(source)

Baron William Thomson Kelvin (26 Jun 1824 - 17 Dec 1907) Irish physicist, mathematician and engineer , born as William Thomson in Ireland, he became an influential physicist, mathematician and engineer who has been described as the Newton of his era. Short biography of Baron William Thomson Kelvin >>

William Thomson Kelvin
“I have no satisfaction in formulas”

Illustrated Quote - Large (800 x 400 px)

Click here or image for medium 500 x 250px version

(source)

“I have no satisfaction in formulas unless I feel their arithmetical magnitude.”

— William Thomson Kelvin

From lecture at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (1884).

More William Thomson Kelvin quotes on science >>

This quote comes from the seventh of the series of lectures Kelvin gave in the United States in 1884, at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, on topics concerning molecular dynamics and the wave theory of light. Specifically, in this lecture, Kelvin went through mathematical description, first on Lagrange’s analysis of the oscillation of a linear system for bodies connected in series and then he considered the propagation of disturbances in an elastic solid. He must have densely filled the chalkboard with equations which fill a number of pages in the printed record of his lectures.

At one point, having laid out a series of descriptive equations, he remarked how it was his habit to visualize the arithmetic results of any formulas he was investigating. In this case, without actually doing the numerous calculation, he realized the “exceeding rapidity of convergence of the formulas.” He explained in a passing remark:

“I have no satisfaction in formulas unless I feel their arithmetical magnitude—at all events when formulas are intended for definite dynamical or physical problems. So that if I do not exactly calculate the formulas, I would like to know how I could calculate them and express the order of the magnitudes concerned in them.”

click for more about this quote and a larger picture • 500px • 800px

click for more about this quote and a larger picture • 500px • 800px

click for more about this quote and a larger picture • 500px • 800px

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)

Quotations by: • Albert Einstein • Isaac Newton • Lord Kelvin • Charles Darwin • Srinivasa Ramanujan • Carl Sagan • Florence Nightingale • Thomas Edison • Aristotle • Marie Curie • Benjamin Franklin • Winston Churchill • Galileo Galilei • Sigmund Freud • Robert Bunsen • Louis Pasteur • Theodore Roosevelt • Abraham Lincoln • Ronald Reagan • Leonardo DaVinci • Michio Kaku • Karl Popper • Johann Goethe • Robert Oppenheimer • Charles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about: • Atomic  Bomb • Biology • Chemistry • Deforestation • Engineering • Anatomy • Astronomy • Bacteria • Biochemistry • Botany • Conservation • Dinosaur • Environment • Fractal • Genetics • Geology • History of Science • Invention • Jupiter • Knowledge • Love • Mathematics • Measurement • Medicine • Natural Resource • Organic Chemistry • Physics • Physician • Quantum Theory • Research • Science and Art • Teacher • Technology • Universe • Volcano • Virus • Wind Power • Women Scientists • X-Rays • Youth • Zoology  ... (more topics)