Frases de William Thomson
William Thomson
Fecha de nacimiento: 26. Junio 1824
Fecha de muerte: 17. Diciembre 1907
Otros nombres:Lord William Thomson Kelvin, William Kelvin, William Thomson, 1. Baron Kelvin
William Thomson, primer barón Kelvin, OM, GCVO, PC, FRS fue un físico y matemático británico.
Kelvin destacó por sus importantes trabajos en el campo de la termodinámica y la electricidad, gracias a sus profundos conocimientos de análisis matemático. Es uno de los científicos que más contribuyó a modernizar la física. Es especialmente conocido por haber desarrollado la escala de temperatura Kelvin. Recibió el título de barón Kelvin en honor a los logros alcanzados a lo largo de su carrera.
Siempre activo en las investigaciones industriales y de desarrollo, en 1899 aceptó la invitación de George Eastman para ser vicepresidente de la junta directiva de la empresa británica Kodak Ltd., filial de Eastman Kodak.
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Frases William Thomson
„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 response to Major B. F. S. Baden Powell's request to join the Aeronautical Society, December 8, 1896 http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/papers/letters.html#baden-powell.
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).
„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 Lord Kelvin, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow 1846-1899 (1899) by George F. Fitzgerald http://historical.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cul.math/docviewer?did=03620002
„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 -->
„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
„Mathematics is the only true metaphysics.“
— William Thomson
As quoted by Silvanus Phillips Thompson, The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs (1910) Vol. 2 https://books.google.com/books?id=S_PPAAAAMAAJ, p. 1124
„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)
„I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.“
— William Thomson
Lecture on "Electrical Units of Measurement" (3 May 1883), published in Lectures Vol. I, p. 73 https://archive.org/stream/popularlecturesa01kelvuoft#page/73/mode/1up|Popular
„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
Mathematical and Physical Papers, Vol.2 http://books.google.com/books?id=kNrVAAAAMAAJ (1884) "On Mechanical Antecedents of Motion, Heat and Light" (originally published 1854, 1855)
