Tiger Woods and His Physics Book

A media maelstrom surrounds the early morning jaunt by golfer Tiger Woods as he sped down his driveway on November 30 and somehow ended up in the street semi-conscious. As fascinating as this frenzy of the press is, it’s even more captivating to learn of the paperback book found amidst the broken glass on floor of Tiger's Cadillac Escalade - "Get a Grip on Physics" by John Gribben (see inset photo).

Imagine that, Tiger reading a physics book that talks about the basics of physics from early developments through the latest subatomic particle discoveries and string theory. Maybe Tiger needs to know Newtonian mechanics to determine the optimal force necessary for this 400 yard drives. Or forget about allegations of an extramarital affair, maybe his wife Elin simply caught him reading the physics book a clocked him with the golf club to get him to stop. I've heard of being anti-science, but hey, this is going too far!

A Prince among Math Teachers

The Steve Lopez column appearing in today’s Sunday Los Angeles Times highlighted the story of a local math teacher that should be awarded a prize for “Most Dedicated.” I feel a warm feeling each time I read it. The article “Retired Los Angeles teacher keeps at it, for free” is about Palms Middle School math teacher Bruce Kravets who is in retirement, but still teaches his seventh grade algebra class for no compensation. At 66, Kravets accrued a comfortable level of retirement income after 44 years of teaching, but he chose to stay on at the school because he loves teaching so much. That’s dedication!

I’m confident that a young person learning mathematics from a teacher who loves teaching for the sake of learning is going to take away much of value. Of course, a teacher can be dedicated without forsaking his/her salary, but someone like Kravets sets a pretty high standard for quality education. Knowing how much we need our young people to embrace math and science these days, I’m very encouraged by the results of his efforts. I very much applaud Mr. Kravets.

What's in a Name?

When it comes to the illustrious history of particle physics, names can often fuel interest in research directions. I’m talking about the names of the subatomic particles themselves. Case in point, consider the name “quark.”

Nobel Prize winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann chose the name quark (which is the “squawk” of a gull) from a line in Irish author James Joyce's 1939 book of comic fiction Finnegans Wake (see page 383):

"Three quarks for Muster Mark."

Independently, the physicist George Zweig suggested a similar idea, calling the building-block particles "aces". Not quite as catchy a name, it didn’t take hold and quark became a permanent part of the physics vernacular (and Star Trek Deep Space Nine characters).

The Human and Scientific Tale of Galileo

As a Physics Groupie on the prowl, I’m always looking for good public lectures to attend. Fortunately, there’s plenty happening here in L.A. with Caltech and UCLA. Last week, Zoe alerted me to an evening lecture over at Caltech’s new Cahill Astrophysics building. The subject was “The Human and Scientific Tale of Galileo” presented by Professor Alberto Righini of the University of Firenze. We headed over to Pasadena with high expectations.

When we arrived at the high-tech Hameetman Auditorium the hall was nearly full of science enthusiasts from all walks of life including a few children. An event organizer was busy passing out little orange raffle tickets for some unknown prize to be awarded at the end of the session.

Professor Righini was a stately, older gentleman with a thick Italian accent who on occasion needed to draw upon the expertise of his translator sitting in the front row. He presented a cogent talk that ranged from the scientific accomplishments of an exceptional scientist to the personal limitations and flaws of a man, bringing to life an extraordinary person who had the courage to champion reason in the face of persecution. He also touched on the political, cultural and religious environment existing at the time of Galileo’s birth, his formative years in Pisa and Firenze, and his tenure at the University Padova.

The event also included taped performances of actors doing readings from Galileo’s work and image from his life and times. The event was part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 in celebration of Galileo’s first use of the telescope.

It was a wonderful way to spend an evening with like-minded science people in tribute to mankind’s most famous astronomer. As Zoe and I walked from the event, I commented how great it is to have such ready access to Caltech for science education. Oh yes, the raffle prize for the evening was a Galileoscope, how fitting!

The Polymath Project

An unusual experiment began on January 27, 2009. That was the day Timothy Gowers of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge, announced The Polymath Project. The project had a conventional scientific goal, to attack an unsolved problem in mathematics, but it proposed to engage the mathematical research in a very new way – massively collaborative mathematics. In a manner modeled after the BOINC project with its massively parallel resources for computation, the Polymath Project takes advantage of the insights and efforts of a plurality of minds.

The specific aim of the Polymath Project was to find an elementary proof of a special case of the density Hales-Jewett theorem (DHJ), which is a central result in the field of combinatorics (discrete mathematics). A long and complicated proof already existed, but the mathematics community sought a simpler one so the collaborative approach was employed.

Gowers started the project by posting a description of the first problem, pointers to background materials and a list of rules for collaboration on a blog/wiki. Comments started to flow in at a steady pace. Participants from all over the globe began to take part. Even a Fields Medalist (the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for mathematics), Terrance Tao from UCLA joined in. No one was specifically invited to participate and anybody could provide input, although by the nature of the problem only graduate students and professional mathematicians would have the requisite knowledge.

Progress towards the desired proof came far faster than anyone could have anticipated. By March 10, Gowers announced a proof had been found. A formal paper is being prepared describing the proof.

I recommend that math enthusiasts visit the Polymath Project website. It is fun and fascinating to follow through the comment threads to see how the group arrived at a final solution. This is an excellent way to learn about contemporary mathematics performed by leading mathematicians. The Polymath Project delivers rare insight into the world of mathematics.

Physics Groupie Down Under

Remember his name, Mike Hewson. No, he’s probably not a Nobel Laureate, or someone who will find the correct theory of quantum gravity. What is known for certain about Mike is that he’s a Physics Groupie just like yours truly – and there’s not too many of us around!

I found Mike on the Science forum over at Einstein@Home where he is the forum moderator. This is where folks from around the world who are gravitational wave enthusiasts can discuss the science behind the LIGO project. Mike is prolific with his posts on the forum and I greatly look forward to reading all that he has to say.

Mike is from Australia and I don’t know anything else about him other than he does an annual pre-Christmas book buy for physics books before the holiday rush, which is something I can very much identify with. Mike just bought a couple of excellent titles, the MTW classic “Gravitation,” and “Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity,” by Sean Carroll.

I asked Mike to do an interview for this essay, but he did not respond. I can only assume he prefers to keep his interaction with the physics community confined to online forums. I can respect that. Since I don’t have any other information about Mike, I’ll treat this expose as a scientific experiment. I’ll make some hypotheses and see how close they come up to reality after future experimental evidence surfaces.

My hypothesis is that Mike is an educator, probably a high school physics teacher. I think this because of the level of detail he puts into his forum posts, often complete with references, diagrams, formulae, examples, etc. As a teacher myself, I believe I can recognize someone who seeks pedagogical purpose in his life. I’m sure he has a family and does his research and online participation after the kids go to sleep and the night is still with inquiry. And I’ll just bet he’s also an amateur astronomer taking advantage of those wonderful southern hemisphere skies.

Mike continues to be an enigma to me and I look forward to interacting with him in the future about physics in general and LIGO in particular. Mike is a great person to know and he’s a very helpful resource, plus knowing another physics groupie is certainly satisfying. I look forward to learning more about Mike personally so I can post an update here to see how accurate my hypotheses turn out to be. Of course I could be way off base. Experimental evidence can turn theories completely upside down.

Saving Mt. Wilson

As a Physics Groupie and science aficionado I’m always seeking out worthy scientific causes to support. Science needs benefactors and there are many ways to show your support for research groups, their personnel and their experimental direction. I’ve done this kind of thing for years, and I intend to continue as I believe it is vitally important for the general public to demonstrate their commitment to the areas of scientific research they favor. Of course it’s no secret my choice of areas are physics, mathematics and astronomy.

I recently found out about a very worthy cause, to help the famed Mt. Wilson observatory in southern California with repairs and fire protection. An informative article recently appeared in the Los Angeles Times, “A renewed effort to save Mt. Wilson” that reached out to me. I plan to add this to my list of scientific causes to support by joining the Friends of Mount Wilson Observatory in order to get involved.

Mt. Wilson, if you recall, was in serious danger of being destroyed by the long-burning Station fire back in August/September of this year. The L.A. Times story recounted the experiences of the observatory’s faithful superintendent Dave Jurasevich who braved the flames to stay atop the mountain during the direst of times to do what he could to assist firefighters around the grounds. The loss of Mt. Wilson would have been catastrophic to the world of astronomy. This was the site of landmark discoveries such as Edwin Hubble’s finding that the Milky Way is not the only galaxy in the universe and that the universe is expanding.

Please consider lending a helping hand to this venerable site of astronomical discovery. If astronomy isn’t your cup of tea, seek out ways to support your favorite areas of science. It certainly feels good to know you’ve done something in support of scientific progress.