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3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I've come up with a fun set of chess (pawn) analogies related to nat sci.
I was recently thinking about pawns (yes, I have these sorts of reveries!) and it came to me that in several ways, they are the "atoms" of chess. Not only are they used to define the relative value of the other pieces (knight=3 pawns, rook = 5 pawns, etc.) but they also exhibit properties of basic nuclear reactions.
FISSION - this describes a pawn gambit, for material is lost, releasing energy in the process FUSION - this describes pawn promotion - the pawn reaches the other side of the board and becomes a heavier element with more energy within it QUANTUM TUNNELING - what better way to characterize the process of capturing "en passant"? :-)
I suppose that the board ranks could be conceived of in terms of orbitals, with higher (outer, farther) orbitals exhibiting higher energy levels, but that sort of analogy is no longer quite so perfect.
(Although I haven't yet filed formally for copyright, remember that you heard it here first!!) :-)
Nice, Mike. I'm wondering about the fusion bit, though. It's my understanding that more than one atom is required for fusion to take place. But in pawn promotion, only one pawn is involved.
Not a perfect analogy, true... but I was mainly thinking about how fusion results in the formation of a heavier element. A queen or rook (product) would analogously be considered more "massive" than the original pawn (reactant).
3 comments:
I've come up with a fun set of chess (pawn) analogies related to nat sci.
I was recently thinking about pawns (yes, I have these sorts of reveries!) and it came to me that in several ways, they are the "atoms" of chess. Not only are they used to define the relative value of the other pieces (knight=3 pawns, rook = 5 pawns, etc.) but they also exhibit properties of basic nuclear reactions.
FISSION - this describes a pawn gambit, for material is lost, releasing energy in the process
FUSION - this describes pawn promotion - the pawn reaches the other side of the board and becomes a heavier element with more energy within it
QUANTUM TUNNELING - what better way to characterize the process of capturing "en passant"? :-)
I suppose that the board ranks could be conceived of in terms of orbitals, with higher (outer, farther) orbitals exhibiting higher energy levels, but that sort of analogy is no longer quite so perfect.
(Although I haven't yet filed formally for copyright, remember that you heard it here first!!) :-)
Mike Sobocinski
Nice, Mike. I'm wondering about the fusion bit, though. It's my understanding that more than one atom is required for fusion to take place. But in pawn promotion, only one pawn is involved.
Still interesting though.
Not a perfect analogy, true... but I was mainly thinking about how fusion results in the formation of a heavier element. A queen or rook (product) would analogously be considered more "massive" than the original pawn (reactant).
Mike
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