Your Daily Equation | Live Q&A with Brian Greene

Live Q&A with Brian Greene - #YourDailyEquation: Join a live session with Brian Greene, 3 PM EDT. Relativity, quantum, the universe -- ask him anything that's on your mind.

Monday - Friday at 3pm EDT, Brian will offer brief and breezy discussions of pivotal equations. Even if your math is a bit rusty, tune in for accessible and exciting stories of nature and numbers that will allow you to see the universe in a new way.

The World Science Festival (WSF) is an innovative multi-media organization that produces original live and digital content straddling the arenas of science, technology, the arts, media, performance and education. With the goal of radically transforming public perceptions of science, WSF creates world-class programming, both live on stage and televised, featuring inspired collaborations, outstanding talent and novel production techniques that bring scientific discovery, insight and perspective to a broad general audience.

[fultzjap]

Getting a Q&A here was the coolest thing that's happened to me in a long time. I'm so grateful that leaders like you are taking the time to stream edutainment during lockdown!

[belgianvanbeethoven]

This description of life as a dance of entropy is truly a wonderful way to think about it. That's why I love physics, how it merges the rational thinking of maths with the philosophical questions of why things are the way they are and what our place in this vast universe is.

[rickmorrisrigar]

Thank You for doing this Professor Greene !!

[rhmcvay]

Thank you Brian for your thoughtful presentation during a time of distress for our community on Earth.

[AP-csrf]

Thank you very much for your great videos! Your ability to explain pretty complex topics in physics and mathematics so clear is amazing.

[DrJeeps]

Fascinating exposition of various topics. Thank you.

[samansadri]

Thank you so much Professor Brian Greene. Would you please talk about chaos theory?

[mungbean]

Beautiful ending, thank you for your inspiring words.

[gedlangosz]

Professor Greene - thank you ever so much for these videos. I love them!

[drquantum]

Thank you sir for sharing your time and knowledge 🙏

[vernongrant]

Thanks for your question Jiminy Cricket. The whole block universe thing always gets to me. The fact that my whole life has always existed and always will exist is beyond comprehension. I asked Professor Sean Carroll if the meal I just had down by the riverside prior to meeting him still existed . He replied that it doesn't "still" exist it just exists.

[GolanFacio]

I really love to listen about the Maxwell equations compared with general relativity

[darshakramani]

astounding conversation, really good explanation to the ideas, thanks for doing this.

[shukivardi]

Brian you have encouraged me to ask you if only one question.

My name is Shuki Vardi, 67 years old from Israel with no formal education or university education. So my level of knowledge and understanding of the subjects in question is relatively low.
the question:
"Is there a connection between the Jewish rule void at 60 and the assertion that the speed of light is constant?"

[rickcygnusx]

I think I'm getting addicted to this series! Here's a suggestion for a future video: the Virial theorem. Lately I've been reading a book on cosmology, and it talks about astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky noticing the speeds of individual galaxies in a galaxy cluster being too fast for them to stay bound to the cluster, which I believe was the first evidence for the existence of dark matter. The book points out he used the Virial theorem on his analysis, but unfortunately doesn't really get too much into detail on how he used it.

[TheMorpheuuus]

Super Q&A session Brian! Thanks again from Algeria 👍

[fathia]

Dr. Brian ... could you show the action of Strng Theory in an Episode :)
I saw many explanations of yours to the theory, but never an Equation describing the theory ...

[esakoivuniemi]

Brian, thanks a lot for doing this.
Someone asked (at 34:00 or so): "Are equations invented or discovered?"


Brian's answer was essentially: "I don't know."
I think I can come up with a better answer :b.


Let's define the terms first:


An equation is a *claim* that a certain relationship exists between things that are represented by symbols in the equation.


The Oxford English Dictionary defines invention as: "to design and/or create something that has never been made before"


Discovery on the other hand means: "to find information, a place, or an object, especially for the first time:" according the same dictionary.


So, inventing is about creating something new and discovering is about finding something that already exists.


Now, let's use the equation e=mc2 as an example. If you think Einstein invented, i.e. created it out of thin air, that would mean that energy, mass and the speed of light were not related the way his equation says before the year 1905. That is obviously nonsense. The relations between the these things certainly existed before Einstein *discovered* them and wrote down the symbolic representation of those relationships - namely the equation e=mc2.


On the other hand, I can write down an equation e=pm3. That equation is obviously incorrect. Those relationships do not exist in the physical reality nor in any axiomatic system I am aware of. That means I couldn't possibly discover it, since its impossible to discover something that does not exist in the first place. So the equation has to be my invention.


Thus the bottom line, IMHO, is:


Correct equations are always discovered, incorrect equations are always invented. Therefore the right answer to the original question "Are equations invented or discovered?" is: Yes, they are.

[franciscorosales]

Francisco, the great smoky mountains: is gravity affected by time dilation?

[annagorska]

Please, say something more about the equations of thermodynamics and how it is possible that living organisms exist.