God said, “div D = ρ, div B = 0, curl E = - ðB/ðt, curl H = J + ðD/ðt,” and there was light.

God said, “div D = ρ, div B = 0, curl E = - ðB/ðt, curl H = J + ðD/ðt,”
and there was light.

This ingenious statement by atheist-physicist Brent Meeker is my favourite science quotation.
It was used in 2002 when I was on Vic Stenger’s discussion site, avoid-l.

Here are some more science-related quotations from among many dozens I have been collecting for years. What are your best science-related quotes?


“The first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning ... For by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at truth.”  Peter Abelard (1079-1142) c. 1120.

“The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do.” Galileo Galilei

Socrates: “There is only one good, Knowledge, and only one evil, Ignorance.”

René Descartes: “We buy the right to reject only with the effort we make to understand”.

Tags: Let there be light, Quotations

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jaume on May 31, 2010 at 5:24am
Laplace (allegedly replying to Napoleon): "Sire, I had no need for this [God] hypothesis."
Permalink Reply by Dr. Terence Meaden on May 31, 2010 at 8:29am
Yes, very good. It is reputed to be the answer given by Laplace when asked by Napoleon why there was no mention of God in Laplace's great work Traité de la Méchanique Céleste.
Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on May 31, 2010 at 5:44am
Well ... I think you'd still need E = hν along with Maxwell's Equations (that is what those are ... four of the five, anyway), and maybe a few other things ... but I like it, I Like It!
Permalink Reply by Jaume on May 31, 2010 at 6:48am
I think you'd still need E = hν

It's right there, although the formulation is different: and there was light.

:P
Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on May 31, 2010 at 7:39am
Coulda fooled me ... which one? O' course, if you wanna be THOROUGH there's always:

Permalink Reply by thewoodenwand on June 8, 2012 at 7:40am

I think the standard model and even mathematics will distort with very large passages of time.
Or maybe very short (sub-plank time) the key for me is the spin properties of all things, especially particles. Does a God need mathematical proving if sub-quantum space/time or the Big Bang created a point in our space/time without maths absolute accuracy?

Attachments:
Permalink Reply by Keith Brian Johnson on May 31, 2010 at 10:42am
How do you guys get mathematical symbols to show up on a computer screen?
Permalink Reply by Dr. Terence Meaden on May 31, 2010 at 10:59am
I prepared the equations off this screen inserting symbols by using the symbols option available on the Windows task bar; and then pasted the result on the 'Physicists' front page where it says "Start Discussion".
Permalink Reply by Keith Brian Johnson on May 31, 2010 at 11:06am
There's a symbols option on the Windows task bar? Do you mean in Word?
Permalink Reply by Dr. Terence Meaden on May 31, 2010 at 11:44am
Yes.
On Microsoft Word when preparing a document, look at the task bar on the top line, and click INSERT.
A long table of symbols appears, from which you can select each symbol in turn that you need.
Permalink Reply by thewoodenwand on February 19, 2012 at 11:46am

Copy and paste them from a website like Wikipedia's list of mathematics symbols.

Permalink Reply by thewoodenwand on February 19, 2012 at 11:50am

I like quotes of curiosity and science:

"Sometimes I don't want to see the puppeteers, 
sometimes I just want to see the magic therein, 
and sometimes I just want to pry open the atoms 
and know why they spin."
- Glen Sutton

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