"Radio Power Will Revolutionize the World" in Modern Mechanics and Inventions (July 1934)
“You are lucky. Very few theoretical scientists ever see their mathematical equations turned into working hardware in their lifetime.”
Source: Dragon's Egg (1980), Chapter 7, “Interaction” Section 6 (p. 255)
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Robert L. Forward 4
American physicist, science fiction writer 1932–2002Related quotes
“Equations are just the boring part of mathematics. I attempt to see things in terms of geometry.”
As quoted in Stephen Hawking: A Biography (2005) by Kristine Larsen, p. 43
Source: 19th century, Popular Scientific Lectures [McCormack] (Chicago, 1898), p. 197; On mathematics and counting.
in a NOVA interview Viewpoints on String Theory, Edward Witten http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/view-witten.html, July 2003.
Earliest source located is the book Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists by Robert Jungk (1958), p. 249, which says that Einstein made the comment during "a walk with Ernst Straus, a young mathematician acting as his scientific assistant at Princeton."
Variant: "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity." From A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking (2005), p. 144 http://books.google.com/books?id=4Y0ZBW19n_YC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA144#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Earlier, Straus recalled the German version of the quote in Helle Zeit, Dunkle Zeit: In Memoriam Albert Einstein (1956) edited by Carl Seelig<!-- Zurich: Europa Verlag -->, p. 71. There the quote was given as Ja, so muß man seine Zeit zwischen der Politik und unseren Gleichungen teilen. Aber unsere Gleichungen sind mir doch viel wichtiger; denn die Politik ist für die Gegenwart da, aber solch eine Gleichung is etwas für die Ewigkeit.
Attributed in posthumous publications
Context: Yes, we now have to divide up our time like that, between politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.
Source: Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, 1970, p. 92 as cited in: Anthony C. Thiselton (2007) The Hermeneutics of Doctrine. p. 166.
Source: Achimedes (1920), Ch. I. Archimedes, p.1
Eye on Australia: Speeches and Essays of Geoffrey Blainey (1991)
On her advice to poets in “The First Native American U.S. Poet Laureate on How Poetry Can Counter Hate” https://time.com/5658443/joy-harjo-poet-interview/ in Time Magazine (2019 Aug 22)