5 ms·

Great read! The bit that I found the most curious is actually listed on Wikipedia (this was written in 1940): > "No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose

Great read! The bit that I found the most curious is actually listed on Wikipedia (this was written in 1940): > "No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems unlikely that anyone will do so for many years."

Craighead 7y ago
But isn't that actually a false statement? Intelligence satellites rely on relativity to work out gravity formulas to stay afloat.
jesuslop 7y ago
What about elliptic curve cryptography?
- hjorthjort 7y ago
  What about pretty much all of cryptography?
- EthanHeilman 7y ago
  Yep, or RSA and most modern cryptography.
  - madcaptenor 7y ago
    But not the cryptography that was in use at the time - for example Enigma is more combinatorial than number-theoretic.
madaxe_again 7y ago
Relativity, particularly the mass-energy equivalence principle of special relativity, lead to the thinking that lead to The Bomb less than five years later.
- Armisael16 7y ago
  Atomic weapons were far more an outgrowth of quantum research than relativity. The mass-energy equivalence is a pretty minor part of the energy release of the atomic bomb at ~10%. Most of the energy is simple atomic binding energy; energy before and energy after. Einstein’s politics had more to do with the bomb than his physics.
mikorym 7y ago
>> "No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems unlikely that anyone will do so for many years." > The GPS project was started by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1973 [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System
- whatshisface 7y ago
  >From 1942 to 1946, the [Manhattan] project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project
  - mikorym 7y ago
    Is relativity used in building an atom bomb? Isn't it more quantum physics?

Craighead 7y ago

But isn't that actually a false statement? Intelligence satellites rely on relativity to work out gravity formulas to stay afloat.

jesuslop 7y ago

What about elliptic curve cryptography?

hjorthjort 7y ago
What about pretty much all of cryptography?
EthanHeilman 7y ago
Yep, or RSA and most modern cryptography.
- madcaptenor 7y ago
  But not the cryptography that was in use at the time - for example Enigma is more combinatorial than number-theoretic.

madaxe_again 7y ago

Relativity, particularly the mass-energy equivalence principle of special relativity, lead to the thinking that lead to The Bomb less than five years later.

Armisael16 7y ago
Atomic weapons were far more an outgrowth of quantum research than relativity. The mass-energy equivalence is a pretty minor part of the energy release of the atomic bomb at ~10%. Most of the energy is simple atomic binding energy; energy before and energy after. Einstein’s politics had more to do with the bomb than his physics.

mikorym 7y ago

>> "No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems unlikely that anyone will do so for many years." > The GPS project was started by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1973 [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System

whatshisface 7y ago
>From 1942 to 1946, the [Manhattan] project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project
- mikorym 7y ago
  Is relativity used in building an atom bomb? Isn't it more quantum physics?