User:Lucretius

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Contents 1 Some personal stuff 2 Articles I have worked on 3 Redrafting Boltzmann segment 4 Value in different units 5 Greek Vowels 5.1 Greek Extended (precomposed polytonic Greek) 6 Greek consonants 6.1 Greek and Coptic

[edit] Some personal stuff

I'm a primary (elementary) school teacher. My main academic interests are literature (English and classical)and philosophy, the metaphysical side of which has led me to develop a recent interest in modern physics.

My main contribution to Wikipedia, as I see it, will be to remove from the 'article' pages anything that clutters them with unmeaningful observations or which amounts to an expression of personal opinion. I believe some contributors are spreading themselves too thinly, meaning they are involved in too many topics and do not give enough time and thought to the contributions they do make. I believe the readers deserve more respect than that. I think also that better use could be made of 'Discussion' pages -major revisions to an article should be justified in the Discussions page. Instead some contributors provide little or no explanation for significant decisions. I believe other contributors deserve better than that.

I don't yet know how active I'll be at Wikipedia (31/12/05). I'll concentrate on a few pages and maybe spread out from there.

Definitions of a humbling experience:

a) a visit to the 'Recent changes' page followed a few seconds later by another visit to the 'Recent changes' page. It's a whole new page every time!

b) a visit to any of the user pages of the hundreds of polymath geniuses who haunt Wikipedia.

c) a visit to foreign language versions of articles you have worked on - either your work has not yet been translated or it has got lost in translation or worse still it has been mistranslated.

[edit] Articles I have worked on

(see also the relevant discussion pages if you don't have a life of your own, as I am sure there are better things you can do):

George Stoney - I added the section 'Stoney Scale'

Planck units - I removed 5 equations and I have debated in vain with User:Rbj about the section on invariant scaling

Fine-structure constant - I added the caveat in italics in the 'Numerological explanations' section and I have debated in vain with Rbj and User:Melchoir about the appropriateness of the term 'numerological' in a scientific context

Numerology - I rewrote the section 'Numerology in science' after debating in vain with Melchoir about the appropriateness of this article (I wanted it removed but compromised to secure what I think is a more objective treatment of the argument - see also my user page for debate with Melchoir)

Planck force - I considerably expanded what was a very brief and inadequate definition. Rbj gave me some useful criticism. I subsequently revised a formula in the Italian version. My Italian is bad but the formula was wrong in any language.

Gravitational constant - I worked with Rbj to secure a more meaningful expression of the weakness of gravity, particularly in the context of conventional and natural units. I also added a section on the dimensions of G, relating these to Planck units.

Jeans Length - I added a simple introduction to this article because otherwise it was intelligible only to highbrows.

Gravitational waves - I have been working with MOBle to restructure and rewrite the article (I have been playing Doctor Watson to his Sherlock Holmes so that people even less informed than I can understand the intricacies of the argument).

Ancient Greek units of measurement - I erased this article and gave it a new start. Some fanciful contributor had made all kinds of strange assertions based on a spurious knowledge of metrology.

Solon - I gave this article a complete rewrite. Someone had made a wildly uncritical use of Plutarch as the primary source.

[edit] Redrafting Boltzmann segment

k is fundamental: 1)http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/72417/Boltzmann-constant

2)http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/glossary/b.shtml

3)http://books.google.com.au/books?id=bA9Lp2GH6OEC&dq=Boltzmann's+constant+%2B+significance&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 (see page 336)

4)http://www.uic.edu/classes/phys/phys450/MARKO/N003.html

[edit] Value in different units

Values of k	Units	Comments
1.380 6504(24)×10−23	J/K	SI units, 2002 CODATA value
8.617 343(15)×10−5	eV/K	1 electronvolt = 1.602 176 53(14)×10−19 J
6.336 281(73)×10−6	Ryd/K	1 Rydberg = 13.6 eV
1.3807×10−16	erg/K

The digits in parentheses are the standard measurement uncertainty in the last two digits of the measured value.

k can also be expressed with the unit mol (such as 1.99 calories/mole-kelvin); for historical reasons it is then called the gas constant.

The numerical value of k has no particular fundamental significance in itself: It merely reflects the fact that it is a constant of proportionality mediating between units of energy and units of temperature. The particular value depends on the choice of units for energy and temperature. Thus for example the very small numerical value of the Boltzmann constant in SI reflects the fact that the SI unit of temperature, 1 Kelvin, corresponds to a much smaller energy than the SI unit of energy, 1 Joule (a single molecule in a cloud of gas at 1 kelvin would have an average kinetic energy which is not 1 joule, but rather is around 23 orders of magnitude smaller). In Planck units, on the other hand, the Plank unit of temperature and the Planck unit of energy are defined in such a way that k=1.

[edit] Greek Vowels

[edit] Greek Extended (precomposed polytonic Greek)

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
1F00	ἀ	ἁ	ἂ	ἃ	ἄ	ἅ	ἆ	ἇ	Ἀ	Ἁ	Ἂ	Ἃ	Ἄ	Ἅ	Ἆ	Ἇ
1F10	ἐ	ἑ	ἒ	ἓ	ἔ	ἕ			Ἐ	Ἑ	Ἒ	Ἓ	Ἔ	Ἕ
1F20	ἠ	ἡ	ἢ	ἣ	ἤ	ἥ	ἦ	ἧ	Ἠ	Ἡ	Ἢ	Ἣ	Ἤ	Ἥ	Ἦ	Ἧ
1F30	ἰ	ἱ	ἲ	ἳ	ἴ	ἵ	ἶ	ἷ	Ἰ	Ἱ	Ἲ	Ἳ	Ἴ	Ἵ	Ἶ	Ἷ
1F40	ὀ	ὁ	ὂ	ὃ	ὄ	ὅ			Ὀ	Ὁ	Ὂ	Ὃ	Ὄ	Ὅ
1F50	ὐ	ὑ	ὒ	ὓ	ὔ	ὕ	ὖ	ὗ		Ὑ		Ὓ		Ὕ		Ὗ
1F60	ὠ	ὡ	ὢ	ὣ	ὤ	ὥ	ὦ	ὧ	Ὠ	Ὡ	Ὢ	Ὣ	Ὤ	Ὥ	Ὦ	Ὧ
1F70	ὰ	ά	ὲ	έ	ὴ	ή	ὶ	ί	ὸ	ό	ὺ	ύ	ὼ	ώ
1F80	ᾀ	ᾁ	ᾂ	ᾃ	ᾄ	ᾅ	ᾆ	ᾇ	ᾈ	ᾉ	ᾊ	ᾋ	ᾌ	ᾍ	ᾎ	ᾏ
1F90	ᾐ	ᾑ	ᾒ	ᾓ	ᾔ	ᾕ	ᾖ	ᾗ	ᾘ	ᾙ	ᾚ	ᾛ	ᾜ	ᾝ	ᾞ	ᾟ
1FA0	ᾠ	ᾡ	ᾢ	ᾣ	ᾤ	ᾥ	ᾦ	ᾧ	ᾨ	ᾩ	ᾪ	ᾫ	ᾬ	ᾭ	ᾮ	ᾯ
1FB0	ᾰ	ᾱ	ᾲ	ᾳ	ᾴ		ᾶ	ᾷ	Ᾰ	Ᾱ	Ὰ	Ά	ᾼ	᾽	ι	᾿
1FC0	῀	῁	ῂ	ῃ	ῄ		ῆ	ῇ	Ὲ	Έ	Ὴ	Ή	ῌ	῍	῎	῏
1FD0	ῐ	ῑ	ῒ	ΐ			ῖ	ῗ	Ῐ	Ῑ	Ὶ	Ί		῝	῞	῟
1FE0	ῠ	ῡ	ῢ	ΰ	ῤ	ῥ	ῦ	ῧ	Ῠ	Ῡ	Ὺ	Ύ	Ῥ	῭	΅	`
1FF0			ῲ	ῳ	ῴ		ῶ	ῷ	Ὸ	Ό	Ὼ	Ώ	ῼ	´	῾

[edit] Greek consonants

[edit] Greek and Coptic

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
0370	Ͱ	ͱ	Ͳ	ͳ	ʹ	͵	Ͷ	ͷ			ͺ	ͻ	ͼ	ͽ	;
0380					΄	΅	Ά	·	Έ	Ή	Ί		Ό		Ύ	Ώ
0390	ΐ	Α	Β	Γ	Δ	Ε	Ζ	Η	Θ	Ι	Κ	Λ	Μ	Ν	Ξ	Ο
03A0	Π	Ρ		Σ	Τ	Υ	Φ	Χ	Ψ	Ω	Ϊ	Ϋ	ά	έ	ή	ί
03B0	ΰ	α	β	γ	δ	ε	ζ	η	θ	ι	κ	λ	μ	ν	ξ	ο
03C0	π	ρ	ς	σ	τ	υ	φ	χ	ψ	ω	ϊ	ϋ	ό	ύ	ώ	Ϗ
03D0	ϐ	ϑ	ϒ	ϓ	ϔ	ϕ	ϖ	ϗ	Ϙ	ϙ	Ϛ	ϛ	Ϝ	ϝ	Ϟ	ϟ
03E0	Ϡ	ϡ	(Coptic letters here)
03F0	ϰ	ϱ	ϲ	ϳ	ϴ	ϵ	϶	Ϸ	ϸ	Ϲ	Ϻ	ϻ	ϼ	Ͻ	Ͼ	Ͽ