• mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    I dunno. Consider that the first derivative of position is velocity, and second is acceleration… third is jerk… and then they go snap, crackle, and pop.

    • qjkxbmwvz
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      2 months ago

      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.

      • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        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.