![]() MacArthur Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics. Virtual whiteboards have become more popular too, says Sergei Gukov, the John D. Smartphones have also changed the ways scientists communicate math it is easy to snap pictures and send photos of formulas to one another. Sometimes, she says, they do not even bother to translate the codes back into mathematical symbols because the codes are so ingrained in their heads. ![]() “LaTeX has changed the way we communicate with each other,” says Professor of Theoretical Physics Xie Chen, who, like many other scientists, uses the TeX language to denote mathematical symbols when writing technical papers and even emails to colleagues. For example, to type the symbol π into a document, a researcher would write the command “$\pi$” into the LaTeX program. Leslie Lamport, a computer scientist then working at SRI International in Menlo Park, California, took TeX a step further to create the document-preparation system known as LaTeX, which uses the language of TeX. Beginning in the late 1970s, Donald Knuth (PhD ’63) developed a typesetting language called TeX, which allowed researchers to more easily type out mathematical symbols. Preskill and other Caltech researchers recall the invention that finally relieved researchers of the burden of switching out typewriter balls. People reused all paper before recycling was invented,” she says. “This was a year after World War I ended, and there was a terrible paper shortage. That archive includes one such envelope from 1919 on which Einstein jotted down unidentified calculations. Abbey Professor of History and director of the Einstein Papers Project. ![]() In fact, many published papers, including those by Albert Einstein, who was a visiting professor at Caltech on three occasions, and longtime Caltech physics professor Richard Feynman, contain handwritten equations sandwiched between typed text.Įinstein actually wrote on the front and back of envelopes to carry out his calculations, explains Diana Kormos-Buchwald, Caltech’s Robert M. The advent of the typewriter in the 1870s made the job easier, but it was still a cumbersome task. Before the symbols were introduced, the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes, for example, derived the value of pi by using hexagons to approximate circles but did so without the use of the pi symbol, π, which was not introduced to represent the mathematical constant until the early 18th century.Īs math progressed, so did the need for mathematicians and scientists to write down their equations. The modern mathematical symbols we know did not come into fashion until the Renaissance, which began in the 14th century. The ancient Egyptians depicted numbers ordered in powers of 10 with symbols, or hieroglyphs, such as lotus flowers, fingers, and frogs. The first written mathematical notations date back thousands of years and can be found carved into clay tablets, stones, and wood. This is what it would be like to do math without the equations.” Ancient Arithmetic “Imagine playing a game of chess and having to write a paragraph about each of your moves. It lets you find incisive solutions that get to the heart of a problem,” says Tom Hutchcroft, professor of mathematics. “Math lets you encapsulate a lot of ideas at once. Nevertheless, the researchers agree that mathematical notations allow them to reveal hidden patterns and structures in our world related to stock markets, computers, black holes, and even living beings. Some call math the language of nature, while others describe it as a tool for abstract reasoning. Not all researchers see these handwritten symbols and software codes the same way. “I used to have equations written all over papers that were everywhere,” he says. Fernando Brandão, the Bren Professor of Theoretical Physics, says he has switched over to digital pens and pads to write out equations. Some have gone digital, while others still prefer the gritty, tactile nature of chalkboards. Across the Caltech campus, scientists and mathematicians have various methods for writing in the language of math. Researchers share their formulas on virtual whiteboards, snap pictures of equations with their smartphones, and write out equations in documents using a much-heralded software program called LaTeX (pronounced lay-tech). Today, typewriters have given way to personal computers and other modern technologies, making it easier for mathematicians and scientists to communicate their mathematical equations to collaborators and the rest of the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |