The Simple Math of Everything

Re:The Simple Math of Everything by Retric on Wednesday May 27, 2009 @02:59PM (#628950)

Almost, I suspect the idea is you can understand a lot about say engines by understanding say maximum thermal effecency = 1 - (cold / hot) in Kelvin (which is around 300 on the cold side.) There is also a lot of high end math, but a lot of the useful parts of the field can be understood based on that and say the temperature limits of steel.

Add in Stefan–Boltzmann law; which states that amount of thermal radiations emitted per second per unit area of the surface of a black body is directly proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature (Kelven), and kelvin = Celsius - 273. Which let's you consider the limits of say a large solar thermal collector.

PS: It's often not about precision as much as a sanity check.

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Re:The Simple Math of Everything by larryfreeman on Wednesday May 27, 2009 @08:05PM (#629449)

I agree. That's his main point.

He also touches on two points which I thought were worth calling out:

(1) No source for a Simple Math of Everything exists (ie he'd like to write one)

(2) If it did exist, there are many benefits to it even beyond gaining new knowledge (for example, reading Feynman's lectures greatly enriched his world view)

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Re:The Simple Math of Everything by pieceofpeace on Thursday May 28, 2009 @01:59AM (#629846)

> and kelvin = Celsius - 273

kelvin = Celsius + ~273.15

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Re:The Simple Math of Everything by Retric on Thursday May 28, 2009 @08:02AM (#630081)

lol, ops.

I was thinking [kelvin = Celsius] - 273 as in they are on the same scale once you subtract 273 from kelvin, but that's not what I wrote.

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