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General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => History => Topic started by: rangerrebew on March 13, 2018, 04:12:32 pm

Title: The woman who invented abstract algebra
Post by: rangerrebew on March 13, 2018, 04:12:32 pm

The woman who invented abstract algebra

Mathematician Emmy Noether was a genius who laid the basis for a new approach to physics. By Katie Mack.
Mathematician Emmy Noether helped lay the foundations for a new approach to physics. – Science Photo Library/Getty Images

Noether’s Theorem is to theoretical physics what natural selection is to biology. If you wrote an equation encapsulating all we know about theoretical physics you could label terms contributed by Feynman, Schrödinger, Maxwell and Dirac, but if you wrote “Noether” on the equation it would have to cover the entire thing.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/woman-who-invented-abstract-algebra
Title: Re: The woman who invented abstract algebra
Post by: the_doc on March 13, 2018, 05:50:18 pm

Noether’s Theorem is to theoretical physics what natural selection is to biology. If you wrote an equation encapsulating all we know about theoretical physics you could label terms contributed by Feynman, Schrödinger, Maxwell and Dirac, but if you wrote “Noether” on the equation it would have to cover the entire thing.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/woman-who-invented-abstract-algebra

Outstanding essay.  I had never heard of her. 
Title: Re: The woman who invented abstract algebra
Post by: Sanguine on March 13, 2018, 11:41:34 pm
Outstanding essay.  I had never heard of her.

Yes, it was.
Title: Re: The woman who invented abstract algebra
Post by: truth_seeker on March 13, 2018, 11:50:58 pm
Can it be summarized for lay persons in 25 words or less?
Title: Re: The woman who invented abstract algebra
Post by: The_Reader_David on March 14, 2018, 12:27:41 am
Can it be summarized for lay persons in 25 words or less?

Probably not.  I can't get it to load so I'm not sure what the article says exactly. But I can guess, as I know a fair bit about her contributions to both mathematics (hopeless to summarize for non-mathematicians) and physics (for which there's more hope, but not in 25 words or less).

An interesting anecdote about Noether:  I believe she earned her PhD from the University of Gottingen (I think the first woman to do so in mathematics, maybe in any field).  The mathematics faculty wanted to keep her on as a faculty member, but this was unheard of -- women could not be professors.  So, for a while, before she moved to the States and took a position at Bryn Mawr, David Hilbert signed up to teach extra courses, had Noether teach them, and passed the extra pay to her under the table.
Title: Re: The woman who invented abstract algebra
Post by: truth_seeker on March 14, 2018, 12:44:44 am
Probably not.  I can't get it to load so I'm not sure what the article says exactly. But I can guess, as I know a fair bit about her contributions to both mathematics (hopeless to summarize for non-mathematicians) and physics (for which there's more hope, but not in 25 words or less).

An interesting anecdote about Noether:  I believe she earned her PhD from the University of Gottingen (I think the first woman to do so in mathematics, maybe in any field).  The mathematics faculty wanted to keep her on as a faculty member, but this was unheard of -- women could not be professors.  So, for a while, before she moved to the States and took a position at Bryn Mawr, David Hilbert signed up to teach extra courses, had Noether teach them, and passed the extra pay to her under the table.
Read it. Sort of understand.