Mathematical equations have been the greatest tool to explain the world around us and the key to advance our knowledge about the universe.
As reported by Greek, Galileo Galilei, an Italian physicist referred the universe as a "grand book" written in the language of mathematics.
The brightest minds in history have used mathematical equations to get the better understanding of the universe surrounding us.
Here are some mathematical equations that change the course of how we perceive the universe.
Pythagorean Theorem
As per Pythagorean School, "everything is a number."
Pythagoras, one of the greatest ancient Greek thinkers was influenced by the Babylonians, who assigned numerical values to everything around them.
The ancient theorem, which was first recorded in 570 – 495 BC is a fundamental principle in Euclidean Geometry, and defines the distance between two points.
The Pythagorean theorem states, "In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the two perpendicular sides."
Law of Universal Gravitation
Isaac Newton's law explained the way gravity effects Earth and the reason behind planets movement.
The law revealed that all objects attract each other with a force of gravitational attraction, which is directly dependent upon the masses of both the object and inversely proportional to the square of the distance that separates their centres.
Being the reference equation for nearly two hundred years, the law was first published in The Principia in July 1687.
Theory of Relativity
Albert Einstein’s most famous work is the theory he presented on the relationship between space and time.
The basic idea of the theory is that instead of being an invisible force that attracts the object to one another, gravity is a curve of space.
As the mass of the object increases, the force warps the space around the object more.
First proposed in 1905, the Theory of Relativity has changed the course of physics and gave better understanding of universe.
Maxwell’s equation
Following the discovery of electricity in 1700s, James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist, and a mathematician mark his name among renowned scientists with groundbreaking work on electromagnetism.
He formulated set of equations that describe how electric and magnetic fields are generated.
Maxwell’s equation paved the way for Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which established the equivalence of mass and energy.
The equations helped in the development of wireless communication technologies such as cell phones.
In medicine, Maxwell’s equation has led to the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other medical imaging techniques.
Napier’s logarithm
John Napier is best known for discovering logarithms. He also made the use of decimal point in arithmetic and mathematics common.
Logarithms were introduced by Napier in the early 17th century as a way to simplify calculations, as they answer questions such as, "How many of x number do we multiply to get y number?"
They were adopted by early scientists, engineers and navigators.
Schrödinger Equation
It is the most fundamental equations of quantum physics, which described the behaviour of a particle in a field of force or the change of a physical quantity over time.
Developed by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1926, it governs the behaviour of atoms and subatomic particles in quantum mechanics.
