)Hawthorne, N. (IQ=155)Maintenon (IQ=155)Miller, Hugh (IQ=155)More (IQ=155)Necker (IQ=155)O’Connell (IQ=155)Palestrina (IQ=155)Pitt (the Elder) (IQ=155)Prescott (IQ=155)Savonarola (IQ=155)Seward (IQ=155)Swift (IQ=155)Temple, W. (IQ=155)Van Dyck (IQ=155)Walpole (IQ=155)Warburton (IQ=155)Wilberforce (IQ=155)Blake, H. (IQ=155)
Historically, the above table originated in Thims circa 2007 15-person personal folder collection of newly discovered 200 range geniuses (with citations), scan of list shown adjacent. This was made into a first-draft 2008 online listing: IQ: 200 table (version 18). This list, being purely ranked at this point via highest IQ cited (no questions about method of calculation), began to grow. At the point (version 300) when Adragon de Mello, with his age four IQ=400 citation (calculated by father), was added to the list, it thereafter became completely nonsensical to rank purely via IQ citation number, after which point meta-analysis reality-based up or down adjustments began to be implemented (version 568).
What is the rarest mental disorder ever?
Rare Mental Health ConditionsKhyâl Cap. Khyâl cap or “wind attacks” is a syndrome found among Cambodians in the United States and Cambodia. … Kufungisisa. … Clinical Lycanthropy. … Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder. … Diogenes Syndrome. … Stendhal Syndrome. … Apotemnophilia. … Alien Hand Syndrome.
Mental health issues in the United States are very common, affecting millions of Americans. In fact, an estimated50% of all Americans are diagnosedwith a mental illness or disorder at some point in the lifetime. Mental illnesses like depression are the third most common cause of hospitalization in the United States among people ages 18 to 44.
Disorders such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder are relatively well-understood. However, some conditions are so rare that mental health professionals may never encounter them. Here are five of the rarer mental health conditions.
Rare Mental Health Conditions. 1.Khyâl Cap. Khyâl cap or “wind attacks” is a syndrome found among Cambodians in the United States and Cambodia. According to theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition(DSM-V), common symptoms are similar to those of panic attacks, including dizziness, palpitations, shortness of breath, and cold extremities, along with symptoms of anxiety and autonomic arousal, such as tinnitus and neck soreness.
What is Boltzmann’s laws?
Stefan-Boltzmann law, statement that the total radiant heat power emitted from a surface is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature. Formulated in 1879 by Austrian physicist Josef Stefan as a result of his experimental studies, the same law was derived in 1884 by Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann from thermodynamic considerations: if E is the radiant heat energy emitted from a unit area in one second (that is, the power from a unit area) and T is the absolute temperature (in kelvins), then E=σT4, the Greek letter sigma (σ) representing the constant of proportionality, called the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. This constant has the value 5.670374419×10−8 watt per metre2 per K4. The law applies only to blackbodies, theoretical surfaces that absorb all incident heat radiation.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.
📹 James Joule Biography: The Beer Brewer Who Changed The World
Joule created the equation for the heat from a current carrying wire, found the mechanical equivalent of heat and had the units of …
Love Moshe as a guest with Rick. He shows so much playfulness but also wisdom and the patience of a saint. He allows Rick to Rick but also still wants to ask questions, try and get a grasp of some of his personality traits he’s talking about, understand how he dates and meets people. A lot of people would’ve simply agreed or changed subjects or not been as funny as Moshe was. Loved.
Hall of fame ep. Blurring the lines between reality and bit is Glassman’s unique gift. Moshe’s ability to keep up with him and play on both sides of the line is phenomenal. Ashkenazi IQs (and neuroticism) on full display 😅 Rick…Moshe was dropping some knowledge on you. Allow your guests to express and speak on their ideas fully.
A 2 hour TYSO and it’s with one of my absolute favorites? This will be beautiful. I can already tell. Update: the fact that Rick held onto the “Spalding Gray was late all the time?” bit was pure brilliance and I hope he’s on “The Endless Honeymoon” pod. Hearing him give advice to folks would be pretty cool.
I’m surprised by Rick’s resistance to the control conversation. It seems very clear and straightforward—because he never personally felt understood or that he was properly understanding others in conversations/interactions his entire life, he now tries to control every conversation/interaction. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just a reality.
Moshe breaking down the car door theory was interesting, Rick uses this example a lot and it was good to hear someone play devil’s advocate. I once went to open the door for a girl and pulled it of its hinges because I’m a fuckin’ tank. We got married, and divorced. But I don’t like to speak on other people.
This episode is absolutely fascinating and one of the best episodes of any podcast I’ve ever heard. A comment below mentioned that it was profound, and I 100% agree. The second half is one of the best conversations on some of the communications differences and overall worldview that can exist between neurotypical and neurodivergent people, particularly the extended bit about the perceived connotation of “uncomfortability”, and whether it should be a positive, negative, or neutral state. This is really, really great.
Rick I watched the first episode of TFATK in years because of you. Congratz on pulling that Podcast from the depths of hell for a day. Last week Schaub was emotional and about to cry when talking about how when his show was big he helped tons of comedians but now that they need help nobody is stepping up to help them. Feels like you stepped up to the plate to help a man in need and you knocked it out of the park. Sure you had some fun poking fun of their crazy ego’s, toxic masculinity and bigotry but you are uniquely talented to juggle all that stuff at one time while giving them golden content for their struggling website. Your a good man Rick.
If all that is possible is probable, then there exists a stimulation where one of its civilizations reverse engineered a “non-simulation” reality. Though maybe this is impossible due to the fundamental constraints of quantum physics within a reality-simulation hierarchy. But still an interesting thought experiment nonetheless.
Whoa, this one went deep… I feel like I just went through therapy (CLICK) �������� 10% ������ ������������ �������� ����������, �������� ���� ������. (CLICK). I just realize that when I misunderstand or blaze over important social cues, people tend to perceive me as being angry or narcissistic, which is not my intention. So I tend to lead with small talk, and you know me, I tend to frame a conversation at it’s surface level to control my expectations of a given conversation. This probably sets boundaries with people while also providing a small degree of connection with peers and strangers. Maybe that’s a protection mechanism I have created for my own fear of people misinterpreting my good intentions as slight, and my fear of rejection.
There is no such thing as a, “True atheist”. Being an atheist isn’t a religion, or an identity. It’s very simply the lack of a belief in a god, or gods. Moshe is ascribing attributes to it like it’s a belief system when it is not. Being an atheist doesn’t make you a materialist, or a realist. There are Buddhist atheists for example, they have no diety but they do have spirituality. Then you have people who don’t believe in god and don’t believe in spirituality but are fully open to the wonder and mystery of the world. People who admit they don’t actually know anything.
The times of Joule and Maxwell were fascinating. It is difficult to picture such a primitive state of physics before the understanding that heat was a form of energy. How could Carnot, who developed a theory of heat machines, not realize that heat was a form of energy? It seems absurd today, but history reveals how those concepts could be established only after precise quantitative observations be possible. Your articles always make me think how things that we take for granted and consider trivial today, such as measuring an electric current, required in fact a great deal of ingenuity. Your website is a must for anyone who wants to break free from myths and simplified views in the history of science.
Great article as ever. A couple of points. 1 William Thomson was knighted in 1866 for his work on the trans-Atlantic telegraph, he then became Sir William Thomson. He was made a lord, 1st Baron Kelvin in 1892. Being knighted makes one a ‘Sir’ not a ‘Lord’. Although Thomson was Professor at Glasgow University for most of his life, he was born in Belfast, Ireland. 2 The picture of Joule’s apparatus is of the model he used to demonstrate the principle. He did his experiments in the brewery on a much larger scale. His motivation was to mechanize his brewery with electric motors. The demonstration unit is in the possession of the Manchester Science Museum. The Science Museum in London has a replica. BTW, I’ve seen Joule’s actual display model and I’ve eaten a meal in the Joule House!
I am originally from the same part of the country and am presently reading a book concerning some of the social history thereabouts. Just today was reading an article on Mr Joule which brought back memories of physics lessons at grammar school a lifetime ago. Apparently his family suffered financial problems when the brewery failed and they had to move to a less salubrious Manchester area. He like many of his Victorian contemporaries were of a breed we may never see again.
Absolutely, captivating article! As ALWAYS! I truly love your insight into the minds of these scientists! A sign of a good documentarian is their ability to admit they made a mistake in their interpretations or conclusions. You’re one of them! You’re a great storyteller, very well researched and documented! The best science miniseries on youtube! Can’t wait for the next episode…
This comment will likely be drowned in a sea of all the other comments. Nonetheless, I want to thank you for this article series and website! With a B.S./M.A. in Physics, we barely got a drop of the history of science! People forget that scientific discovery is also done by human beings with all of the flaws of human beings such as ego, politics, and personal adversity. Your programs also bring home how our technology is just SO VERY YOUNG! Before ~1840, no one understood the resistance of materials, entropy, what an electron was and so many other things? We are truly infants with less than 200 years of any kind of advanced understanding.
Goosebumps time. I studied electronic communication at Salford University just across the road from where Joule lived and worked. I don’t know if I knew and then forgot or I just assumed the building was named after him not realising it really was his house. This is alongside all the feelings your articles stir up, reminding me how fascinating I found all this, but then never got to use what I learnt during my career.
Great article. The life stories add a lot to the big picture. Many years ago in Grad School, I took a differential equations class. One of the texts used had short biographies of the mathematicians whose discoveries we were studying. I found it very humbling to learn of their life stories and problems and I think it was somehow motivating. It is interesting to note that many major scientific and engineering accomplishments have been made by people with little or no academic background. Franklin, Joule, Faraday, Wright Brothers to name a few.
My 15year old is determined to become a physicist, but he is really strong on history and english. Our system in the UK means he has to leave history and concentrate on maths and science at A level… I will definitely get him to watch your website as it feels like a very good balance of historical storytelling and an introduction to thermodynamics. I think anyone starting on a course in engineering or science would really benifit from your presentations (I wish I had the opportunity when I started my Mechanical engineering course).
Looking forward to your next article! Mainly because I thought Tesla came up with the A/C motor through a thought experiment. On this article, I was just thinking about what unit of measure is used for E on E=mc2 and your new article notification popped up! Thank you! Very informative article on the topic of James Prescott Joule!
Thank you so much for your excellent research historical work on science, especially on electricity. Your candid personality and subject knowledge allows your work to be understood at layman levels for all science enthusiasts. Your work is a treasure of knowledge for curious minds that may be giving their 1st steps into understanding the who, why, how and when of so many great scientific achievements. Keep up the great work!
Wonderful article, as usual. I am amazed at the level of effort you put in to investigate who said or wrote what, to whom and when, and collate and present all these in such a lucid, cogent way. I am also impressed how often they read translations of researches in each others’ languages, so they didnt feel the impact of losing Latin as a link language. Also astounding is how willing they were to give credit to each other. Something almost totally missing in todays academic environment
Besides your thorough knowledge and your method of expression, it’s your enunciation, diction, cadence and pace that almost transfix one’s attention. Seriously. In one article you spoke of a young man’s smallpox death and I literally said aloud, “ah man, no”! I kid you not. A joy you are to listen to. Thanks
Ihr articlekanal ist ein wunderschöner Fund. I like very much your style, and of course, the contents are superb. If you allow me, I would add that the friendship between Thomson and Joule brought to physics yet another very important result: the Joule-Thomson effect, the change of temperature of a real gas by expansion through a valve. Related to that Joule established that the internal energy of a ideal gas depends exclusively on its temperature…
Kathy- I love your approach and I share your enthusiasm for this history. I have known and used Ohm’s law since my childhood- I use it without even thinking about it; it is part of my view of reality- for solving problems, and understanding systems of all kinds. It is not an exaggeration to say that it changed my life- or to say that it changed the world. Remembering that this principle, which seems so inevitable and obvious today, was once not obvious at all, and tracing the sequence of the observations and thinking that led to the law makes it even more beautiful and intuitive. To me, this is the best way to encounter the great ideas of science. As a practicing electrical and mechanical engineer, your work touches me deeply- you have connected so many of the beautiful ideas in my field with their discoverers and their stories. I note in particular the common theme of drama around their validation and acceptance. It reminds me of how easily the talented and earnest can be completely wrong about what turns out to be obvious in hindsight. This is a humbling reality that is too rarely understood today. In this story, for example, internal battery resistance is a lovely example. And you include it as a key point in your story- well done. You often make me think of Kuhn and his Structure of Scientific Revolutions, BTW. I wish I had time to rave about the rest of your articles. Your content is consistently excellent. Your lean productions let your distinctive and excellent content shine.
I am deeply impressed by your articles. I have loved physics history for decades. I have an extensive library of historically significant physics tomes and have devoted a lot of my time to one small corner of history, the development of the theory of quantum mechanics. I can immediately recognise your prodigious expository skill and your enormous – even infectious – affection for the subject matter. It has long intrigued me that science history is almost unique among historically-oriented disciplines in the sense that science histories tend to be about the science and not so much the people and their personalities. In military or political history this would never suffice since a person is inseparable from their devotion to their labours, the style in which they accomplish it and the effort they do or do not put into promoting it. What I enjoy most about your histories is that you are also interested in the people. Many heartfelt thanks for the effort you put into this work, it is all terrific fun and I can scarcely do justice to my tremendous gratitude. I hope you will indulge two of my favourite quotes from the physical sciences. The first is from the avowed Sandemanian, Michael Faraday, and is especially sublime. I am not religious at all but I find this quote to be very beautiful. The beauty of electricity or of any other force is not that the power is mysterious, and unexpected, touching every sense at unawares in turn, but that it is under law and that the taught intellect can even now govern it largely.
Hello Kathy, Great work …. as always. I have been looking up how Joule was able to calculate the chemical energy from the battery …. but no luck. Context: Joule was able to prove that I2r dissipated across the resistor was equal to the chemical energy dissipated from the battery. For I2r across current carrying resistor, i guess he used a calorimeter ….. correct me if i am wrong
Noticed that you include a photo of Joules grave stone though it is not the same as his original gravestone at Brooklands cemetery in Sale Greater Manchester. As a boy I remember it as a grand headstone with four pink granite pillars surrounding a bronze bust of the man himself. Maybe it’s been removed for safer keeping or maybe It was my imagination.