Great Calculations: A Surprising Look Behind 50 Scientific Inquiries

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Great Calculations: A Surprising Look Behind 50 Scientific Inquiries Page 37

by Colin Pask


  Thomson, Sir William (Lord Kelvin), and P. G. Tait. Principles of Mechanics and Dynamics (formerly titled Treatise on Natural Philosophy). New York: Dover, 1962. (A republication of the last revised edition of 1912. See the appendix.)

  Williams, M. R. A History of Computing Technology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1985.

  Adams, John Couch, 132–35

  Airy, George Biddell, 132–33, 229–30, 232, 328, 330

  Aldis, William, 330

  Archimedes, 34–39, 54, 56, 364

  Aristotle, 71, 87, 101, 185, 214, 217

  Atkinson, Robert, 300

  Babylonians, 26–32

  Balmer, Johann Jakob, 260–62, 361

  Bernoulli, Daniel, 252, 317–19, 326

  Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm, 323–24, 328

  Bethe, Hans, 301–303

  Bohr, Niels, 262–64, 284, 313

  Born, Max, 257, 268

  Brahe, Tycho, 112

  Briggs, Henry, 52–53

  Brown, James, 211

  Carter, Brandon, 165–66

  Chadwick, James, 269–71, 281–82

  Clairaut, Alexis-Claude, 127–28, 130

  Cockcroft, John, 297

  Compton, Arthur Holly, 243

  Copernicus, Nicholas, 108–10, 137, 165, 181

  Cormack, Allan, 201–203

  D'Alembert, Jean Baptiste le Rond, 127, 317–18

  Dalton, John, 252, 257–58

  Darwin, Charles, 16, 21, 72, 191, 194, 195, 203

  de Broglie, Louis, 264–66

  Descartes, René, 214, 217

  Digges, Thomas, 150–51

  Dirac, Paul Adrien Maurice, 274–80, 291, 323

  Doodson, Arthur, 91, 96–97

  Eddington, Sir Arthur, 246, 299–300, 368

  Einstein, Albert, 15–16, 18, 146–47, 158, 160, 177, 237–41, 245–49, 253–57, 288, 311, 368

  Eratosthenes, 68–70

  Euclid, 34–35, 100–101, 111

  Euler, Leonard, 56–59, 67, 317–18, 327, 357

  Faraday, Michael, 233–34

  Fermi, Enrico, 285–86, 291, 306, 334–40

  Ferrel, William, 95

  Feynman, Richard, 236, 252, 276–80

  Fibonacci, 44–48, 54, 55

  Flamsteed, John, 129, 136, 138

  Ford, Kent, 168

  Fourier, Joseph, 73, 321, 327

  Fowler, William, 163–64

  Fresnel, Augustin-Jean, 227

  Frisch, Otto, 304–307, 311

  Galen, 182–83

  Galilei, Galileo, 16, 86–91, 149, 185, 206–207, 214, 315, 356, 358

  Gamow, George, 168, 300

  Gardner, Martin, 166

  Gauss, Carl Friedrich, 59–63, 147

  Gell-Mann, Murray, 292

  Goldbach, Christian, 64

  Graunt, John, 186–87

  Hadamard, Jacques, 63

  Hahn, Otto, 304, 312–13, 362

  Halley, Edmond, 125–27, 137–40, 150, 152, 187–91, 359

  Hardy, G. H., 195–96, 361

  Harrison, Edward R., 150, 153–54, 166

  Harvey, William, 181–85, 366

  Heisenberg, Werner, 311–13

  Herschel, William, 128–29

  Hertz, Heinrich, 237, 239

  Hill, George W., 147

  Houbolt, John C., 174–75

  Hounsfield, Geoffrey, 202–203

  Houtermans, Fritz, 300–301, 369

  Hoyle, Fred, 162–67, 286, 368

  Hubble, Edwin, 155–57

  Huxley, T. H., 61, 75

  Huygens, Christiaan, 120, 123, 224–26, 315

  Jeffreys, Sir Harold, 82

  Johnson, Samuel, 213, 249

  Kant, Immanuel, 15–16

  Keats, John, 223

  Kelvin, Lord, 73–77, 85, 91–94, 153, 299–300, 321–22, 329, 331, 357–59, 360

  Kepler, Johannes, 53, 110–15, 117, 119, 123, 128, 137, 150–51, 214, 329, 355, 365

  Kirchhoff, Gustav, 258–59

  Kleiber, Max, 208–10, 212

  Lagrange, Joseph-Louis, 318, 357

  Lalande, Joseph-Jérôme Lefrançois de, 127

  Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 58, 91, 176, 244, 350, 357

  Lehmann, Inge, 82–83, 361

  Lenard, Philipp, 239, 247–48

  Leverrier, Urbain-Jean-Joseph, 131–35, 145

  Lorentz, Edward, 349

  Lucretius, 149–50, 158–59, 251–52, 272, 295

  Mach, Ernst, 253

  Malthus, Parson Robert, 18–21, 54–55, 343

  May, Robert, 345–51

  Maxwell, James Clerk, 232–36, 252, 355, 367

  Meitner, Lise, 304–305, 361–62

  Mendel, Gregor, 191–92, 194

  Michell, Reverend John, 176–77, 243–44

  Millikan, Robert, 241, 368

  Mohorovičić, Andrija, 83–84, 360

  Napier, John, 49–52

  Ne'eman, Y., 292

  Newton, Isaac, 16, 74, 90–91, 117–24, 130, 142–44, 157–59, 170, 172–73, 177, 185, 217–19, 222, 224, 243, 252, 287, 295, 315, 355–57

  Olbers, Heinrich, 153

  Oldham, Richard, 80–81

  Oort, Jan, 167, 171

  Oppenheimer, Robert, 178, 307

  Oresme, Nicole, 57, 87, 108

  Osiander, Andreas, 109–10

  Oughtred, William, 54

  Pasta, John, 334–40, 342

  Pauli, Wolfgang, 285–87

  Peierls, Rudolf, 306

  Perlmutter, Saul, 160

  Perrin, Jean, 253, 257

  Perry, John, 75–76, 85, 97

  Planck, Max, 238, 361

  Poe, Edgar Allan, 153

  Prange, H. D., 206

  Ptolemy, Claudius, 100–108, 329

  Radon, Johann, 200

  Rayleigh, Lord, 78, 230–31, 237, 330

  Reiss, Adam, 160

  Roemer, Ole, 214–17

  Rossi, Bruno, 290

  Rubin, Vera, 167–72, 361

  Rutherford, Sir Arthur, 76–77, 262, 269, 281, 298

  Schmidt, Brian, 160

  Schrödinger, Erwin, 266–67, 275

  Schwarzchild, Karl, 177–78

  Schwinger, Julian, 277

  Serber, Robert, 307–10

  Soddy, Frederick, 298

  Soldner, Johann Georg von, 244–46, 248

  Strassmann, Fritz, 304

  Taylor, Brook, 316

  Tsingou, Mary, 342–43

  Ulam, Stanislaw, 334–40

  Updike, John, 286

  Ussher, Bishop James, 72

  Vallée-Poussin, C. J. de la, 63

  Walton, Ernest, 297

  Watson, G. N., 325

  Weinberg, Wilhelm, 195

  Weisskopf, Victor, 262, 276

  Weizsäcker, Carl von, 303, 312

  West, Geoffrey, 211–12

  Wheeler, John Archibald, 158, 179

  Wordsworth, William, 217, 223

  Young, Thomas, 226–27

  Zwicky, Fritz, 167, 171

  Airy disc, 228–31

  Almagest, 100–108

  analogue computer, 93–95, 226, 358

  annuity, 188–91

  anthropic principle, 165–67

  astronomical unit, 136–41

  atoms

  Bohr's theory for, 263–64

  chemical, 257–58

  existence of, 253–57

  hydrogen, 260–67

  spectrum, 258–62

  structure of, 262–68

  Avogadro's number, 256–57

  Basel problem, 57–59

  Benford's law, 65

  Bessel functions, 229, 323–31

  beta (β) decay, 281–87

  big bang, 159, 314

  black hole, 176–79

  blood flow, 181–85, 366

  Brownian motion, 254–57

  calculations

  analysis of, 20–21, 70–71, 75–76, 90–91, 355–56

  assessing, 363–64

  list of, 353–54

  list of great, 364–68

 
styles of, 98, 127, 316–19, 335, 356–59

  carbon, 163–65

  chaos, 348–51, 368

  period doubling and route to, 347–48

  chords of circles, 101–104

  comets, 123–28

  Compton scattering, 241–43

  computer simulations, 335–43, 345–48, 356

  cosmological principle, 154, 165

  CT scan, 201–203

  dark energy, 159–60, 313–14

  dark matter, 167–72, 313–14

  dark sky, 150–54

  dark star, 177

  D-Day landing, 95–96

  Earth

  age of, 71–77

  radius of, 67–70

  spinning of, 85–91

  structure of, 77–85, 365

  eightfold way, 292

  electromagnetic waves, 234–37, 367

  electron magnetic moment, 276–80

  energy

  conservation, 283–85

  equipartition of, 334, 339

  in nuclear reactions, 281–85, 297–98, 301–303, 307–308

  escape velocity, 172–73

  evolution, 21, 71–74, 191, 194–95

  Feynman diagrams, 277–79

  Fourier series, 74, 92–93, 316–21

  FPU problem, 336–43

  Friedman equations, 158–59

  genetics, 191–96

  Goldbach conjecture, 64

  gravitational lensing, 247

  Hardy-Weinberg law, 193–95

  Halley's Comet, 126–28, 365

  heart, 183–84

  heat conduction, 73–75, 321

  Hubble's law, 155–57

  Huygens's principle, 225, 227

  hydrogen

  in early universe, 161–62

  spectrum, 260–62, 263, 266–67

  in stars, 301–303

  image resolution, 230–32

  inverse problems, 85, 130–31, 199–200, 357

  iteration methods, 33, 37–38

  Kepler's laws, 114–15, 117, 171, 365

  kinetic theory of gases, 252–53

  Kleiber's law, 209–12

  origin of, 211

  Liber Abbaci, 44–49, 55

  light

  Airy disc for, 228–31

  bending, 243–48

  colors, 217–19, 222

  diffraction, 227–30

  electromagnetic theory for, 232–37, 367

  gravity and, 243–45

  photons, 237–43

  rays, 219, 224

  speed of, 214–17, 235–36, 288

  waves, 224–37

  linearity, 331–34

  logarithms, 49–54, 57, 115, 365

  impact of, 53–54

  logistic equation, 345–48

  Los Alamos Primer, 307–11

  Mars, 112–14, 365

  metabolic rate, 208–12

  Moho, 83–84

  moon landing, 174–75

  Moon Test, 118–21

  muon decay, 290–91

  Neptune, 130–35

  neutrino, 284–86, 301–304

  neutron, 269–71, 282–84

  nuclear

  fission, 297, 304–13

  forces, 161, 296, 300

  fusion, 162–64, 297, 300–303

  weapons, 306–13

  nucleus, 295–98

  numerical analysis, 33, 127, 335–36

  Olbers's paradox, 153

  parity nonconservation, 286–87

  Pascal's triangle, 64

  photoelectric effect, 239–41

  pi, 36–40, 58, 364

  planetary masses, 121–23

  Plimpton 322, 28–33

  poems, 53, 149–50, 217, 223, 251, 272, 286

  population growth

  Malthusian, 18–20, 343–44

  nonlinear, 344–48

  rabbit, 47–48

  prime number, 59–64

  theorem, 62–63

  projectile motion, 85–91

  maximum range, 90

  parabolic path, 89–90

  Pythagorean triples, 29–32

  quantum

  field theory, 274–80, 286

  mechanics, 262–68

  wave function, 266

  quark, 293–95

  Radon transform, 200

  rainbow, 217–23

  recreational mathematics, 47–48

  relativity

  general, 146, 157–59, 245

  special, 282–83, 287–90

  rotating orbits, 142–47, 366

  scaling, 204–12

  Schrödinger's equation, 266, 367

  seismic waves, 78–84, 365

  series

  arithmetic, 38

  geometric, 39

  infinite, 56–59, 63

  skeleton mass, 206–208

  solar system, 99–147

  size of, 136–41

  soliton, 341–42

  spacecraft orbits, 173–76

  sunshine, 298–303

  tables, 358

  arithmetical, 27–29, 60–62

  astronomical, 102–108, 112–15, 129

  ballistic, 90

  Bessel functions, 330–31

  chords of circles, 102–104

  logarithms, 52–54, 365

  population, 185–88

  quarter squares, 329–30

  tides, 91–97

  time dilation, 289–90

  tomography, 196–203

  transit of Venus, 137–41

  universe

  age of, 158

  expanding, 156–60

  nature of, 149–54

  size of, 149–54

  Uranus, 128–35

  vibrating

  drum, 327

  hanging chain, 326

  particles and springs, 336–40

  string, 316–21

  Voyager spacecraft, 175–76

  Vulcan, 145

  weak interactions, 286–87

  women in science, 82–83, 127, 167–69, 305, 342–43, 361–63

  x-rays, 197

 

 

 


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