A few years ago, the British scientific magazine “Physics World” asked readers to vote for the “best formula”.
The ten most famous formulas on the list included both the unknown 1 + 1 = 2 and the famous E = MC²;
There are simple circle formulas and complex Euler formulas…
These formulas are not only the crystallization of the wisdom of mathematicians and physicists, but also the concentrated expression of human civilization.
Each formula profoundly affected the transformation of human society and even shaped human thinking.
Some of these formulas will be familiar to you, and some of you may not be familiar with them.
As humans, we need to understand these formulas and understand the human thought process.
For electronics engineers, the Fourier transform and Maxwell's equations should be better understood and mastered.
Today we collect these 10 famous formulas from the Internet and share them with you:
No.10 The length of the circumference of a circle
Founder: Ancients
Meaning: A mathematical expression of the beauty of nature.
This formula is amazing, we learned it from high school until now.
Currently, humans have managed to obtain a pi rate of 206.1 billion digits. Still kinda boring.
A dozen pi values used in modern science and technology are sufficient.
If you use a pi value with 35-bit precision to calculate the circumference of a circle that might surround the solar system, the error will be less than one millionth of the proton's diameter.
Most people now calculate pi for the purpose of checking a computer's computing power and out of interest.
No.9 The Fourier Transform
Founder: Jean Baptistes Joseph Fourier
Meaning: Any irregular signal can be expressed as an infinite superposition of regular sine waves.
It is an important method in the field of digital signal processing.
This is very professional and most people don't understand this at all.
In short, today there is no computer without this formula, so we must be grateful for this completely incomprehensible formula. Furthermore, although Fourier has the surname Fu, he is French.
#8 The Broglie Relations
Founder: Louis Victor De Broglie
Meaning: De Broglie believes that any substance is both particulate and volatile, or that any substance can also be considered a wave, including the person himself.
Man exists not only as a substance, but also as a wave in a sense.
This thing is also amazing.
Many concepts, from high school physics to optics, are its distant relatives.
In short, DeBroglie thinks that the electron is not just a particle, but also a wave, it also has a “wavelength”.
So we have this material wave equation, which expresses the relationship between wavelength, energy, and so on.
He also won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1929.
#7 1+1=2
This formula requires no name, translation or explanation.
No.6 The Schrdinger Equation
Founder: Erwin Schrödinger
Meaning: In quantum mechanics, the state of an object cannot be described by displacement, velocity, etc., as in classical mechanics, but only by a function of a physical quantity.
This physical quantity is no longer a determined value, but a probability distributed over time.
Each microsystem has a corresponding Schrödinger equation.
The meaning of Schrödinger's equation in quantum mechanics is the same as Newton's second law in classical mechanics.
It is also completely unknown to most people.
Therefore, I extract the official assessment: “The Schrödinger equation is the most widely used and influential formula in the world literature of atomic physics.”
For his notable contributions to quantum mechanics, Schrodinger won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.
Furthermore, Schrodinger is Austrian.
#5 Mass-Energy Equivalence
Founder: Albert Einstein
Meaning: The mass-energy equation deeply reveals the relationship between mass and energy.
Before that, there was no doubt that mass was mass and energy was energy, and there was no connection between the two.
It was the discovery of the mass-energy equation that led to the explosion of atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs.
What is most important about this equation is that it completely subverts the inherent thinking of humanity and promotes the progress of human civilization.
It seems that a formula in the scientific community has never had such a broad meaning.
In the “miracle year” of physics in 1905, it was proposed by a young man named Einstein.
In the same year he also published “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Objects” – commonly known as the special theory of relativity.
This formula tells us that Einstein is excellent and that energy and mass are interchangeable.
Byproduct: Atomic bomb.
No.4 Pythagorean Theorem
Founder: Pythagoras (Some think that the Pythagorean theorem also appeared in the Shang Dynasty in China and proved it)
Meaning: The Pythagorean Theorem is a typical method for solving graphical problems with mathematical methods.
There are currently more than 400 forms of proof.
The 3:4:5 triangle is deeply rooted in the heart of every person on Earth.
No.3 Newton's Second Law of Motion
Founder: Isaac Newton
Meaning: Newton's second law is at the heart of classical physics and applies to every aspect of our daily lives.
It marked the beginning of true research in physics.
Without Newton, human civilization would spend much more time in the dark world.
One of the greatest scientists of all time, the central law of one of the greatest scientific masterpieces of all time, “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, is considered one of the greatest in classical physics.
All basic power equations can be deduced from it by calculation.
No.2 Euler Identity
Founder: Leonhard Euler
Meaning: Many formulas in mathematics were discovered by Euler, so Euler's formula is not a unique formula.
Euler's formula is widely distributed in various branches of mathematics.
Charles Kleiber, Swiss Secretary of State for Education and Research, said: “Without Euler’s many scientific discoveries, we would live a completely different life today.”
French mathematician Laplace believes that: after reading Euler, he is everyone's teacher.
Was this formula written by God?
In the latter, the creators are all gods.
Euler is the most prolific mathematician in history and the scholar with the greatest number of books in all areas (including all branches of mathematics and mechanics, optics, acoustics, water conservation, astronomy, chemistry, medicine, etc.).
The history of mathematics calls the 18th century the “Euler Era”.
Euler was born in Switzerland. He lost vision in his right eye at 31 and became blind at 59. However, he is optimistic, has incredible memory and concentration.
He was humble throughout his life and was rarely named after what he encountered.
However, one of the most important constants is named – and.
About and, there was a joke before:
In a psychiatric hospital, a patient told others all day: “I know you, I know you.”
I don't know why, these patients have a simple concept of calculus. They thought that one day they would be differentiated from zero and disappear like ordinary polynomial functions.
However, one day he met an indifferent person. He was surprised, and the person said to him lightly: “I am x to the power of e.”
The intelligence of this formula is that it does not have any extra content.
He puts the most basic mathematics in the same formula and also adds mathematics, which is the most important 0 and 1 in philosophy.
Connect with a simple plus sign.
Gauss once said, “The first time a person sees this formula without feeling its charm, he cannot become a mathematician.”
No.1 Maxwell's Equations
Founder: James Clark Maxwell
Meaning: Organically unifies electric and magnetic fields into a complete electromagnetic field. And he created the electromagnetic field theory, and without electromagnetic theory there would be no social civilization today.
complete
differential
Anyone who can understand these formulas will certainly feel that there is a fresh wind behind them – if God does not exist, how can such a perfect equation be explained?
This set of formulas combines Gauss's law of electricity, Gauss's law of magnetism, Faraday's law and Ampere's law.
A more modest assessment is: “Generally, any electromagnetic phenomenon in the universe can be explained by this system of equations.”
Later, Maxwell predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves from this set of formulas only through pen and paper calculations.
Don't we always like to write some stories, for example, when Einstein was a child, he embarked on the path of studying hard and serving his country because of a certain stimulus?
In fact, this stimulus is the system of equations you see.
It is precisely because this system of equations perfectly unifies the entire electromagnetic field, that Einstein always wanted to unify the gravitational field in the same way, and place macro and micro forces in the same set of formulas: the famous “grand unified theory”. ”
Einstein did not come out of the tunnel until his death, and if he does, we will see God himself on the other side of the tunnel.
Editor's point of view: Einstein's theory of relativity is based on the constant speed of light and is proven by geometric methods. And Maxwell's equation contains exactly the principle of constant speed of light. Therefore, the cornerstone of Einstein's theory of relativity is Maxwell's equation!
