Today’s Rave: The Scientist’s Claim To Fame

Have you ever though about Planck’s Constant? No, not the actual number, or what it represents. I mean the fact that Max Planck’s name is forever tied to a fundamental principle of quantum physics. Few honors in real life really compare to something of that magnitude.

Granted, it’s an arbitrary label. Planck’s constant simply is, regardless of what it’s called. But now the name is attached to the universe. It’s pretty interesting if you think about it. Avogadro’s number. Bernoulli’s principle. Boyle’s law. In a funny way, it’s almost like an invention. By discovering something (or the mathematical principle by which it operates) they have de facto provided something new to the scientific community, even though it was always sitting there.

In a roundabout way, this is true of physical inventions as well. The potential for a steam engine was always there; it was physically possible. James Watt simply provided the structure for physics to operate in such a way that it provided power. Does it take more ingenuity to invent a context for a physical principle to work then to discover it?

I don’t know, really. But in a certain sense, James Watt discovered the steam engine, since he himself was relying on the principles of gases that were “discovered” by someone else. So in that sense, the difference between an inventor and a discoverer is a semantic one. Really, it’s a question of an engineering approach vs. a research approach.

One makes observations about reality and tries to create mathematical systems that match and predict the behavior of these real world phenomenon. The other takes the principles of these systems and tries to use them in such a way to produce a desired end. The second sort of feeds off the first.

And inventions are often named after their creators too. The Wankel rotary engine is the best example I can think of. The only problem with that is if the invention becomes obsolete, the name of the creator is likely to become less well-known, if not gone entirely (except from history books, the fate of all luminaries without something named directly after them). The only way Planck’s constant becomes obsolete is if it’s not constant, or if it’s somehow wrong.

Interesting, no?

No. I know.