# Do these (physics and other) mathematics writings make sense?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 22, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783 "2012-11-22T00:40:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/1 "2012-11-22T00:40:09Z")
I’ve seen [this photo](http://barefoot-lover.tumblr.com/post/36161349325/angela-i-see-why-you-have-been-spending-so-much) floating around the net for a few years.
It’s a photo from the back of four college girls in a library, with their shirts down (NSFW in only the most repressive environments; not even butt crack is showing).
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### Author:  [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/2 "2012-11-22T00:55:54Z")
Yes, they’re legit. From left to right:[ol]
[li]canonical commutation relations; the Schrodinger equation; a Feynman diagram for baryon decay; the Dirac equation; the symmetry group of the Standard Model. [_]Newton’s second law; Hamilton’s principle; conservation of stress-energy; the wave equation; canonical occupation numbers. [_]Maxwell’s equations. A Lorentz boost (I think); rest mass of a particle; Einstein’s equation; Christoffel symbols; the geodesic equation. [/li][/ol]They’re pretty well sorted by field of physics, too.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/3 "2012-11-22T00:59:01Z")
There’s more math in that one photo than in ten physics threads started by our “all I need is words” loons. Did I say ten? Make that all of them.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/4 "2012-11-22T01:06:45Z")
I’ll be in my bunk.
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### Author:  [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/5 "2012-11-22T11:46:32Z")
I really should take a closer interest in math.
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### Author:  [@dimmy\_derko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dimmy_derko)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/6 "2012-11-22T12:05:59Z")
The sad thing is, making that photo was the closest the guy who wrote the equations had ever been to a naked female since the day he was born, and he has since not even been able to do his 10 x table.
inb4 Einstein shagged Marilyn umpteen times. I can guarantee it wasn’t his equations that attracted her.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/7 "2012-11-22T14:02:18Z")
I’m obviously hanging out on the wrong boards. I’ve never seen this before.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/8 "2012-11-22T15:45:52Z")
> [@dimmy\_derko](#):
>
> inb4 Einstein shagged Marilyn umpteen times. I can guarantee it wasn’t his equations that attracted her.
Let’s slam the door shut on this before it spreads some more.
When Shelley Winters and Marilyn Monroe were roommates, they played games naming the famous men they’d like to sleep with. Einstein was on Monroe’s list. Eli Wallach, as a joke, sent her a warmly inscribed photo supposedly from Einstein. And that’s the closest the two ever got to one another.
I’ve never seen this photo either. A Google Image search brings up [another variant](http://www.funnybeez.com/math-made-fun_i616.html) from that photo session that dates from 2007.
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### Author:  [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/9 "2012-11-22T16:24:20Z")
> [@MikeS](#):
>
> Yes, they’re legit. From left to right:[ol]
> [li]canonical commutation relations; the Schrodinger equation; a Feynman diagram for baryon decay; the Dirac equation; the symmetry group of the Standard Model. [_]Newton’s second law; Hamilton’s principle; conservation of stress-energy; the wave equation; canonical occupation numbers. [_]Maxwell’s equations. [\*]A Lorentz boost (I think); rest mass of a particle; Einstein’s equation; Christoffel symbols; the geodesic equation. [/li][/ol]They’re pretty well sorted by field of physics, too.
I’m impressed. I’m sorry to say that Newton’s 2nd is the only one I was able to recognize, although I did suspect that the one was a Feynman diagram of some sort.
If they’d taught physics this way back in my day I might have paid more attention!
Then again, maybe not.
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### Author:  [@Sofis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofis)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/10 "2012-11-22T19:36:55Z")
> [@MikeS](#):
>
> A Lorentz boost (I think)
Specifically, the matrix is a transformation matrix that rotates a point around the z-axis.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/11 "2012-11-22T19:44:22Z")
You guys are rushing to conclusions here. I think we need to see the other side before we can know for sure. 😉
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### Author:  [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/12 "2012-11-22T20:26:54Z")
> [@Sofis](#):
>
> Specifically, the matrix is a transformation matrix that rotates a point around the z-axis.
If you look closely\*, you’ll see that those are hyperbolic, not trigonometric functions, so it’s not what you’d usually call a rotation matrix, but indeed a Lorentz boost. These are of course a kind of generalized ‘rotations’ in the sense that while rotations keep circles invariant, Lorentz boosts keep hyperbolas invariant, and are thus sometimes also called ‘hyperbolic rotations’.
\*It’s OK 'cause it’s for science!
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/13 "2012-11-22T23:22:06Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> You guys are rushing to conclusions here. I think we need to see the other side before we can know for sure. 😉
that’s where the decimal points are.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/14 "2012-11-22T23:35:22Z")
> [@johnpost](#):
>
> that’s where the decimal points are.
The question will be, what order(s) of magnitude are involved. 😛
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/15 "2012-11-22T23:43:28Z")
“Let’s see… 2 over pi, carry the nipple… Gah! Now I gotta start over again!”
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### Author:  [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/16 "2012-11-23T02:12:55Z")
[quote=“dimmy\_derko, post:6, topic:641783”]
The sad thing is, making that photo was the closest the guy who wrote the equations had ever been to a naked female since the day he was born, and he has since not even been able to do his 10 x table.
/QUOTE]
Grad students tend to be quite the rogues, and geeks tend to be very into creative perversions. And of course there are plenty of females with the same nerdy interests. Intelligent people are not socially inept, and have no trouble getting laid.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/17 "2012-11-23T02:15:12Z")
the back side has the equations, the front side has mounds of data.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/18 "2012-11-23T02:16:32Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> …I’ve never seen this photo either. A Google Image search brings up [another variant](http://www.funnybeez.com/math-made-fun_i616.html) from that photo session that dates from 2007.
But in this image the babes, uh, equation sets have been re-arranged.
Scientific assertion of some sort?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/19 "2012-11-23T03:37:14Z")
**dimmy derko** , why do you assume that the equations were written by a guy? I would have thought that the simplest explanation was that the ladies wrote the equations on each others’ backs. We need not even assume a photographer: The camera could have been set on a timer.
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### Author:  [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-physics-and-other-mathematics-writings-make-sense/641783/20 "2012-11-23T03:52:03Z")
> [@dimmy\_derko](#):
>
> The sad thing is, making that photo was the closest the guy who wrote the equations had ever been to a naked female since the day he was born, and he has since not even been able to do his 10 x table.
Huh. I didn’t realize mathematicians cannot get laid. I will have to inform my sex partners that we did not, in fact, have sex.
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