Talking about mathematics in cold blood can seem dry. It does not tend to be the favorite subject in education and sometimes it is complex, but when talking about the possibilities that your knowledge grantsthings change.
It is not as striking to talk about Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity as it is to talk about power. travel in time.
The same thing happens with the law of universal gravitation and the possibility of traveling to Mars, or with Friedmann’s equations and the mysterious dark energy that accelerates the expansion of the universe.
Throughout history, great minds have managed to use the knowledge they had to date and expand it, allowing for a greater understanding of the universe in which we live and how we can use it to our advantageas statedLive Science.
These are 9 equations that changed the world.
1. Pythagorean Theorem
Nowadays it is one of the things that is learned in all schools, but it is about one of the first trigonometric rules in history.
The theorem states that in every right triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the legs.
It is attributed to the Greek mathematician who gives the equation its name, according to the University of St. Andrews (Scotland). It is one of the oldest calculations in existence and allowed expand construction, navigation and cartography, among many other things.
2. Newton’s second law and the law of universal gravitation
Isaac Newton developed a series of principles that determined an important part of the laws of physics. But it is Newton’s second law, that of fundamental dynamics, which has astronomical possibilities, never better said.
The English physicist developed the law of universal gravitation from this equation in 1687, which stipulates that the force with which two objects attract each other is proportional to the multiplication of their masses divided by the distance between them squared.
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But the most interesting thing about the matter is What could be calculated with that?Newton’s equation allows us to know with rigorous precision the movement of the planets and other stellar bodies in the solar system and how to travel between them.
3. The wave equation
Almost a century after Newton’s discoveries, his French counterpart Jean-Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert derived an equation describing the vibrations of an oscillating string, or wave motion.
As reported in the journal Advances in Historical Studies, this equation allows scientists to predict the movement of water, seismic waves and sound waves.
It has also served as a basis for other calculations, such as the quantum Schrödinger equation, on which many digital computing devices are based.
4. Fourier’s equations
The Fourier transform allowed a great advance in complex calculus when he wrote it in 1822, he recalls. Live ScienceThe equation allowed the simplification of complex and messy data into simple wave combinations.
The advance was such that for the relationship of calculations of time and space, according to the Yale Pacific, the mathematicians of the time They couldn’t believe it was true.
Today, Fourier transforms are constantly used in data processing, statistics, astronomy, and engineering.
5. Maxwell’s equations
Phenomena such as electricity and magnetism were difficult to measure and investigate until James Clerk Maxwell was able to describe them thanks to 20 equations – later reduced to 4 – in 1864.
His compilation of calculations made it possible to understand both concepts and unify them into one, introducing revolutionary concepts such as the magnetic field.
These equations provide the basis for the behavior of every electronic and technological object today.
6. E = mc ^ 2.
The most famous mathematical formula in history. Enunciated by Albert Einstein, it is part of the theory of special relativity. The equation proposed the equivalence of matter and energy like two sides of the same coin.
The theory of special relativity has helped enormously in understanding how stars and the universe work, as well as the development of particle accelerators and the subatomic world.
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Furthermore, this theory of Einstein, developed in depth 10 years later with the general relativityintroduced new concepts as striking as that of time dilation.
According to Einstein’s measurements, the Gravity and speed affect ordinary time measurement.
In this way, and in relation to the speedtime passes more slowly for objects traveling at very high speeds. The closer something moves to the speed of light (about 300,000 km per second), the less time it has lived compared to other objects traveling at lower speeds.
That is, if we were able to move at the speed of light at a fixed point, It could be considered that a trip to the future has been madeHowever, the same theory limits the temporal movement towards forwardbeing impossible move into the past.
It is so present in our daily lives that, for example, the time measurements that GPS satellites can have and that they send to Earth, have an introduced scheduled temporary correction due to their different time frame.
7. Friedmann equations
Russian physicist Alexander Friedmann, building on the field equation theories proposed by Einstein a few years earlier, achieved perfection in 1920. Friedmann demonstrated that all the characteristics of the universe since the Big Bang could be measured.
The two equations proposed by the Russian physicist combine the curvature of the universe, the matter and energy that compose it, as well as the constant speed of light at which it expands.
The reason for its significance lies in the demonstration of the existence of an energy that is unknown even today: dark energy. It is a phenomenon about which scientists know very little, except that It is present in 75% of the cosmos, which acts in opposition to gravity and is responsible for the expansion of the universe.
8. Shannon information equation
It is common knowledge that computers use their own language: binary. This concept was first developed by the American mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon in 1948.
Shannon’s formula showed the most efficient way to share or transmit information taking into account the bandwidth of a line and the strength of the signal and noise.
This equation gives a result in bits per second and is the basis for the operation of virtually all computers in the world.
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9. May’s logistic equation
Chaos theory is as complex and chaotic as its name suggests. One of the mathematicians who proposed it, the Frenchman Henri Poincaré, said that Chance is nothing more than the measure of man’s ignoranceIn short, it is used to measure the randomness of elements or phenomena.
The Australian mathematician and physicist Robert May wrote in 1976 in Nature his theory of ‘Simple mathematical models with very complicated dynamics’.
In theory, May proposed a simple calculation model to explain the dynamics of populations that grow at an increasingly slower rate the closer they are to a limit; and also for calculating random numbers in programming.
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