Thursday 14 December 2017

electromagnetism - What is the meaning of this "let there be light" joke?


Someone across the restaurant is wearing this shirt, and I certainly don't get it.




Update


Related: What does this quote about the four dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric tensor mean?



Answer



As most people know, "let there be light" is a famous biblical quote, from Genesis. Now, on to the teacher's shirt.


Those equations on his back are Maxwell's equations. "Let there be light" is a joke, because Maxwell's equations describe electromagnetic fields, and light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, so the equations can be used to describe light.


So, as a physicist, one could (jokingly) say that God's "let there be light" refers to him 'inventing' Maxwell's equations.


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