23 October 2007

An exercise for the reader

"Decode" the following equation, seen on a T-shirt:

{E \over c^2} \sqrt{-1} {PV \over nR}
at

7 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 23, 2007 at 5:43 PM

    MIT! Nerds... :)

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  2. AaronOctober 23, 2007 at 8:39 PM

    The second two factors are easy, but I can't think of any word that starts with sqrt(m^2 + (p/c)^2)... ;)

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  3. Blake StaceyOctober 23, 2007 at 10:53 PM

    "nR"? What sort of self-respecting physicist measures in moles? That's chemist talk.

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  4. GBOctober 24, 2007 at 2:26 AM

    I can hear the engineers now:
    "What the heck is mjT?"

    Let's see what I can do with that:

    E/c^2 sqrt(-1) PV/nR

    Now V=IR (Ohm's law)

    a=q/m E (acceleration of a particle in an electric field)

    Also F=ma

    so F/(q c^2) sqrt(-1) PI/n

    Now we're getting somewhere.

    Let me get back to you.

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  5. heatherOctober 24, 2007 at 6:06 AM

    John wore this shirt on Beauty & the Geek Tuesday night.

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  6. Michael LugoOctober 24, 2007 at 6:08 AM

    Heather,

    I know it was on Beauty and the Geek; that's where I saw it. (Oddly enough, despite going to MIT I don't ever remember seeing that shirt there. Is it a new thing?)

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  7. AnonymousOctober 24, 2007 at 11:17 AM

    Lets break this up into three terms since it kinda looks like it with the sqrt -1 in the center...

    E=MC^2 --> first term is M
    obviously second term--> I
    PV = nRt (ideal gas) -> T

    ReplyDelete