Physics Geeks: I dare you to get this tattooed on your back!

This tattoo is made from 3 lines of equations: the first represents the Born Oppenheimer Approximation, the second is the equation in the form of a 3-dimensional Schroedinger Equation, and finally, the third is the solution in the form of a Schroedinger Equation.

[Via Discover]




17 Responses to Physics Geeks: I dare you to get this tattooed on your back!

  3. Pfft, i'd have gone with one of Maxwell's equations, or Newton's. Not too obscure, but not too mainstream either. Plus, people from different disciplines would be able to recognise it. I'm an engineering major and i have only a vague idea who Born or Oppenheimer are, talk less of their equations

  4. Pfft, i’d have gone with one of Maxwell’s equations, or Newton’s. Not too obscure, but not too mainstream either. Plus, people from different disciplines would be able to recognise it. I’m an engineering major and i have only a vague idea who Born or Oppenheimer are, talk less of their equations

  5. Pfft, i’d have gone with one of Maxwell’s equations, or Newton’s. Not too obscure, but not too mainstream either. Plus, people from different disciplines would be able to recognise it. I’m an engineering major and i have only a vague idea who Born or Oppenheimer are, talk less of their equations

  8. not to be nitpicky, but the first line actually contains no approximation and is the full Hamiltonian for the system. it's the second line, where one assumes that you can separate the motion of the electrons (which are moving fast) from the motion of the nucleons (which are moving slow compared to the electrons), that the Born Oppenheimer approximation comes into play.

  9. not to be nitpicky, but the first line actually contains no approximation and is the full Hamiltonian for the system. it’s the second line, where one assumes that you can separate the motion of the electrons (which are moving fast) from the motion of the nucleons (which are moving slow compared to the electrons), that the Born Oppenheimer approximation comes into play.

  14. there is only one typo i found. There is a missing minus sign in the second term of the second equation. But seriously. I'm a condensed matter guy and even i think the BO approx isn't worth a tattoo. I mean Bloch's theorem, Fermi liquid theory, BCS… there are so many profound pieces of physics in condensed matter. But "the atoms are heavy" isn't really profound.

  15. there is only one typo i found. There is a missing minus sign in the second term of the second equation. But seriously. I’m a condensed matter guy and even i think the BO approx isn’t worth a tattoo. I mean Bloch’s theorem, Fermi liquid theory, BCS… there are so many profound pieces of physics in condensed matter. But “the atoms are heavy” isn’t really profound.