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प्रश्न
“It is more important to have beauty in the equations of physics than to have them agree with experiments”. The great British physicist P. A. M. Dirac held this view. Criticize this statement. Look out for some equations and results in this book which strike you as beautiful.
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उत्तर १
An equation which agrees with experiment must also be simple and hence beautiful. We have some simple and beautiful equations in Physics such as
- E = mc2 (Energy of light)
- E = hv (Energy of a photon)
- KE = 1/2mv2(Kinetic energy of a moving particle)
- PE = mgh (Potential energy of a body at rest)
- W = F.d (Work done)
All have the same dimensions. One experiment shows dependency of energy on speed, the other shows dependency on frequency & displacement. That's the beauty of equations in Physics coming from different experiments.
उत्तर २
Generally it is considered that physics is a dry subject and its main aim is to give qualitative and quantitative treatment i.e., any derived relation or equation must be verified through experimentation. It is felt that truth of an equation is more important than the simplicity, wonderfulness, symmetry or beauty of the equation. But frankly, if a relation is true to experimentation and simultaneously it is simple, interesting, symmetrical, wonderful or beautiful, it will certainly add to the charm of the relation.
संबंधित प्रश्न
India has had a long and unbroken tradition of great scholarship — in mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, logic and ethics. Yet, in parallel with this, several superstitious and obscurantistic attitudes and practices flourished in our society and unfortunately continue even today — among many educated people too. How will you use your knowledge of science to develop strategies to counter these attitudes ?
A unitless quantity
\[\int\frac{dx}{\sqrt{2ax - x^2}} = a^n \sin^{- 1} \left[ \frac{x}{a} - 1 \right]\]
The value of n is
Find the dimensions of frequency .
Find the dimensions of pressure.
Find the dimensions of electric field E.
The relevant equations are \[F = qE, F = qvB, \text{ and }B = \frac{\mu_0 I}{2 \pi a};\]
where F is force, q is charge, v is speed, I is current, and a is distance.
Find the dimensions of Planck's constant h from the equation E = hv where E is the energy and v is the frequency.
Test if the following equation is dimensionally correct:
\[h = \frac{2S cos\theta}{\text{ prg }},\]
where h = height, S = surface tension, ρ = density, I = moment of interia.
Test if the following equation is dimensionally correct:
\[V = \frac{\pi P r^4 t}{8 \eta l}\]
where v = frequency, P = pressure, η = coefficient of viscosity.
Let x and a stand for distance. Is
\[\int\frac{dx}{\sqrt{a^2 - x^2}} = \frac{1}{a} \sin^{- 1} \frac{a}{x}\] dimensionally correct?
Can you add two vectors representing physical quantities having different dimensions? Can you multiply two vectors representing physical quantities having different dimensions?
Can you have \[\vec{A} \times \vec{B} = \vec{A} \cdot \vec{B}\] with A ≠ 0 and B ≠ 0 ? What if one of the two vectors is zero?
Let the angle between two nonzero vectors \[\vec{A}\] and \[\vec{B}\] be 120° and its resultant be \[\vec{C}\].
Two vectors have magnitudes 2 unit and 4 unit respectively. What should be the angle between them if the magnitude of the resultant is (a) 1 unit, (b) 5 unit and (c) 7 unit.
Two vectors have magnitudes 2 m and 3m. The angle between them is 60°. Find (a) the scalar product of the two vectors, (b) the magnitude of their vector product.
A curve is represented by y = sin x. If x is changed from \[\frac{\pi}{3}\text{ to }\frac{\pi}{3} + \frac{\pi}{100}\] , find approximately the change in y.
The changes in a function y and the independent variable x are related as
\[\frac{dy}{dx} = x^2\] . Find y as a function of x.
In a submarine equipped with sonar, the time delay between the generation of a pulse and its echo after reflection from an enemy submarine is observed to be 80 s. If the speed of sound in water is 1460 ms-1. What is the distance of an enemy submarine?
Jupiter is at a distance of 824.7 million km from the Earth. Its angular diameter is measured to be 35.72˝. Calculate the diameter of Jupiter.
