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Dirac Equation

The "beautiful" equation predicting the movement of all electromagnetic particles is engraved in front of Newton's tomb.

London, England

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The ‘Beautiful’ Dirac Equation on the floor of Westminster Abbey   Stanislav Kozlovskiy
Isaac Newton’s tomb at Westminster Abbey   Klaus-Dieter Keller on Wikimedia
  desraypreston / Atlas Obscura User
  desraypreston / Atlas Obscura User
Sir Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking burial stones   desraypreston / Atlas Obscura User
Tomb   desraypreston / Atlas Obscura User
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Westminster Abbey is hardly obscure: It's on most London tourists' to-do lists. Almost every visitor goes to feel the faintest connection with Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, or any number of other kings and queens. Some may even go to see Isaac Newton's impressive tomb made famous in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.  

But engraved onto the floor in front of Newton's tomb is Dirac's "beautiful" equation that unifies relativity and quantum mechanics. The equation describes the motion of an electron using only eight symbols. From this incredible equation, both antimatter and electron spin were predicted and ultimately discovered.

 

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Published

April 5, 2016

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