Renowned cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawkingpassed awayin the early hours of March 14 , intelligence that has sadden us all . His scientific output signal was rightfully incredible and his work in engaging the wider populace in the complexities of the universe will continue to inspire .
His most famous expression , describing the selective information of a black muddle , might even adorn his tombstone . He declared hiswishes for thisin 2002 , during a workshop on the future of theoretical physics and cosmogony held to mark his 60th birthday .
The expression is the centerpiece of our understanding of black holes and a crowning accomplishment for Stephen William Hawking , who work out on it with his colleague Jacob Bekenstein . It connects important thermodynamic quantities such as S , represented by the capital S , to physical property of the black hole , namely its area , A. The continue letters are constant of the universe ; k is the Boltzmann constant quantity , c is the velocity of light source , h - taproom is the reduce Planck constant , and G is the oecumenical gravitational attraction constant .
Entropy is discover in school cathartic textbooks as a measurement of disorderliness within a macroscopical system . But it can also be defined as the amount of info that you’re able to pack into an objective . And this is the essential grandness of the formula . The entropy of a black hole is proportional to its surface area , not its volume . The surface of the black hole is its consequence visible horizon , beyond which , nothing can escape .
Understanding the thermodynamics of pitch-black holes want the Cambridge physicist to apply quantum mechanics to these incredibly dense objects , and this lead to the proposal of Hawking radioactivity . calamitous kettle of fish had entropy and a temperature .
monger himself extend this work to a more general and far - give interpretation . The whole universe could be seen as have a “ cosmological event horizon ” suggesting that the universe as a whole has an entropy value and a specific temperature . This estimate was the fundament for the formulation of the holographical principle , indicate that all the data encode in the population can be interpret from the property of a lower dimensional boundary .
There is also another interesting line of latitude that create Professor Hawking ’s wish even more poignant . The first suggester of entropy was Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann and his headstone bear the inscription of his own information formula . It seems right that peddling should have his own , too .
Hawking had just recorded a cameo for anew wireless versionof Douglas Adams’Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy , so as that other tardy , great illusionist once compose ( sort of ): So long , Professor Hawking , and thanks for all the fish .
[ H / T : New York Times ]
