Right now, I’m working on some really cool physics stuff, writing a patent application, can’t reveal the details before the patent is filed.
What I’m talking about is solitary waves, or solitons. This is a special kind of nonlinear and dispersive waves with a remarkable property: Nonlinearity and dispersion are in perfect balance, such that the wave can travel forever without being attenuated.
The first soliton was observed by John Scott Russell on the Edinburgh-Glasgow Canal in 1834. Here’s his prosaic description:
“I was observing the motion of a boat which was rapidly drawn along a narrow channel by a pair of horses, when the boat suddenly stopped—not so the mass of water in the channel which it had put in motion …”
He followed the wave on horseback:
“… after a chase of one or two miles I lost it in the windings of the channel …”
He spent the rest of his life trying to understand the wave he had observed, building a water tank for experiments, doing mathematical analysis. He failed.
In 1895, 13 years after poor John passed away, his “wave of translation” was mathematically described by Korteweg and de Vries. The equation is (of course) called the Korteweg-de Vries equation. This kind of waves is now known as solitons.
The stuff I’m working on has nothing to do with channel waves … but it's the same wave equation >:)
And what will you call it?
ReplyDeleteHelen
Straight From Hel
I call it the same; the Kortewg de Vries equation.
ReplyDeleteThe point is that the same mathematical equations shows up in many different branches of science. It happen's all the time, because mathematics is the beautiful language of science >:)
Cool! I love the way you remind me that math is fun and interesting.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for your success. Will you be able to use this searching for oil?
ReplyDeleteStephen Tremp
i don't really understand this, but it's fascinating anyhow. and fascinating that some people's brains understand this sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteAuf Wiedersehen!
You should write a book about math, Sheila. Something about "God made the integers; the rest of it is man's work" >:)
ReplyDeleteI'm physic idiot. I can only say I like the photo. Cool stuff!
ReplyDeleteReally Angelic
this was so interesting and cool, then i saw the "sex" label. thinking i was somehow missing something, i read it again. then i noticed all your posts have the sex label. then i read further down the blog and all was explained.
ReplyDeletejill
http://inbedwithmarriedwomen.blogspot.com
I'm gonna stop that now, Jill. Will only use the sex label when appropriate, to avoid confusing readers >;)
ReplyDelete