A Historical Highlights Perspective
The start of modern
Physics began during the times of Archimedes when he discovered the
power of the sphere which we now call mass density. He used this
knowledge to fight off Roman invaders and to gain the ear of the king.
Archimedes gave us techniques calculate the area under curves and
non-linear shapes; what we call Integration today and also calculated
the value of the constant Pi.
Galileo explored and
researched the work of Archimedes and from this he examined Gravity
showing distance traveled is proportional to time squared and later
drew up the Principle of Relativity. Galileo lived in a time where his
life was at risk because his scientific beliefs were at odds with
religious beliefs and for this he could be burned at the stake for
heresy. He was under the protection of the Medici family for much of
his life.
Erwin Schrodinger, born
in Austria, is one of the founding father's of Quantum Mechanics who
shows us a formulaic version of Quantum Mechanics and described how an
Observable (what we regard as Reality) is formed from a Quantum World.
Schrodinger was a colleague of Einstein and lived for a short time in
Ireland both during WWII and after. He pondered what is life but will
be remembered for showing what lies beneath our Classical Existence.
In the 1600s Newton
worked privately in his chambers and formulated the Principia which is
the basis of our classical view of the world today. He used some of the
research of Galileo to help formulate his own more detailed equations
and was in direct competition with Hooke. The equations are very
intuitive unlike a lot of modern equations to do with relativity. His
concepts have stood the test of time, particularly Kinetic and
Potential Energy. He also had a dog named Diamond.
Benjamin Franklin can
be thought of as the father of electricity. He founded the terms and
ideas of electricity. He have us charge and the word battery. He is
even said to have flown a kite in a storm to prove that lightning was
electricity. Not only this, he was one of the founding fathers of
America today which is a place based on serious scientific study and
helped found a constitution based on the principles of freedom and
equality.
James Clarke Maxwell
worked in parallel to Classical Distance over Time physics to formulate
the Electro-Magnetic equations which have changed our world quite
dramatically, helping us discover the Electric Motor and battery
technology which is at the heart of our current modernity. Clarke
realized that Electricity and Magnetism were two sides of the same coin
and gave us equations to express those ideas.
Albert
Einstein spotted the flaws in Newton's Principia and developed both
Special and General relativity, using the concepts developed by
Galileo. Unfortuntately, although his work is brilliant, many ordinary
people still do not understand it or how it relates to them. Therefore,
they fall back on the Newtonian view of reality which is
non-relativistic. General Relativity is even more complex than Special
Relativity and exists in it's own realm in Physics independent of the
present day Quantum Work.
Johann Bermoulli was
born into a family of geniuses. However, wonderful this may sound, he
was in direct competition with his father who tried to copy and
effectively steal his own son's work on Hydrodynamica! The significance
of Johann's work was that it described fluid equation and how they
behave while they are moving, showing that as velocity increases
pressure drops. The airplane industry uses these principles today
amongst others to achieve lift on a plane wing. Johann was regarded as
an Archimidean in that he built on the Work of Archimedes.
Nicola
Tesla, the Serb born genius gave us the inventions we rely on today
such as the electric motor and was the world's first true 'mad
scientists' whose inventions could theoretically have wreaked
destruction on the world. He could formulate schematics in his mind and
was able to construct massive electrical devices and pushed our
understanding of Electricity to the edge and beyond. At one stage, he
proposed transmitting electricity across our ionosphere from one side
of the world to the other, having giant towers picking it up on the
other side.
Now we realize another Quantum World exists alongside ours and we are only beginning to understand this alternative reality. Electricity helps drive our machines and gives us light when it is dark. In the early twentieth century our understanding of the atom helped win wars. Again like Archimedes, we are harnessing the power of the humble sphere. There have been many who have wandered into this world and I hope to document them and show their individual contributions to our overall understanding.