# Do you know this formula?

1. Jan 7, 2013

### micromass

Do you know this formula??

Let's try to make a little game out of scientific formulas. The idea is that I post a scientific formula which is named after a famous scientist. The goal is to guess the scientist(s) associated with the formula.

The person who answers correctly, gets to present a new formula. Etc.

So let's start easy:

$$\sigma(x)\sigma(p)\geq \frac{\hbar}{2}$$

2. Jan 7, 2013

### kevinferreira

Re: Do you know this formula??

Heisenberg!

3. Jan 7, 2013

### micromass

Re: Do you know this formula??

Of course!

You can put up a new formula if you want!

4. Jan 7, 2013

### kevinferreira

Re: Do you know this formula??

Ok, here it goes a nice (but long) one, with a nice name too:

$$\frac{d}{dt}P_{m\rightarrow n}(t)=2\pi |\langle n|H_{int}|m\rangle |^2 \rho(E)$$

5. Jan 7, 2013

### Staff: Mentor

Re: Do you know this formula??

Would that be Fermi's Golden Rule?

Here's one that's perhaps not so famous, but has a name that makes me smile when I see it:

$$\frac {n^2 - 1}{n^2 + 2} = \frac{4 \pi}{3} N \alpha$$

Hint: it's named after two people whose names are very very similar.

6. Jan 7, 2013

### George Jones

Staff Emeritus
Re: Do you know this formula??

I was uncertain, but I thought you might be looking for a deviation from standard nomenclature.

7. Jan 7, 2013

### Dr Transport

Re: Do you know this formula??

Clausius-Mossotti???

$$\left\langle \alpha' j'm'|T^{(k)}_{q}|\alpha j m \right\rangle = \frac{\left\langle \alpha' j'||T^{(k)}||\alpha j \right\rangle}{\sqrt{2j'+1}}\left\langle kjqm|kjj'm'\right\rangle$$

8. Jan 8, 2013

### Staff: Mentor

Re: Do you know this formula??

That's one name for it, but not the name I was thinking of.

9. Jan 8, 2013

### micromass

Re: Do you know this formula??

Lorentz-Lorenz equation?

No idea about Dr Transport his formula though...

10. Jan 8, 2013

### Dr Transport

Re: Do you know this formula??

hint: one of the people this formula is named for wrote a very well known group theory book

11. Jan 9, 2013

### George Jones

Staff Emeritus
Re: Do you know this formula??

Wigner-Eckart Theorem.

I recognized this as soon as I saw it, but I have been too lazy to think of my own puzzle.

12. Jan 9, 2013

### George Jones

Staff Emeritus
Re: Do you know this formula??

Okay,

$$\int \liminf_{n\rightarrow +\infty} |f_n| d\mu\leq \liminf_{n\rightarrow +\infty} \int |f_n|d\mu$$

Thanks, micromass.

13. May 19, 2013

### mathwonk

Fatou's lemma.

chi(L) = [e^(ch(L)).Todd(X)](dim(X)). (3 names)

Here's a rather obscure one physics students of Paul Bamberg at Harvard in the 1960's all knew:

617-495-9560 (Bamberg's number)

Last edited: May 19, 2013
14. May 19, 2013

### mathwonk

Wannabe: I just noticed you have to answer the previous one to get to post a question.

15. May 19, 2013

### WannabeNewton

Oh, well in that case I have no idea what your formula is lol...Newton's 2nd law is out of the question innit :)? (I deleted my post by the way)

EDIT: is it the Hirzebruch–Riemann–Roch theorem?

Last edited: May 19, 2013
16. May 19, 2013

### mathwonk

yes! (I got it wrong myself, thinking it was Grothendieck Riemann Roch.)

17. May 19, 2013

### WannabeNewton

Yay! Ok mine will still be $\xi_{[a}\nabla_{b]}\kappa = 0$

18. May 19, 2013

### PhizKid

zeroth law of black hole thermodynamics

$E = -\lim_{S_{\alpha}\rightarrow \mathcal{P}}\frac{1}{8\pi}\int _{S_{\alpha}}\epsilon_{abcd}\nabla^{c}\xi^{d}$

19. May 19, 2013

### AnTiFreeze3

Why, that's the good ol' Bondi energy, of course!

Here's mine: $y=mx+b$

20. May 19, 2013

### WannabeNewton

Is this the Noetherian current obtained from Lorentz transformations? Seems like it.

21. May 19, 2013

### AnTiFreeze3

You're getting close!