Re: [Phys-l] stranger than fiction

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@hep.anl.gov>]

Hi Stefan-
	I take John's posting as an invitation to ask, and answer, "How 
did George Green do it?  And, as a side benefit, if you haven't seen it 
done with delta functions, now's the opportunity!
				Regards,
					Jack

On Sun, 8 Feb 2009, Stefan Jeglinski wrote:

> > 1) The idea of Green function is reasonably explained and indeed
> > conventionally defined in terms of Dirac delta functions.
> >   http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GreensFunction.html
> >
> > 2) George Green formulated the Green function idea circa 1830.
> >
> > 3) Paul Dirac formulated the delta function idea circa 1930.
>
> > What's wrong with this picture?
>
> Well, I've often heard you write that there is no particular reason
> to explain a physics topic as it was done historically; in fact, more
> modern approaches might make "more sense." (discussions of entropy
> here come to mind). :-)
>
> So if it's conventionally defined in terms of delta functions, did GG
> then use them? And if so, it would seem that Dirac might not deserve
> the accolades? Or, did GG use a more convoluted approach? (too lazy
> to google it right now)
>
>
> Stefan Jeglinski
>
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