"[D]ifferential equations... represent the most powerful tool humanity has ever created for making sense of the material world. Sir Isaac Newton used them to solve the ancient mystery of planetary motion. In so doing, he unified the heavens and the earth, showing that the same laws of motion applied to both. ...[S]ince Newton, mankind has come to realize that the laws of physics are always expressed in the language of differential equations. This is true for the equations governing the flow of heat, air and water; for the laws of electricity and magnetism; even for the unfamiliar and often counterintuitive atomic realm where quantum mechanics reigns. ...[T]theoretical physics boils down to finding the right differential equations and solving them. When Newton discovered this key to the secrets of the universe, he felt it was so precious that he published it only as an anagram... Loosely translated... "It is useful to solve differential equations.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
, "Loves Me, Loves Me Not (Do the Math)" (May 26, 2009) New York Times. Also published in The Best Writing on Mathematics 2010 (2011) ed. Mircea Pitici.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Differential_equation
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Differential equation
27 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Differential equation →
Related Quotes
"I ought also to mention Jacobi]'s papers on Abelian transcendants; his investigations on the theory of numbers... his…"
"The meaning of the differential equation now follows:\frac{df(t)}{dt} = Af(t)expresses the claim that the rate of cha…"
"[W]e find an excellent tract by James Bernoulli concerning the elastic curve, isochronous curves, the path of mean di…"
"Newton] teaches us to take the s, of any given order, of an equation with any given number of variable quantities, wh…"
"Newton almost entirely melted down the treatise of Quadratures into another entitled, the Method of Fluxions, and of …"
"The problem of three bodies has been treated in various ways since the time of Lagrange, but no decided advance towar…"
"We should speak of a dialectics of the calculus... the problem element in so far as... distinguished from the properl…"
"In general, a differential equation arises whenever you have a quantity subject to change. ...Strictly speaking, the …"
"Maxwell's equations had abstract mathematical qualities which were profoundly new and important. Maxwell's theory was…"
"Almost all of fluid dynamics follows from a differential equation called the Navier-Stokes equation. But this general…"