Built on Facts

A little off the beaten path today, I’d like to present two poems by two physicists who were both on my Ten Greatest list. They’re very different, one contemplative and loose in form, the other playful but more rigorous. It’s an interesting comparison.

Untitled
Richard Feynman

There are the rushing waves…
mountains of molecules,
each stupidly minding its own business…
trillions apart
…yet forming white surf in unison.

Ages on ages…
before any eyes could see…
year after year…
thunderously pounding the shore as now.
For whom, for what?
…on a dead planet
with no life to entertain.

Never at rest…
tortured by energy…
wasted prodigiously by the sun…
poured into space.
A mite makes the sea roar.

Deep in the sea,
all molecules repeat
the patterns of another
till complex new ones are formed.
They make others like themselves…
and a new dance starts.

Growing in size and complexity…
living things,
masses of atoms,
DNA, protein…
dancing a pattern ever more intricate.

Out of the cradle
onto dry land…
here it is standing…
atoms with consciousness
…matter with curiosity.

Stands at the sea…
wonders at wondering… I…
a universe of atoms…
an atom in the universe.

A Problem in Dynamics
James Clerk Maxwell

An inextensible heavy chain
Lies on a smooth horizontal plane,
An impulsive force is applied at A,
Required the initial motion of K.

Let ds be the infinitesimal link,
Of which for the present we’ve only to think;
Let T be the tension, and T + dT
The same for the end that is nearest to B.
Let a be put, by a common convention,
For the angle at M ‘twixt OX and the tension;
Let Vt and Vn be ds’s velocities,
Of which Vt along and Vn across it is;
Then Vn/Vt the tangent will equal,
Of the angle of starting worked out in the sequel.

In working the problem the first thing of course is
To equate the impressed and effectual forces.
K is tugged by two tensions, whose difference dT
Must equal the element’s mass into Vt.
Vn must be due to the force perpendicular
To ds’s direction, which shows the particular
Advantage of using da to serve at your
Pleasure to estimate ds’s curvature.
For Vn into mass of a unit of chain
Must equal the curvature into the strain.

Thus managing cause and effect to discriminate,
The student must fruitlessly try to eliminate,
And painfully learn, that in order to do it, he
Must find the Equation of Continuity.
The reason is this, that the tough little element,
Which the force of impulsion to beat to a jelly meant,
Was endowed with a property incomprehensible,
And was “given,” in the language of Shop, “inexten-sible.”
It therefore with such pertinacity odd defied
The force which the length of the chain should have modified,
That its stubborn example may possibly yet recall
These overgrown rhymes to their prosody metrical.
The condition is got by resolving again,
According to axes assumed in the plane.
If then you reduce to the tangent and normal,
You will find the equation more neat tho’ less formal.
The condition thus found after these preparations,
When duly combined with the former equations,
Will give you another, in which differentials
(When the chain forms a circle), become in essentials
No harder than those that we easily solve
In the time a T totum would take to revolve.

Now joyfully leaving ds to itself, a-
Ttend to the values of T and of a.
The chain undergoes a distorting convulsion,
Produced first at A by the force of impulsion.
In magnitude R, in direction tangential,
Equating this R to the form exponential,
Obtained for the tension when a is zero,
It will measure the tug, such a tug as the “hero
Plume-waving” experienced, tied to the chariot.
But when dragged by the heels his grim head could not carry aught,
So give a its due at the end of the chain,
And the tension ought there to be zero again.
From these two conditions we get three equations,
Which serve to determine the proper relations
Between the first impulse and each coefficient
In the form for the tension, and this is sufficient
To work out the problem, and then, if you choose,
You may turn it and twist it the Dons to amuse.

I’m not yet brave enough to try to write one of my own. One of these days!

Comments

#1 Cuttlefish, OM
February 10, 2009

There is no force, however strong,
To take a chain, however long,
And make it straight, however tight,
Against a weight, however light.

(Not my own–I have adapted it from a purely accidental poem found in a physics book; the author, as I recall, had written about a string, not a chain, being pulled tight, but with a weight in the middle. If I am not mistaken–and the odds are, frankly, that I am mistaken–this “found verse” addresses the same problem as Maxwell’s verse.)
#2 Uncle Al
February 10, 2009

A woman who could have been any Ma.
Instructed her class down in Panama.
With nozzle and hose,
She cleaned whom she chose.
“I thought that all ‘physiks’ were ‘enema’”.
#3 Jonathan Vos Post
February 10, 2009

THE DENSITY OF DEATH
by
JONATHAN VOS POST

Death enters the Physics Laboratory

meanders past the magnets’ poles

wires coil on spools and rolls

the slide projector stops its story

Darkness diffracts through sharp-edged prisms

sweeps across oscilloscopes

blackens textbooks’ indexed hopes

and silences their catechisms

An airless breeze turns supercool

as volt-ohmmeter’s needle dips

the teeth of the alligator clips

are clenched unopening and cruel

Not vacuum tubes that hold their breath

nor manuals for engineers

erase from blackboards of our fears

the chalky fingerprints of Death.

1520-1555 22 Apr 87
[in Dr. Theodore N. Sarachman's lab, Whittier College]

Copyright 1996, 1997 by Emerald City Publishing.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced without permission.
May be posted electronically provided that
it is transmitted unaltered, in its
entirety, and without charge.
#4 Eli
February 10, 2009

This is the closest I’ve come… http://lanseybrothers.blogspot.com/2005/10/scholarly-reconstruction-of-lost-dr.html
#5 Matt Springer
February 10, 2009

Cuttlefish, the original “accidental” version of that poem was in my 12th grade English book as an example of “found” poetry. I had completely forgotten about it, thanks for reminding me! Apparently the author has embarassed when it was pointed out (I’d have been proud, myself) and changed it to something not rhyming in latter editions. I think I can remember it:

And no force, however great
Can stretch a cord, however fine
Into a horizontal line
That shall be absolutely straight.
#6 CCPhysicist
February 10, 2009

One of the more interesting ones, “Cosmic Gall” by John Updike, was just republished in The New Yorker (page 67 of the Feb 9&16 issue).
#7 Rob
February 10, 2009

There was a young woman named Bright
Who traveled faster than light.
She set out one day
In a relative way
And returned on the previous night.
#8 Geoffrey A. Landis
February 10, 2009

Very amusing! I particularly like the Feynman poem, although I do appreciate the craft required to keep coherent a rhymed poem of the length of the one Maxwell wrote.

I’ll point out that the SF Poetry Association (“SFPA”) is a good resource for those interested in science and science fictional poetry, by the way (www.sfpoetry.net). I’l take the risk of self-promotion to mention that several of the poems in my collection Iron Angels would qualify as physics poems. (FMI, http://www.ironangels.net). Here’s one of the “Haiku about astrophysics” (originally published in Asimov’s SF):

Summer
Swelling blue-white star
outshines the bright galaxy
spraying iron, salt: us
#9 Eli
February 11, 2009

This is the closest I’ve come… http://lanseybrothers.blogspot.com/2005/10/scholarly-reconstruction-of-lost-dr.html
#10 Brian
February 12, 2009

Orbital Dynamics

Two bodies fall
Drawn in
By force of mutual attraction
Revolve
Orbit ’round and around
Their common center
Off-set by inequality
Converge
Recede
Return once more
Inexorable pull counterbalanced
By velocity
Or fear
Of eventual collision.
#11 Blake Stacey
February 13, 2009

I recall Martin Gardner once wrote an essay about how apparent patterns can rise from randomness, and — intentionally or not — wrote a topic sentence which could be read as a self-referential couplet.

Today we’ll explore some “patterns” in pi and e,
And a bit of accidental poetry.

(More or less — I read the essay years ago.)
#12 Podblack
February 14, 2009

I did a collection of Science poems a while back – ‘Nothing in The ‘Verse Can Stop Me’: http://podblack.com/?p=282

One enjoyable one – ‘The Kiss Precise’ by Frederick Soddy – famous for Soddy’s formula, which he presented entirely in poetic form:

For pairs of lips to kiss maybe
Involves no trigonometry.
‘Tis not so when four circles kiss
Each one the other three.
To bring this off the four must be
As three in one or one in three.
If one in three, beyond a doubt
Each gets three kisses from without.
If three in one, then is that one
Thrice kissed internally.

…Four circles to the kissing come.
The smaller are the benter.
The bend is just the inverse of
The distance form the center.
Though their intrigue left Euclid dumb
There’s now no need for rule of thumb.
Since zero bend’s a dead straight line
And concave bends have minus sign,
The sum of the squares of all four bends
Is half the square of their sum.

There’s a great series of school posters that combine science and poetry, if you’re interested.
#13 Podblack
February 14, 2009

Oh – and I cannot help mentioning this on Valentine’s Day, a song by Tim Minchin. Apparently it had his wife very upset with him, until he pointed out that it was in fact not about love – but about mathematics.

“Look, I’m not undervaluing what we’ve got when I say
That given the role chaos inevitably plays in the inherently flawed notion of fate,
It’s obstruse to deduse that I’ve found my soulmate at the age of 17
It’s just mathematically unlikely that at a university in Perth
I happened to stumble on the one girl on earth specifically designed for me

And if I may conjecture a further objection love is nothing to do with destined perfection
The connection is strengthened the affection simply grows over time
Like a flower
Or a mushroom
Or a guinea pig
Or a vine
Or a sponge
Or bigotry
… or a banana

…
But I’m just saying
I don’t think you’re special
I mean… I think you’re special
But you fall within a bell curve”
#14 Brad
February 14, 2009

Given that it’s probably thirty years since I read it posted on the door of a lab in a physics building,
Energy: A Vilanelle by John Updike must have made an impression on me.

You can have poetry without strict form, and you can have strict adherence to the form and not have great poetry. But, like bonsai, when you have the form and meaningful content, you have something striking.
#15 paradoctor
February 15, 2009

Elliptic flies the arc of Mars
while falling free beyond the air.
The Love that moves the sun and stars;
its cosmic reach in inverse square.

The time goes slow, the length turns thin,
so heavy near the rate of light;
an age’d meet a youthful twin;
the side-effects of stellar flight.

Unstable Nature’s planless plan
will turn your prophesies to lies;
you do not need a weather man
to know which way the butter flies.

In one direction, deeds conspire;
forever lost is last year’s rose;
the frost will never warm the fire;
for tiny chaos always grows.

The relic of an inward blast
so dense and low, not even light
nor any matter, slow or fast
can flee a star as dark as night.

O thrifty, lazy universe!
Each mote and man and beast
shall find a path it may traverse
whose action is the least!

Though motion plus position
would figure the path exact,
yet partial is precision
because of the mote of act.

How does it get from A to B?
By _every_ pathway, plain or crazed;
find action on each history;
their sum is how its wave is phased.
#16 paradoctor
February 15, 2009

Oops, quatrain 1 should end, “its cosmic reach IS inverse square”.

And yes, I wrote these.
#17 Angie
January 18, 2010

A String Theory Poem – what do u think?

Spinning a String Theory.

More than you know
there is a space inside us all
where the sun shines weirdly

Where the dimensions can be felt intuitively
but no guided tour will explain it to you sufficiently
Like all great and wondrous things in life they must be felt with the heart or not at all

This space opens to you suddenly and you are made aware
of the whole parts of ourselves
we leave ignored and unimagined

It fills every space inside your soul instantly
no less miraculous than the universe exploding outward

Reality is like a cracked black sphere
once you see the fault lines you
realize the many layers like onion skin are wound tightly over one another

Balance this strange knowledge
with the mundane everyday life we all live
And you’ll be spinning a string theory
#18 Anonymous
October 14, 2010

Where physics & poetry meet, the world could be in for a treat, one tall and slender, one fat and round…

How about this for a Unifying Theorum? Force, Boundary and the Law itself.

What was the big bang, where does the universe end – yes at the same moment in solitary, separated, pure, time in the absence of space.

There is more than one reason why time and space might separate – the end of the expanding universe, the collapse of a star, but that is why there is more than one Force. One force is needed for each situation in which space and time might separate. In each situation where space and time might separate a force is required that will bring the two back together in universal birth.

In the absence of gravity, electro magnetic force will bring positive time and negative space back together, and vice-versa. You build the rest.

Horizons are interesting.

The big bang was explosion and implosion in equal measure.

Time exists between dimensions in the absence of physics. You need poetry here.
#19 Julio Lopez
October 23, 2010

(-inf, inf)

It’s plane of existence runs without bounds.
It’s tail streaks with colour.
As it rushes by in can be seen pushing into oblivion.
The hackneyed scenery waivers no pity.
It’s perpituity creates a clamour.
A strawberry like sound.
Like a dandelion in a violent storm.
My cartesian heart.
My perrenial love.
My extraneous answer.

-Me
#20 James Ph. Kotsybar
November 27, 2010

STRINGS ATTACHED
— James Ph. Kotsybar

Physicists foresee a utopia
(once they squint through micro-myopia)
where all of the forces of nature
should become unified
and be understood.
Even in science,
letting go is hard,
and notions are the hardest to divorce,
but, to reach there,
they’ll have to discard
their classical point-particles of force.

While Newton works large-scale,
his physics fail,
and even Einstein’s theories can’t subsist,
when applied to the sub-atomic scale.
The answers they produce just can’t exist.

Particle physics,
in quantum foam, sank,
when its researchers
walked the length of Planck.
#21 James Ph. Kotsybar
December 24, 2010

PENT SILLS
– James Ph. Kotsybar

These graphite singularities
contain universes
unconceived,
awaiting
the Big Bang
of inspiration, but
narrative particles
escape like
Hawking radiation –
gravity’s diminution
evaporatively slow,
nearly virtual,
and random.
#22 James Ph. Kotsybar
January 1, 2011

LAB CAUTION
–James Ph. Kotsybar

Anger combines
Readily with fear,
Forming the acid hate –
Active and volatile –
Avoid direct contact.
Harmful or fatal If swallowed.
#23 Harley White
January 10, 2011

M-THEORY MUSINGS
– Harley White

What theory unifies forces, weak, strong,
With gravity– also, to which belong
All the string theories of why and because?
To answer these queries, M-theory does.

Proponents aver it offers clarity
As to the issue of singularity.–
Where there’s a will there’s a way,
So they say…

In the beginning our universe sprang
From membranes colliding to cause a Big Bang…
Hence matter and energy stem from vibrations of strings seen by seers
In a music of spheres.

One mode of vibration, or ‘note’, makes the string an electron,
Another a photon…
And what of Higgs-boson?

There’s even a mode for the graviton, thought to have gravity’s force.
So vibrating strings would then be the source
To create tiny articles which we call
Elementary particles– one and all.

Dimensions– four plus compactified seven–
Equal a total that’s oddly eleven…
To wit, though string theories wound up at the tenth,
They had to add one more that’s odd to the nth.

Do we have enough sense or senses extended
To fathom those p-branes M-theory intended
And get to the bottom of hyper spacetime
In this super multiverse theory sublime?

What sounding vibration
Strange seeming sensation
Might set the strings strumming
Or maybe branes humming
Is something to ponder,
One’s whimsies to wander–

My mind like the wind evanescent can roam
O’er billowing waves and ineffable foam
With parallels plenty of our bubble home…

Thus I heard
M-theory’s word.

Albeit in physics there’s much knowledge base,
What waters of wisdom could ever embrace
Such cosmic curled places with hyperspace face?

Eerily far we’ve come to here
From bards’ illusions yesteryear–
When heavens would sing lullabies,
With moon and stars to harmonize
Midst luminescent light display
That might have been the Milky Way
Overturning all its jars
In a shower of shooting stars…

How flimsy, fleeting, and fragile life seems,
In our floating realm like a land of dreams!

Amen– let poets lyricize yet
Sweeter reveries lest we forget
Dearer wonders perchance of yore
From whilom membranes nevermore
Where earthlings gazed at clearer skies
With yonders nearer to our eyes,
In a once upon a time divine
P-brane world of auld langsyne…
#24 James Ph. Kotsybar
January 13, 2011

PARABOLIC HYPERBOLE
— James Ph. Kotsybar

“The Geometry of Gravity,”
reads the card of the museum’s display
where metal spheres are leisurely launched
along the lip of a parabolic funnel.
They eddy in a sort of perpetual motion,
their descent as imperceptible as inevitable.

Early on, they collide, kissingly,
as the longer rolling
elliptically hoist themselves
into intersecting orbits.

Fresher launches define their fall
with ever increasing velocity
into accelerated, deeper orbits,
more stable, circular and unique.

Their increasing forward speed
diminishes their descent
till they blur into fevered coils
hung stationary at the funnel’s neck.
They vibrate aggressively
into ghosts that vanish
into the mechanism
that invisibly replaces each
along the lip of this metaphoric model
of the human condition.
#25 Julia Lynne White
January 18, 2011

ODE TO A BLACKHOLE
– Julia L. White

Your mysterious darkness clutches my thought.
It freezes my busy, bustling life.
Your powerful mass that time forgot
Releases my being from strain and strife.

Oh primordial star, magnanimous weight!
Your presence puts me in my place
For you hold the power to crush and create,
Blackhole you dominate all space.

How many universes have you devoured,
Since the beginning of all time?
And how many stars have you showered,
Across the vast space sublime?

You are supreme timeless priest,
For you hold no beginning or end.
In your horizon existence has ceased
And you become an eternal friend.

But is my fleeting life inferior?
My power cannot compare with you;
Perhaps on a small scale I am superior
For compared with a photon I am huge.

Yes! Maybe I am a whole other universe
With millions of galaxies on my thumb.
And perhaps some creature is writing a verse
About my alleged ad infinitum.

Blackhole, what if our space is one micron tall,
Trapped in a whole other dimension?
Then which is the biggest, supremest of all?
I think that the answer has to be none.

Oh! I see you wonderful star.
You divine, wise, magical dear.
You help me realize the truths that are,
Your message to me is now very clear.

I should cherish all in existence,
Each star, photon, person, and galaxy;
For they are all matter attracted to dense
And together make-up what is known as reality.

Thank you blackhole for conveying this truth
And showing our measure’s a sham.
It is not size or power that determines my worth,
The important thing is I am.
#26 James Ph. Kotsybar
January 22, 2011

DARK MATTER
– James Ph. Kotsybar

The universe is mostly abnormal,
if we accept that physicists aren’t wrong
and gravity remains uniformal,
otherwise galaxies couldn’t last long.

They’d spin themselves apart, unless, unseen,
missing mass resolves the disparity.
Dark Matter is needed to intervene.
Though not found, it can’t be a rarity.

“The clusters are like icebergs,” they patter.
“Since Newton’s math holds true, it must be served.
There’s five times as much as normal matter,
or else momentum’s poise can’t be conserved.”

Though they’ll claim science is observation,
that’s often tweaked to fit the equation.
#27 Harley White
May 20, 2011

Dark Matter Matters
– Harley White

Dark matter seems to be
What isn’t there to be seen
In between
What we see.

They dub it dark since you cannot detect it
Nor can they inspect it
With telescopy.

Yet, while it can’t be descried
It cannot be denied
For equations that irk
To work.

Should dark matter matter,
Would dark matter matter
A titter or twitter,
A transmitter flitter,
A spatter or smatter–
This transparent matter–
To other than fans of the science news
Or hopefuls for lists of physics who’s whos?

Like other matters of matter that matter
A pitter or patter, a skitter or scatter,
It has to be plumbed, summed up and summed down,
Verified, clarified, ere it’s dumbed down.

One cannot spot it with unaided eyes–
Oh, may the way to explore it be wise!

Some sons and daughters of Mother Earth’s waters
And sands of the dreamlands of Father Time
Are trying to fathom celestial history,
Master its mystery, reason and rhyme.

Physicists hunt for dark matter, to move it
With particle accelerators, to prove it
Exists as suspected, from data collected
With outcome expected, eureka! projected…

But let us remember that they call it dark.
How can one discern an invisible quark?
They’re searching to learn of this strange seeming stuff,
For knowledge is power– there’s never enough…

It’s thought our universe has a whole lot of it.
Those who suppose it give info they’ve got of it…

Dark matter exerts gravitational pull.
It glues stars together, makes galaxies full.
Unlike normal matter it plays hide and seek
And so much of it’s interactively weak…

Speaking of such massiveness subatomic,
Its acronym is ironically comic…

With or without this WIMP snicker factor
There’s still a detractor or two around…
Though a gamma ray clue may have been found
In the center of our own Milky Way–
Dark matter collisions, that is to say.

A curious mind always digs and delves.
Yet, are we not getting ahead of ourselves?

High fly the dreams of the capped and gowned
To be world-renowned, laureate-crowned…
Breakthroughs in deep outer space astound…
While here on the ground, horrors abound!

Be it phantom or really elusively there,
Dark matter inferred, if ever laid bare,
When we’ve been interred, with nary a word
To mark our swift passage, might have the last laugh
With ‘what fools were mortals!’ for our cenotaph–
‘Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night:
Humans unlocked them, but all was not light.’
#28 evans muriuki muriithi
August 1, 2011

I like physic poems. thank you
#29 Julia Lynne White
August 17, 2011

HUMPTY DUMPTY
– Julia L. White

Humpty had his gluteus maximus
interfaced with a pseudo-igneous
supporting structure.

Humpty Dumpty acquired an angular
force that necessitated a rapid
acceleration towards the outer layer
of the mantle culminating in an
instantaneous pressure exerted
by the ground on Humpty’s protective covering.

The total accumulative force of the
supreme feudal magistrate, in
terms of his Equus and Homo-
sapien carbon compounds, was
unable to integrate Humpty’s
fragmentation which was now
randomly dispersed on the surface
perpendicular to the pseudo- igneous
structure.
#30 Harley White
August 19, 2011

DARK MATTER MATTERS
– Harley White

Why are we matter and not antimatter,
Or are we the latter and think that we’re not?
Brought into contact the one with the other
The two would annihilate right on the spot.

Opposites attract— some do—
But in this case it isn’t true,
For in that mirror image clash
The counterparts destroy their doppelgangers in a flash…

And thus give rise to high-energy photons
That is to say, to gamma rays,
Or other particles like antiprotons
In what could be another phase…

While an antiproton and a positron can form
An atom antihydrogen that’s almost the norm
Of a hydrogen atom, a physicist, instead
Made of antimatter— to continue with the thread—
In antimatter lab with chemicals and stuff
Composed of antiparticles too sure enough
Would find in all experiments practically the same
Results as would a matter twin with an equal aim.

Whew! Loopy loo—
Much ado…

Strange all this difference should be
‘Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee…
Though ‘ditto’ one the other goes,
They took up quarreling as foes.

Did Alice through the looking-glass
Into antimatter pass—
With Hatter mad, alack, alas,
Sentenced to death by “Off with his head!”
(Those were the words the Queen of Hearts said…)
For song sung ‘murdering the time’
Before a verdict for his crime—
A wonderland dreamworld, vice-a verse,
Contrariwise, not better or worse
In sentience, style, and logic’s pith?—
Ah, glory be that Carroll myth!

Suppose that on further reflection
We flip the direction
Of time, flip left and right,
The Red King to White,
Change matter as well into antimatter…
(Or is it reversely for this chit-chatter?)
Ho, mercurial Hatta, mad Hatter!—
Which do you think it might be? Let’s natter…
#31 Harley White
August 20, 2011

ANTIMATTER CHITTER-CHATTER
– Harley White

Why are we matter and not antimatter,
Or are we the latter and think that we’re not?
Brought into contact the one with the other
The two would annihilate right on the spot.

Opposites attract— some do—
But in this case it isn’t true,
For in that mirror image clash
The counterparts destroy their doppelgangers in a flash…

And thus give rise to high-energy photons
That is to say, to gamma rays,
Or other particles like antiprotons
In what could be another phase…

While an antiproton and a positron can form
An atom antihydrogen that’s almost the norm
Of a hydrogen atom, a physicist, instead
Made of antimatter— to continue with the thread—
In antimatter lab with chemicals and stuff
Composed of antiparticles too sure enough
Would find in all experiments practically the same
Results as would a matter twin with an equal aim.

Whew! Loopy loo—
Much ado…

Strange all this difference should be
‘Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee…
Though ‘ditto’ one the other goes,
They took up quarreling as foes.

Did Alice through the looking-glass
Into antimatter pass—
With Hatter mad, alack, alas,
Sentenced to death by “Off with his head!”
(Those were the words the Queen of Hearts said…)
For song sung ‘murdering the time’
Before a verdict for his crime—
A wonderland dreamworld, vice-a verse,
Contrariwise, not better or worse
In sentience, style, and logic’s pith?—
Ah, glory be that Carroll myth!

Suppose that on further reflection
We flip the direction
Of time, flip left and right,
The Red King to White,
Change matter as well into antimatter…
(Or is it reversely for this chit-chatter?)
Ho, mercurial Hatta, mad Hatter!—
Which do you think it might be? Let’s natter…
#32 Harley White
August 20, 2011

Really sorry to post the same poem twice, but I accidentally attached the wrong title to the previous one, and I didn’t know how to delete it…
#33 Gnanaprakash
September 4, 2011

Nice one.
#34 Harley White
September 9, 2011

THE GRAVITY OF GRAVITY
– Harley White

Gravity keeps our feet on the ground,
Stops us from slapdash flying around.
This force of attraction ‘fictitious’ gives weight
And makes all fall down at equivalent rate.

(Albeit in flights of fancy it seems
That gravity follows the laws of dreams.)

Relativity caused Newton’s view to shatter,
In positing spacetime to be curved by matter.
So objects will take a particular path
That must correspond with Einsteinian math.

(The upshot is bodies have odysseys
Appropriate to their geodesies.)

Gravitons, a gravitational source
Of controversy, are seen as a horse
Of a quite different color altogether.
But then scientists aren’t birds of a feather.

(Some sit upon their a priori-based fences
And come up with theories defying the senses.)

Weak or strong, short or long, what is this thing
Called gravity? Wide hypotheses swing.
There are those who suppose that it’s this, others that.
Maybe someday, they all just might have it down pat.

(Meanwhile gravity, though we resize and shape it,
Will still have its own way— for who can escape it?)
#35 supratall
September 10, 2011

I particularly like the Feynman poem, although I do appreciate the craft required to keep coherent a rhymed poem of the length of the one Maxwell wrote.
#36 Harley White
October 20, 2011

UNLESS
– Harley White

Muon neutrinos time of flight, (Einsteinian anomaly)…
Particles that outpace light, upending relativity, (perchance)…

We dance our physics dance and ponder–
On and on presumptions wander–
As we wonder here and yonder…

Might we travel time’s trapeze,
Sail dimensions like a breeze,
Go before we came with ease?

Yet though unfathomed wisdom’s sought,
How can we know beyond our thought?
Infinity eludes us– still,
Finiteness is a bitter pill.

We theorize to the skies,
Plumb the depths where insight lies–
But we see with earthly eyes,
And this cuts us down to size.

So we take our measurements
And scan the score.
Then what’s proven true is true…
Unless there’s more…
#37 seo backlinks
December 4, 2011

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#38 Harley White
March 20, 2012

UNLESS
– Harley White

(Revision)

Muon neutrinos time of flight, (Einsteinian anomaly)…
Particles that outpace light, upending relativity, (ahem)…

Not so fast— lest we should be overawed,
Humans are human… some data are flawed.
Facts can turn fictional, rendered unsound.
Researchers research for findings unfound…

(Perchance)…

We dance our physics dance and ponder—
On and on presumptions wander—
As we wonder here and yonder…

Might we travel time’s trapeze,
Sail dimensions like a breeze,
Go before we came with ease?

Yet though unfathomed wisdom’s sought,
How can we know beyond our thought?
Infinity eludes us— still,
Finiteness is a bitter pill.

We theorize to the skies,
Plumb the depths where insight lies—
But we see with earthly eyes,
And this cuts us down to size.

So we take our measurements
And scan the score.
Then what’s proven true is true…
Unless there’s more…