Geek Poetry
QST Contributing Editor H. Ward Silver, N0AX, Named "Amateur of the Year" - RF CafeMany times I have extolled the high quality of QST authors' knowledge and writing skills. H. Ward Silver writes the "Hands-On Radio" column which usually features circuit and system design and theory topics. It often includes, gasp, mathematics. His July 2013 article is titled "Phasors, Part One." It promises to be a good series. The last paragraph says, "There is a final way to describe the signal - the exponential form in which it is represented as V ejΘ. This form comes from the mathematics behind Euler's equation in which the coordinates of our points are miraculously shown to be equivalent to ejΘ=cosΘ +j sinΘ. The serious and beautiful math behind this equation lies at the heart of much electrical engineering and leads to the jaw-dropping Euler's identity: ejπ = -1 which unites the two most widely used transcendental number (e and π), imaginary numbers (j), negation and unity. Not bad for a moving point in a simple circle, huh?" Beautiful. After reading it Melanie asked why my eyes were suddenly red. "Allergies," I explained.

Posted  June 2013