Harmonies of Disorder by Leone Montagnini

Author:Leone Montagnini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

This however did not look reasonable to me, because it is exactly under these circumstances of the cumulative use of processes which accomplish very little each time that the standard approximation to a system of differential equations by a single partial differential equation works best (64g [56g], 294).

In this passage Wiener seems to interpret the physical problems underlying the mathematical problem being tackled by “young people associated with” him in the light of his knowledge about uranium separation by diffusion as mentioned by Urey in 1942. But the theoretical and practical problem concerning the separation of uranium had been solved in the early stages of the research and, as far as we know, it had not involved enormous mathematical difficulties, unlike the issues implied by the plutonium project. Actually, a serious theoretical question had arisen at Los Alamos concerning diffusion, but it did not relate to isotope separation by gaseous diffusion. As James Gleick tells us, “the central issues of Los Alamos, too, were problems of diffusion in a new guise. The calculation of critical mass quickly became nothing more or less than a calculation of diffusion.” And it is precisely when speaking about this theme that the name of Wiener appears. Gleick adds:The difference in brightness between the sun’s center and its edge gave an indirect means of calculating the nature of the internal diffusion. Or should have - but the mechanics proved difficult until a brilliant young mathematician at MIT, Norbert Wiener, devised a useful method (Gleick 2011 [1992], 172).

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