Greatness implies simplicity in both science and humanity

Greatness implies simplicity in both science and humanity

Gouri Tripathi

Since time immemorial humankind has believed in simplicity. In modern times some of the great people epitomized simplicity. They are, to name a few, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Mother Teresa, Rabindranath Tagore etc. Their lives and work strengthened the cultural, ethical and scientific richness of the modern civilization, paved way for noble thinking and enriched our human identity. Simplicity results from a pure and subtle mind, noble heart, blemish less conscience, courage, truthfulness and indomitable spirit.

There are instances in physics that some of the laws, which revolutionized our thinking about nature, are expressed very simply. Although the laws are simple, they are the outcome of sometimes-complicated mathematics, extraordinary intuition and novel experiments. These laws are expressed by small equations but their significance is far-reaching and revolutionary. These laws or the equations have come from some of the best brains of all times.

We get the definition of the force from Newton’s second law. Here force is expressed as the product of the mass of a body and the acceleration produced by it. A body with larger mass requires larger force compared to smaller body for producing the same acceleration. Thus mass here is a measure of inertia. The law at once gave ideas about fundamental quantities such as the force and the mass. Newton’s laws became the corner stone of what is known as Newtonian mechanics, which has remained a landmark creation of human brain.

Hooke’s law, which describes a simple relation between stress and strain and is fundamental in understanding the elasticity of material bodies, is another instance of simplicity amongst the physics equations. Although its proponent, Robert Hooke was not as great as Newton, he was great for a variety of reasons. He was an inventor, microscopist, physicist, astronomer, biologist and artist. This ugly looking man-made so by an attack of small pox- was considered as the inspirational father of modern science in England.

Another simple equation with profound implications is Ohm’s law, which is a simple relation between the electric current in a wire and the voltage applied to generate it. This law was first established experimentally around the first quarter of the 18th century, and an explanation for it had to wait until the end of the19th century. G. S. Ohm was a German physicist and his law is widely used for analyzing electrical circuits.

One of the simplest equations of the last century was Einstein’s mass-energy relation. It has changed the course of modern physics. In Einstein’s equation mass increases with velocity. In other words, Einstein’s mass is the manifestation dynamism, in total contrast to its inertial representation in Newton’s second law. This is so because Einstein’s equation is valid for particles speeding almost close to the speed of light, whereas Newton’s law is valid for macroscopic classical bodies. Einstein is the only other physicist who can be compared with Newton for showing new light to the world.

It is amazing that great scientists who expressed themselves simply and whose equations or laws are so profound in shaping our life and understanding of practical knowledge are amongst the greatest geniuses in human history. Although I have given examples from science, a careful study of people in other disciplines would reveal it is also true in a universal way.

If one would describe our freedom struggle, simply stating that it was based on Mahatma Gandhi’s policy of non-cooperation and non-violence can do it. Mahatma Gandhi himself epitomized simplicity and truthfulness in thought and action. Rabindranath Tagore also emphasized the same traits in his famous work, Geetanjali. His famous poem starting with “ Where the mind is without fear,…” is a testimony to his simple but powerful mind.

Simple things convey greatness in both life and science. Nature also loves symmetry, which makes its visualisation simple. A complicated life cannot be a role model. Scientific investigations whose end products are complicated can neither advance knowledge nor be useful materially.

About the author (not to be published):

Prof. G. S. Tripathi teaches Physics at Berhampur University, Berhampur, Orissa, India. He
obtained his Ph. D. in Condensed Matter Physics in 1982. Apart from teaching at Berhampur,
he worked in the past at several places both in India and abroad, notable among them
are University of Hyderabad, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Louisiana
State university, Baton Rouge, USA, Imperial College, London and University of Missouri,
Columbia, USA. He also publishes popular scientific articles in Oriya and English.