Teen Skepchick’s Reality Checks 3.30
- Some girls in Afghanistan are forced to live their lives as boys. (via BBC)
- Amalie Noether, the brilliant mathematician you've never heard of. (via The New York Times)
- Student loans: Not Just For College Anymore (via NPR)
- Rick Santorum further proves his unparalleled asshattery. (via Human Rights Campaign)
Featured image credit: tonyhall
1 Comment
I still wonder why Noether isn't very famous. Noether's theorem is extremely important in physics. It states that whenever there is a symmetry in the physical laws, there is a corresponding conservation law. For example, laws of physics remain the same through translation. Translational symmetry corresponds to conservation of momentum. Similarly, rotational symmetry corresponds to conservation of angular momentum, and time symmetry corresponds with conservation of energy.
She pretty much started the "search for symmetry" in physics, and you will find that symmetry (and the breaking of symmetry) is a very important idea in particle physics.