Seek Richness Not Riches

When the Titanic sunk it took about 15 minutes to hit the bottom after sinking beneath the waves.  We can make this estimate even though nobody was there to observe it thanks to the Navier-Stokes equation.

The Navier-Stokes equation is one of the strands of a branch of science called fluid dynamics.  This isn't a subject that attracts a lot of attention outside the world of science, but it is an important one nonetheless.  It can be used less whimsical calculations than working out how long the Titanic took to hit the bottom.  I have used it myself in my work developing topical pharmaceuticals and engineers find it handy when designing moving objects like cars and planes.  And aside from utilitarian stuff like that, the creators of computer graphics in games and films use it to give realistic impressions of how things move.

But it's more than a purely useful bit of knowledge.  The equation's very name carries a story.  Stokes was a British physicist  of the Victorian era.  Quite apart from this law, he was an adept politician and general bigwig who was typical of his era.  In fact when I learnt about this bit of physics at school I was taught it as Stoke's Law, and only came across the reference to Navier much later.  Navier was an earlier French physicist and mathematician.  His contribution was not recognised for a long time largely because of nationalistic chauvinism on the part of English speaking scientists.  Reprehensible and now corrected, but a useful reminder of how science is not practised by saints.

I have sadly lost my notes from school in a long and busy life where I have paid far too much attention to things that don't matter and not enough to the things that do. I no longer have my first encounter with the Stokes equation.  But I remember the page very clearly - the pink margin line was to the left and the equation itself was in a slightly easier to understand form than the one illustrating this post.  I had failed to keep it straight on the line which displeased me, and I later shaded it in in orange while revising for the exam.

I say all this to show that even a simple equation from one of the drier areas of physics can have a rich and deep back story.  This richness is what makes life worth living.  Something that is one dimensional is rarely interesting.  Life is best when it is full of layers. It is also useful, I often remember stuff in great detail not by simplifying it but by adding lots of texture.

Seek richness not riches.



Thanks to Wikipedia, a great source of richness in the world, for the graphic of the Navier Stokes equation.