Tesla

[Chaigidel]

an homage thread to my favorite scientist in all of history, do you think he was on par with newton or einstein? hawking even?

was he greater or less than edison his archrival?

[fieldmarshal]

Funny, i just watched a documentary about him on the history channel just an hour ago. I have to say, he is one of the greatest inventors in the 20th century.

[Chaigidel]

he manipulated xrays years before the guy who won the nobel prize for it

he had his hands on everything we take for granted now.

[Simetrical]

He's nowhere near Newton or Einstein in terms of his theoretical contributions to physics. He was also something of a nutjob and didn't always appear capable of distinguishing his real and incredibly important innovations from some of the sheer nonsense he made up. (Which makes him unlike Newton, Einstein, Hawking, . . .)

[Valentin the II]

He's nowhere near Newton or Einstein in terms of his theoretical contributions to physics. He was also something of a nutjob and didn't always appear capable of distinguishing his real and incredibly important innovations from some of the sheer nonsense he made up. (Which makes him unlike Newton, Einstein, Hawking, . . .)

Actually, this does make him like Hawking.
Crazy wheelchaired mofo.

[Lunar4]

Tesla wasn't an idiot he never just "made up nonsense"

[Exarch]

i liked tesla's proposals to harness unlimited electricity from the magnetosphere of te earth...can it be done?

[Chaigidel]

perhaps, there is new tech that will allow GPS to operate without satellites.

along those lines having to do with magnetic field of earth.

[Garnier]

How come there is no option for Tesla wasn't a great scientist. As it is, you're either to be considered dumb for not knowing who he is, or you vote that he was great.

[Redem]

He was a decent enough scientist, and a pretty damn excellent inventor.

I really fail to grasp the idealisation that surrounds him and Edison, though.
And Newton for that matter.

[Exarch]

his a/c was superior to edison's d/c
this be da twoof

[RZZZA]

TESLA DEATH RAY!!!!!


einstein had a bomb, but Tesla had a DEATH RAY

[Chaigidel]

to me the "edison wins" option is the "not a great scientist" thing.

in my study of history edison was a scumbag thief, who was good at marketing and a poor inventor

tesla was a genius inventor who was bad at marketing.

[Simetrical]

Tesla wasn't an idiot he never just "made up nonsense"

Death rays? Resonance destroying buildings?

i liked tesla's proposals to harness unlimited electricity from the magnetosphere of te earth...can it be done?

Short answer: no.

I really fail to grasp the idealisation that surrounds him and Edison, though.
And Newton for that matter.

Well, let me put it this way about Newton. At least a third or so of all college students (i.e., all hard-science majors, however many they are) spend a year to a year and half studying, basically, the works of Newton. Typically there's a semester of differential calculus, a semester of integral calculus, and a semester of Newtonian physics. Granted that those aren't 100% Newton's work, but the basics of each are entirely due to Newton, as are a lot of the details.* There's no other person you can say that of. Not even English majors usually spend a year on, say, only Shakespeare, let alone all humanities majors. Newton was one of the most influential people in history.

*Yes, much of the calculus was simultaneously invented by Leibniz, okay. Newton began work on calculus before Leibniz did, although Leibniz published first, and it's not clear if Newton influenced Leibniz (Newton always claimed his work was stolen). At any rate you can't argue that Newton didn't invent calculus, the only question is whether Leibniz also did.

[Redem]

Well, let me put it this way about Newton. At least a third or so of all college students (i.e., all hard-science majors, however many they are) spend a year to a year and half studying, basically, the works of Newton. Typically there's a semester of differential calculus, a semester of integral calculus, and a semester of Newtonian physics. Granted that those aren't 100% Newton's work, but the basics of each are entirely due to Newton, as are a lot of the details.* There's no other person you can say that of. Not even English majors usually spend a year on, say, only Shakespeare, let alone all humanities majors. Newton was one of the most influential people in history.

I realise that he made significant advances in science, and that much of his work constitutes the basics of a variety of subjects taught today. I was referring more to the hero worshipping and idealising of him.
To me that's kind of the antithesis of how the sciences should work, we do not need sacred cows.

[Salah al-Din]

Lose the "i", his name is Nikola Tesla. And like it was said before, he was one of the greatest scientists, but also one of the worst marketers of his own ideas.

[Ulyaoth]

Newton was just lucky enough he was far enough from the pope to actually say his crap unlike poor old Galileo who had to recant all his ideas.

[rory o'kane]

i am tempted to make some Command & Conquer Red Alert references here but nah, he was clever, he must be, he has a unit named after him!

[Sphere]

Resonance destroying buildings?

To be fair, resonance in buildings is real, it is part in any seismic building code. It is just that you need earthquake magnitude energies for it to become a problem, not a little electric oscillator.

[Chaigidel]

they did an experiment on mythbusters with a resonater and it shook a major bridge-- its not a myth, tesla caused earthquakes and shot goddamn death rays !