Opitiks

     Sometimes, I sit and stare at this blank screen while thoughts drift by with no real mass.  The best I can do at times like these is to try and snag them.  Today, however, I have too much I want to write about.  It's all philosophy, math and science, and it's all heaped into a pile in the middle of my mind.  It doesn't do anything there; it needs to be organized into boxes where I can access them.
     My mind has been on telescopes and the world of optics recently.  I started building a mirror for a telescope last winter and now as the nights grow colder and the night sky grows clearer, I keep thinking about finishing that mirror.  I've been working on thermodynamics for the past five months or so, now I want to start focusing on other things smaller than the naked eye.
     I've gotten to a point were I am realizing that there is only great moments in science.  Growing up I heard about Albert Einstein and how great he was.  Right now, it seems Nikola Tesla is in the center of hero worship spotlight.  As Issac Newton once said "If I have seen further, it is because I am standing on the shoulders of giants."  Everyone has their ideas based in the ideas of the people that came before them.  Last spring, I read "Optiks" by Sir Issac Newton.  It's a nice, simple introduction to optics.  It's basic if you know geometry.  Tonight, I'm reading through articles trying to find something explaining James Maxwell's fish-eye lens, which was conceived of 200 years after optics.  Apparently, a lot of new insight into optics was happening around this time.  People were still using the basics laid out by Newton, but were adding onto it with their own equations.
    This is a common theme in the world of science.  People don't just memorize someone else's equation, they use it to solve problems and create new questions of their own.  The more I read about Maxwell, the more he intrigues me.  He came up with theories and discoveries that influenced the next few hundred years of science.  Electromagnetism, thermodynamics, optics, and he even discovered the particles in the rings of Saturn.  But, without the people who came latter, he would have been nothing.
     Wow, I'm really losing focus as I'm reading this article.  Theoretical math and physics is hands down the coolest sci-fi I have ever read.  I'm going to wrap this up.  I'm going to start reading more about electromagnets and optics.  Electromagnets still deal with energy, so it really is just the next step for me.  Optics, though.  Optics is really fucking cool.  Optics deals with light and how light travels and bends to create images for our brain.  And reading about it just made sure that I'm about to spend the next couple of days thinking about it.