Seventeen Equations that Changed the World

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From Pythagoras’s Theorem to the Black-Scholes equation, equations have shaped our lives – even if we weren’t aware of them.

Modern use: Shannon's entropy measure launched the mathematical study of information, and his results are central to how we communicate over networks today.A logarithm for a particular base tells you what power you need to raise that base to to get a number. Some of the explanations are quite complex, especially where Stewart is exploring the most recent applications of older ideas. Und es ist so schön geschrieben, dass ich mir von Stewart gerne auch Dinge erklären lasse, die ich schon kenne.

Importance: The behavior of waves generalizes to the way sound works, how earthquakes happen, and the behavior of the ocean.Euler's formula states that, as long as your polyhedron is somewhat well behaved, if you add the vertices and faces together, and subtract the edges, you will always get 2. But the verdict of science and technology is that words are too imprecise, and too limited, to provide an effective route to the deeper aspects of reality. Ian does justice covering 17 of the greatest mathematical equations responsible for mankind's progress.

Tucked away behind the scenes, to be sure - but the influence was there, whether it was noticed it or not. A neat idea this, to sum up the history of human attempts to explain the physical world in 17 equations. Einstein followed up on this insight with his famous papers on special relativity (1905) and general relativity (1915).While most of these equations seems to have an eternal quality of being "always true", Stewart also shows how they have limitations. The equation you see was derived by Erwin Schrodinger in 1927, building off of the work of physicists like Werner Heisenberg.

In particular, the equation maintains several assumptions that do not hold true in real financial markets. Ian Stewart's recent books include (with Terry Pratchett and Jack Cohen) The Science of Discworld IV and (published by Profile) 17 Equations that Changed the World , The Great Mathematical Problems , Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries and Calculating the Cosmos .In 1579 Tycho used it to make an accurate map of Hven, the island where his observatory was located. most modern technology, from electric lighting to digital cameras could not have been invented without them. The author made it somewhat accessible but at times, the descriptions needed more words to flesh it out. The equation in the graphic, log(ab) = log(a) + log(b), shows one of the most useful applications of logarithms: they turn multiplication into addition.