Lord Kelvin citáty
Lord Kelvin
Datum narození: 26. červen 1824
Datum úmrtí: 17. prosinec 1907
Další jména:Lord William Thomson Kelvin,William Kelvin,William Thomson, 1. Baron Kelvin
William Thomson, známý spíše pod svým šlechtickým jménem lord Kelvin of Largs, byl skotský fyzik a jeden z nejvýznačnějších fyziků.
Citáty Lord Kelvin
„Létací prostředky těžší než vzduch jsou čirým nesmyslem.“
— Lord Kelvin
prezident Royal Society, 1895
„I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning“
— William Thomson
Context: I am afraid I am not in the flight for “aerial navigation”. I was greatly interested in your work with kites; but I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of. So you will understand that I would not care to be a member of the aëronautical Society.
As a [http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/papers/letters.html#baden-powell response to Major B. F. S. Baden Powell's request to join the Aeronautical Society, December 8, 1896].
Often reproduced out of context and without citation to any primary source as "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible", like in The Experts Speak : The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation (1984) by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky, p. 236
„The beauty and clearness of the dynamical theory, which asserts heat and light to be modes of motion, is at present obscured by two clouds.“
— William Thomson
Context: The beauty and clearness of the dynamical theory, which asserts heat and light to be modes of motion, is at present obscured by two clouds. I. The first came into existence with the undulatory theory of light, and was dealt with by Fresnel and Dr. Thomas Young; it involved the question, how could the earth move through an elastic solid, such as essentially is the luminiferous ether? II. The second is the Maxwell–Boltzmann doctrine regarding the partition of energy.
From a 1900, April 27, , Sixth Series, 2, 1–40 (1901).
„Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense.“
— William Thomson
Quoted in Life of Lord Kelvin (1910) by Silvanus Phillips Thompson
„There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.“
— William Thomson
Misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the in 1900. and the quote is instead a paraphrase of Albert A. Michelson, who in 1894 stated: "… it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established … An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals."
„To live among friends is the primary essential of happiness.“
— William Thomson
Lord Kelvin’s Replies to Addresses given on the Celebration of the Jubilee of his Professorship (June 15-17, 1896). Quoted in [http://historical.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cul.math/docviewer?did=03620002 Lord Kelvin, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow 1846-1899 (1899) by George F. Fitzgerald]
„Symmetrical equations are good in their place, but 'vector' is a useless survival, or offshoot from quaternions, and has never been of the slightest use to any creature.“
— William Thomson
Letter to G. F. FitzGerald (1896) as quoted in A History of Vector Analysis : The Evolution of the Idea of a Vectorial System (1994) by Michael J. Crowe, p. 120<!-- also quoted in Vector Calculus (1976) by Jerrold E. Marsden and Anthony J. Tromba -->
„I need scarcely say that the beginning and maintenance of life on earth is absolutely and infinitely beyond the range of sound speculation in dynamical science.“
— William Thomson
As quoted in The Life of Lord Kelvin (1910), by Silvanus Phillips, Volume 2, (2005 edition, . p. 866)
„1. There is at present in the material world a universal tendency to the dissipation of mechanical energy.
2. Any restoration of mechanical energy, without more than an equivalent of dissipation, is impossible in inanimate material processes, and is probably never effected by means of organized matter, either endowed with vegetable life or subjected to the will of an animated creature.
3. Within a finite period of time past, the earth must have been, and within a finite period of time to come the earth must again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at present constituted, unless operations have been, or are to be performed, which are impossible under the laws to which the known operations going on at present in the material world are subject.“
— William Thomson
[http://books.google.com/books?id=nWMSAAAAIAAJ Mathematical and Physical Papers, Vol.1] p. 512 (1882) "On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy" originally from the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for April 19, 1852, also Philosophical Magazine, Oct. 1852
„Mathematics is the only true metaphysics.“
— William Thomson
As quoted by Silvanus Phillips Thompson, The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs (1910) [https://books.google.com/books?id=S_PPAAAAMAAJ Vol. 2], p. 1124
„If the water flow down by a gradual natural channel, its potential energy is gradually converted into heat by fluid friction, according to an admirable discovery made by Mr Joule of Manchester above twelve years ago, which has led to the greatest reform that physical science has experienced since the days of Newton. From that discovery, it may be concluded with certainty that heat is not matter, but some kind of motion among the particles of matter; a conclusion established, it is true, by Sir Humphrey Davy and Count Rumford at the end of last century, but ignored by even the highest scientific men during a period of more than forty years.“
— William Thomson
[http://books.google.com/books?id=kNrVAAAAMAAJ Mathematical and Physical Papers, Vol.2] (1884) "On Mechanical Antecedents of Motion, Heat and Light" (originally published 1854, 1855)
„Quaternions came from Hamilton after his really good work had been done, and though beautifully ingenious, have been an unmixed evil to those who have touched them in any way.“
— William Thomson
Letter to Robert Baldwin Hayward (1892), as quoted in Energy and Empire : A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin (1989) by Crosbie Smith and M. Norton Wise
„There cannot be a greater mistake than that of looking superciliously upon the practical applications of science. The life and soul of science is its practical application; and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.“
— William Thomson
Lecture on "Electrical Units of Measurement" (3 May 1883), published in Popular Lectures Vol. I, p. 73, as quoted in The Life of Lord Kelvin (1910) by Silvanus Phillips Thompson
