Re: [Phys-l] What comes first, the equation or the explanation?

[jbellina <inquirybellina@comcast.net>]

If you look at the history of science there is some insight.  Of course you can't look to far back because equations as we know them today weren't used.  There is an excellent book by Jeb Buchwald about Maxwell and how he evolved Faraday's pretty much non-mathmatical ideas into Maxwell's equations.
I think you will find he thought mental models and images before he came to equations, but not always.  Once some of the equations exist, new ones can flow out of the old.

joe

On Dec 21, 2011, at 7:17 PM, Aburr@aol.com wrote:

> I think most physicists create the explanation first and the equations  
> next. The equations can modify the explanation and certainly quantify it. The  
> writings on this subject that I know of from Einstein and Feynman indicate 
> that  they were thinking of the physics before the equations although they 
> are clearly  interrelated
>
> Alex. F. Burr  
>
>
> In a message dated 12/21/2011 3:06:37 P.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
> pschoch@nac.net writes:
>
> Hello,
>
> I am very fortunate to have inquisitive and gifted  students in Physics 
> this year that are asking LOTS of questions.  As we  get ready for finals, the 
> questions are getting more frequent and more  detailed, but the one I got 
> yesterday was a "stumper" that some of you might  appreciate!  At the end of 
> asking his physics questions the student  turned to me and asked one more:  
> "Professor, when we ask you a question,  do you see the formulas first and 
> then create the explanation or get the  explanation first and then see the 
> related formulas?"
>
> ...
> Happy  Holidays,
> Peter
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>
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Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
Retired Professor of Physics
Co-Director
Northern Indiana Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Collaborative
574-276-8294
inquirybellina@comcast.net