Obviously...

I was goofing around on the internet and somehow ended up in the dark, murky world of ultra-technical quantum mechanics/particle physics/mathematics articles on wikipedia.

The article was called Renormalization Group. Don't ask me what it means because I clearly have NO FRICKIN' CLUE. This ain't Kansas anymore.

These technical articles are usually accompanied by an endless stream of very intimidating equations that are just packed with symbols and arcane operations. But something caught my eye. Well, take a look at it:

For any positive Λ′ less than Λ, define S_Λ′ (a functional over field configurations φ whose Fourier transform has momentum support within ) as

Obviously,

Obviously, the obviousness of Z is obvious...

Duhhhhh, right? I mean how can you not know what Z is? Quite obviously, Z equals all that. Looks like someone chewed up a bunch of variables and puked them out. 

I want a verse like this one

I am sure many of you wonder everyday: what is the worth of a person? How do we remember someone? When does one know one has "made it"? Very difficult questions, I think.

But sometimes it is very easy to know when you have made it big in life. Take Sir James Dewar, for instance. Dewar was a Scottish chemist who did a lot of research into liquefying gases i.e. turning gases into liquids. If you've ever used a propane tank, you are using the liquid form of Propane gas. He was the first person to liquefy Oxygen and Nitrogen. Pretty big deal. So big of a deal, in fact, that folks at his college (Cambridge) composed this nifty little verse when he was still alive:

Sir James Dewar

He is a better man than you are

None of you asses

Can liquefy gases

I mean the dude is clearly important because he has a sir attached to his name. But having a verse composed about your efforts? That's unbeatable. 

Bow down, Babylon:

Stuck on a problem you can't solve? Try the Feynman algorithm

All of us, at some point or another, have found ourselves stuck while working on a difficult (or not-so difficult) problem. We all have different methods of coping with us. Some of us wallow in self-pity and despair; others bang their heads against the wall. Yet others go drown themselves in beer and Guinness.

Well people, fear not. Cast away your untrained, untested crude methods because I have here a sure-fire approach to problem-solving, patented and endorsed by none other than legendary physicist Richard Feynman .

Dick Feynman was an absolute beast at physics, but it is reputation outside of physics that made him into the larger-than-life figure he is today. Feynman defied the stereotype of the boring, awkward physics professor and exuded charisma and unbeatable energy. He played the bongo drums, enthusiastically took part in student plays at Caltech, cracked safes during the Manhattan project in Los Alamos, and drove around in a van with Feynman diagrams scrawled all over it. Oh and he won the Nobel prize in physics. Pretty damn good, I'd say.

Anyway, here is the time-tested Feynman algorithm you should all use whenever you need help. Just three easy steps:

 1. Write down the problem. Very critical step. If you don't know the problem, how the hell are you going to know what to solve, right?

2. Think really hard. And I mean really really hard.

3. Write down the solution. Voila! You are done! Not too shabby.

Now there used to be a variation of this algorithm that went like this:

1. Write down the problem.

2. Let Dick Feynman solve it.

3. Copy the solution.

Unfortunately since Feyman passed away in 1988, we can't use this anymore.

[The tongue-in-cheek Feynman algorithm was described by fellow Caltech physicist Murray Gell-Mann , a legend and a Nobel laureate in his own right. The Gell-Mann - Feynman rivalry during the 1960's riveted the physics community. It was like the Jersey Shore of their time.]

Here is an example of shenanigans Feynman was known for: