Building a physics formula database -- Help please

[angrymonks]

I'm looking to compile a large online database of physics formulas*. I have yet to find any comprehensive "physics list" that isn't too domain specific or simply scalable. My attempt will be to build it here newtondb.com following and expanding on pldb.com. It will be built using a treebase language and will compile to a simple CSV.

I'd love to hear feedback and looking to collaborate. Just shoot me a message.

*variables, objects, formulas, experiments and everything in between

 

[jedishrfu]

Have you seen this website?

https://phys.libretexts.org/Learning_Objects/A_Physics_Formulary/Physics

Its not comprehensive but may illustrate the difficulties you will face with some formulas being derived from other more general formulas and you would need to account for that.

 

[angrymonks]

Have you seen this website?

https://phys.libretexts.org/Learning_Objects/A_Physics_Formulary/Physics

Its not comprehensive but may illustrate the difficulties you will face with some formulas being derived from other more general formulas and you would need to account for that.

Thanks!

I have come across that site. Physics.info is another good one as well. Yes, representing the variables in relation to each other is going to be a challenge but I suppose that the fun of it.

 

[jedishrfu]

I looked at your two sites. They look pretty sweet.

Is pldb your site or someone else's project?

How did you find Mike Colishaw and Bill Ousterhout?

I was thinking if you want to get into more recent software language interviews there's the folks who designed Julia, Jeff Bezanson, Stefan Karpinski, Viral B. Shah, and Alan Edelman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_(programming_language)

 

[fresh_42]

This task reminds me of someone who suggested creating a database or lexicon for differential equation systems. After a quite short process of thinking I came to the conclusion that this would be a task for several volumes. Strictly speaking, your goal will be included in those books since formulas in physics are almost automatically differential equations or systems thereof. Long story short, I think this is a Sisyphus task.

 

[angrymonks]

I looked at your two sites. They look pretty sweet.

Is pldb your site or someone else's project?

How did you find Mike Colishaw and Bill Ousterhout?

I was thinking if you want to get into more recent software language interviews there's the folks who designed Julia, Jeff Bezanson, Stefan Karpinski, Viral B. Shah, and Alan Edelman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_(programming_language)

Thank you

pldb is the brainchild of my good friend Breck Yunits. I join him about a year ago. I simply reached out to a couple of the major programming language designers to get feedback and insight. I’d love do get the Julia folks involved.

 

[angrymonks]

This task reminds me of someone who suggested creating a database or lexicon for differential equation systems. After a quite short process of thinking I came to the conclusion that this would be a task for several volumes. Strictly speaking, your goal will be included in those books since formulas in physics are almost automatically differential equations or systems thereof. Long story short, I think this is a Sisyphus task.

That I agree with. Just trying to get the ball rolling is all (no pun intended). If the effort is open source and easily scalable then I believe it to be worth while.

 

[jedishrfu]

Another place to take inspiration from is MathWorld. Perhaps you could reach out and interview him as well. His name is Eric Weisstein.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_W._Weisstein

https://mathworld.wolfram.com/

He had quite an experience building his site math site. One stumbling block was a deal he made with CRC that turned into a nightmare. Later Wolfram came to the rescue and now his site is maintained under their protective umbrella.

 

[fresh_42]

This is another thought to be taken into consideration. Such an enterprise would have to basically almost copy the entire physics part of Wikipedia, across at least six languages (English, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Italian). These alone are really many, I mean, many formulas.

 

[angrymonks]

Another place to take inspiration from is MathWorld. Perhaps you could reach out and interview him as well. His name is Eric Weisstein.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_W._Weisstein

https://mathworld.wolfram.com/

He had quite an experience building his site math site. One stumbling block was a deal he made with CRC that turned into a nightmare. Later Wolfram came to the rescue and now his site is maintained under their protective umbrella.

Sweet! He'd be a perfect candidate to interview.