Engineering & Sports

In this 12 days long NYU Summer Enrichment STEM project at Brooklyn School and Medicine, we (I, Nick, Cesar and Layla) use everything from a stunning apple to the Catapult to illustrate the beauty of Math, Physics and Engineering. Mathematics is the native language of God because it explains the laws of physics beautifully, ranging from the deterministic nature of classical mechanics to the non-deterministic characteristic of quantum mechanics. Over the last few days, we helped this young stars understand that physics and engineering actually two side of a same coin which is made of Mathematics. Our aim was to generate engineers who would become fearless investigators of nature, like Newton and Einstein, in revealing the secret of God. We were successful for two reasons: Group 1 scored, in average, 55% higher in the Post-test than the pretest. Group 2 made 85% progress. 

Just as engineers see what untrained eyes can’t, a person who knows the language of God (it’s math) can chip away at the mystery of universe, just like  Newton, James Maxwell, Albert Einstein or Erwin Schrodinger had. They used mathematics to read the mind of God and described it in the form of equations, such as F=ma or E=mc2. In fact, these two equations, along with the Maxwell and Schrodinger equations, have changed the world: F= ma gave us the Industrial Revolution, the Maxwell equations gave us the electrical and computer revolution, E=mc2, gave us nuclear power, and Schrodinger’s wave equation gave birth to quantum mechanics.  

These scientists helped us understand that there is physics in everything—even in observing the fall of an apple. But to read the mind of God, your own mind has to understand his language. Remember, he speaks in only one language—mathematics. So forget about all the fictional stories that God communicates with Adam in Hebrew or Prophet Muhammad in classical Arabic. Care only about the language God used to communicate with Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, and Schrodinger. 

We already have seen the advantage of understanding the language of God: Neptune was predicted by using the mathematics of Newton. In fact, NASA used nothing but his equations to land a man on the moon. In a set of four inch-long equations, Maxwell not only described the behavior and interaction of the electric and magnetic fields, but he also calculated the value of the speed of light—300,000,000 meters per second. Applying pure mathematics while sitting in a Swiss patent office, Einstein concluded that mass and energy are same thing. He expressed this in a half-inch-long equation—E=mc2, which led to the invention of the atomic bomb.  His math also proved that the universe is expanding and provided evidence of a black hole. He did not believe it, but we ultimately found that it was true. When his theory of the photoelectric effect led to the birth of quantum mechanics, Einstein said that he refused to believe that God would play dice with the universe. However, Schrodinger’s wave equation shows that God actually loves to play dice. Hence, we devoted some 65 hours over the last few days to learn mathematics and physics to become even better engineer. 

Yes—this NYU Summer  STEM Project represents an opportunity for young stars to discover nature’s hidden beauty and illustrates the practical power of mathematical equations. I’m sure, thanks to NYU STEM Project, some of our students will turn into Engineers in the near future.