Yeah not great. But I think the worst is naming after a person. You can be brilliant, but if you haven’t studied physics you’ll have no idea whatsoever what, say, “Berry phase” means. But the other term for that phenomenon — “geometric phase” — gives some information as to what it is. A clever mathematician, never having studied physics in depth, would be able to at least have some idea as to what it means.
The fun ones sound right by accident. There’s a mathematical transform central to modern radiology, helpfully discovered by one Dr. Radon. The fuzzy rings in diffraction-limited telescopes are named after Sir Airy. Dove prisms, resembling a dovetail joint, are pronounced doh-vay.
Yeah not great. But I think the worst is naming after a person. You can be brilliant, but if you haven’t studied physics you’ll have no idea whatsoever what, say, “Berry phase” means. But the other term for that phenomenon — “geometric phase” — gives some information as to what it is. A clever mathematician, never having studied physics in depth, would be able to at least have some idea as to what it means.
The fun ones sound right by accident. There’s a mathematical transform central to modern radiology, helpfully discovered by one Dr. Radon. The fuzzy rings in diffraction-limited telescopes are named after Sir Airy. Dove prisms, resembling a dovetail joint, are pronounced doh-vay.
Don’t forget the Poynting vector!