9/30 The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Janet Clarke

Melville Library Author Series: The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg featuring Robert P. Crease, Professor of Philosophy.

Robert Crease tells the stories behind ten of the greatest equations in human history in The Great Equations. Was Nobel laureate Richard Feynman really joking when he called Maxwell’s electromagneticequations the most significant event of the nineteenth century? How did Newton’s law of gravitation influence young revolutionaries? Why has Euler’s formula been called “God’s equation,” and why did a mysterious ecoterrorist make it his calling card? What role do betrayal, insanity, and suicide play in the second law of thermodynamics? Crease explains the significance of each of these formulas for science and, in brief “interludes” between chapters, explores the “journeys” these scientists took “from ignorance to knowledge,” and the “social lives” of their theories-their impact on the larger culture.