Scientific symbols explained at Sixty Symbols
April 28, 2009
My high-school buddy Umar was obsessed by the number 137. For reasons I didn’t understand, it’s a very magical number for physicists (if anything can be magical for men of science). Now that I’m grown, I have a (slightly) better understanding of 137 thanks to Sixty Symbols, a site that explains the meaning behind a bunch of (that is, 60) scientific symbols. Those symbols include “α,” the fine structure constant, which kinda relates to 137 somehow (hey, I’m not a scientist).
Sixty Symbols features short YouTube videos of physicists and astronomers just chatting about the meaning behind various symbols. It makes for good background information on why certain symbols mean what they do, and I always enjoy watching people talk about something that interests them. Your physics students may enjoy learning about a few of the symbols and terms that show up in their homework, too. Sixty Symbols might even inspire some of them to learn more about 137. If they do, send them my way so they can explain it to me. -BILL FERRIS
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