Chaos butterflies, or time dilation. Choose only one.
15 thoughts on “Dorky Poll: With or Without “t”?”
Both are acceptable, if the butterflies are moving fast enough.
If a ‘t’ flaps it’s wings, does it cause a hurricane of posts on usenet about grammar?
In either Griffiths E+M book or Jackson – I can’t remember which – there was some mention about another late 19th century physicist named Lorenz associated with E+M that always gets confused with Lorentz. Sure enough, Wikipedia steps in for me and reminds me that the “Lorentz gauge” should really be the Lorenz gauge. So maybe there’s an ambiguity in the original question regarding Lorenz. Either way I think I’d go with the t.
Though as a biologist, I favor Konrad Lorenz, of course.
Lorenz. During my postdoc he sat in on our chaos theory reading group. A very down to earth, kind man.
[Oh, man, Barn Owl stole my line! (Not that I’m a biologist, though.) Writing a post for tomorrow I found myself describing someone as a “specialist in nonspecialization” and so Konrad was the first Loren(t)z on my mind when I read your title.]
I’ve got to go with the “with a t” faction, for sentimental reasons, relativity having brought me into an interest in physics way back when.
Isn’t it great when Wiki gets something right that is wrong in so many physics textbooks? Personally, I’d write “The Lorentz gauge, discovered by Lorenz, ….” My ancient copy of Jackson makes no mention of Lorenz in the discussion of gauge invariance; ditto for two undergrad books on my shelf.
There is also the Lorentz-Lorenz equation for the dielectric polarizability of a medium at optical frequencies, which is documented in a footnote of my (ancient) edition of Jackson. I think that might also be in Landau + Lifshitz.
I prefer Lorentz simply because he is responsible for merging classical Newtonian dynamics and Maxwell’s electromagnetism in practical calculations, which is why he approached relativity the way he did. We don’t call Maxwell’s force equation the Lorentz force for nothing.
It is just a bonus that he also constructed such a beautifully detailed (and completely wrong) model for the electromagnetic mass of an electron moving in the aether to get an effect that is so simply described with an invariant mass (that we still don’t understand, despite or because of renormalization within QED) and a different formula for kinetic energy. His model for the dynamical behavior of the electron is quite amazing.
Lorenz without a T.
Edward had a fundamental insight into nature, the consequences of which are being actively investigated on a number of fronts.
Hendrik had a neat idea which led to the transform bearing his name, but it wasn’t a fundamental insight. A year later, Einstein got the same transform with a theory that really did contain a fundamental insight.
Ludvig Lorenz, creator of the Lorenz gauge, who also
discovered independently a formula that Lorentz found and is known as the Lorenz-Lorentz formula…
Lorentz, time contraction is way cooler
I like my girlfriend Lauren.
Lorenz – Konrad Lorenz, that is. The other two, I don’t know about.
Both are acceptable, if the butterflies are moving fast enough.
If a ‘t’ flaps it’s wings, does it cause a hurricane of posts on usenet about grammar?
In either Griffiths E+M book or Jackson – I can’t remember which – there was some mention about another late 19th century physicist named Lorenz associated with E+M that always gets confused with Lorentz. Sure enough, Wikipedia steps in for me and reminds me that the “Lorentz gauge” should really be the Lorenz gauge. So maybe there’s an ambiguity in the original question regarding Lorenz. Either way I think I’d go with the t.
Lorentz.
Lorenz, since one of his models is crochet-able:
(http://www.enm.bris.ac.uk/staff/hinke/crochet/)
Though as a biologist, I favor Konrad Lorenz, of course.
Lorenz. During my postdoc he sat in on our chaos theory reading group. A very down to earth, kind man.
[Oh, man, Barn Owl stole my line! (Not that I’m a biologist, though.) Writing a post for tomorrow I found myself describing someone as a “specialist in nonspecialization” and so Konrad was the first Loren(t)z on my mind when I read your title.]
I’ve got to go with the “with a t” faction, for sentimental reasons, relativity having brought me into an interest in physics way back when.
Lorentz, definitely. Your dog will agree here.
Butterflies are neat, but of course there’s an emacs command to do this.
Isn’t it great when Wiki gets something right that is wrong in so many physics textbooks? Personally, I’d write “The Lorentz gauge, discovered by Lorenz, ….” My ancient copy of Jackson makes no mention of Lorenz in the discussion of gauge invariance; ditto for two undergrad books on my shelf.
There is also the Lorentz-Lorenz equation for the dielectric polarizability of a medium at optical frequencies, which is documented in a footnote of my (ancient) edition of Jackson. I think that might also be in Landau + Lifshitz.
I prefer Lorentz simply because he is responsible for merging classical Newtonian dynamics and Maxwell’s electromagnetism in practical calculations, which is why he approached relativity the way he did. We don’t call Maxwell’s force equation the Lorentz force for nothing.
It is just a bonus that he also constructed such a beautifully detailed (and completely wrong) model for the electromagnetic mass of an electron moving in the aether to get an effect that is so simply described with an invariant mass (that we still don’t understand, despite or because of renormalization within QED) and a different formula for kinetic energy. His model for the dynamical behavior of the electron is quite amazing.
Lorenz without a T.
Edward had a fundamental insight into nature, the consequences of which are being actively investigated on a number of fronts.
Hendrik had a neat idea which led to the transform bearing his name, but it wasn’t a fundamental insight. A year later, Einstein got the same transform with a theory that really did contain a fundamental insight.
Ludvig Lorenz, creator of the Lorenz gauge, who also
discovered independently a formula that Lorentz found and is known as the Lorenz-Lorentz formula…
Lorentz, time contraction is way cooler
I like my girlfriend Lauren.
Lorenz – Konrad Lorenz, that is. The other two, I don’t know about.
Lorentz Invariant Phase Space!