Just forget about Einstein as a violinist for a minute, how about Mozart as a nuclear physicist?
Shouldn't he have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Prize for all those massively heavy potassium isotopes he produced, which, unusually for heavy isotopes, haven't yet reached their half-life? (For instance, K366, otherwise known as Iodinomeneo ... )
Replies (26)
These Mozart works are also referenced in Beethoven's "Ode To Bipolar Disorder" Symphony.
Trevor, there's also the misattributed K1, originally suspected to be hydrogen in a highly excited state with the electron somehow stabilized in the fourth orbital. It turned out that the person who made this misattribution misread Mozart's handwriting. What Mozart had written was in fact KI, which is as stable isotopically as, and stabler chemically than naturally occurring potassium.
Sander, Beethoven only decided to set Schiller as an afterthought - The original intention was to set Robert Burton (Actually he was only returning to a theme he had already explored in Op 18 No 6). Incidentally, you do know, don't you, what's worse than a polar bear with a sore head?
Didn't Mozart also discover Burmesquik?
The greatest discovery of all was when he created the alloy with Yttrium. Unfortunately, it slipped away from him - probably stolen by Salivatory - and he never benefitted from its commercial success.
About Yttrium, "shavings or turnings of the metal can ignite in air"; so the alloy was probably suppressed as being too inflammatory (Incidentally, the Wikipedia article on Yttrium doesn't mention its use as an implant for irradiating pituitary tumours - Maybe it's no longer used for that?).
I thought the thief was spelled "Salivateri" - am I wrong?
Actually, Elise, could you please remind us of the exact formula for this alloy?
its very simple:
K-Y
Did that slip past you?
It did - I missed the intact hyphen (Thank you Wikipedia).
it is, of course, a univalent bond but it has considerable flexibility, at least as an alloy
Just realized, we can't attribute absolutely everything to Mozart. Doesn't the intact hyphen mark it out as having originated with Giles Farnaby and his virginals (though I didn't see it in Wikipedia, so I could be wrong)?
A while ago it was pointed out in the New Scientist that the discovery of the einsteinide (We don't have to forget about that guy ENTIRELY) was the inspiration for a twentieth century novel.
Let's not forget that Mozart had as a pet Schrodinger's cat.
Well, that just about proves the point doesn't it - Anyone that can keep hold of THAT one ...
Let alone the fact that he kept the rain off it with de brolly.
But I suppose, remembering Haydn Berg, etc., there still has to be SOME uncertainty involved?
"...might or might not have had as a pet Schrödinger's cat..."
Very recent investigation indicates that Mozart may have investigated the possibility of making Potassium Vanadide, which he would doubtless have referred to as KV, although the correct nomenclature would have been KnV where n is 2,3,4,5, depending on the valency of vanadium. If unequivocal documentary evidence of his research ever comes to light it might possibly have repercussions on the validity of a US Patent of 1970 by General Electric on the general subject (that patent has of course long expired, so it is a moot point).
Mozart was often bohr-ed.
He loved to play dice with his beloved gravitational Constanze and usually won.
He was the first to apply strings - theory to
quartet playing dirac-tly.
The elderly Head of the Maths Department at my old school once told us he taught young Paul Dirac at the same school several decades previously. Paul Dirac's father taught French there, so it was not unexpected. Many years later I found out the truth was that the said Head had in fact joined the staff at the school 2 years after Paul Dirac had left. Alas, how one's recollection of past events becomes indeterminate with the passing years!
Anyway, returning to the matter in hand, Mozart was one of the first, if not the first, to make the initial inroads into the computerized composing of music. Even though he didn't have today's advanced technology he nevertheless managed to devise a system that worked. This was in Wien (Vienna) in 1787.
Listen to the evidence (in English):
http://www.mozart-music-system.de/mozart-turm/45c10.mp3
Clearly your Head had a hole or two in his memory.
Gee, how did I miss that, Mozart WAS an alloy - of Tungsten and Americanum.
You're clearly suffering from Molybdenum deficiency.
try again... molybdenum is responsible for Motown, not Mozart...
Elise, did you mean Americium? A transuranic element with abbreviation Am.
Americium is used in some smoke alarms.
Elise, you underestimate Molybdenum. In addition to these two responsibilities there's a third one featured in a short novel by a well-known mathematician that I read in my late teens, in which molybdenum is at the centre of a major cult (This novel was later published in 1979 in Turkish translation with the phrase "Suburb of Satan" added to its title).
Trevor - yes, sorry for the typo, kinda made it difficult:
Tungsten, W; Americium, Am
WAM
QED
What finished this alloy off so quickly? The half-life of americium is something like ten times the whole life of Mozart.
It was used for an incandescent bulb. Burnout.
I thought tungsten was used in Phili(dor)ments!
I don't think Mozart and Philidor ever met. If they had and Philidor had taught Mozart chess, he might not have remained the greatest chess player of his age. Indeed, instead of all the other people who've been called "The Mozart of Chess", the Mozart of Chess might be ..... Mozart!
I don't know how much Philidor would have learnt from Mozart about composing - perhaps a little, though we don't know how much, if any of Mozart's music Philidor came across anyway.
This discussion has been archived and is no longer accepting responses.
Violinist.com is made possible by...
Dimitri Musafia, Master Maker of Violin and Viola Cases
Thomastik-Infeld's Dynamo Strings
Violinist.com Summer Music Programs Directory
ARIA International Summer Academy
Johnson String Instrument/Carriage House Violins
Laurie's Books
Discover the best of Violinist.com in these collections of editor Laurie Niles' exclusive interviews.
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 1, with introduction by Hilary Hahn
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 2, with introduction by Rachel Barton Pine
April 3, 2014 at 11:29 AM · The young Mozart, when he was in Salzburg in 1767, was responsible for the discovery of the three naturally occurring isotopes of potassium, K39, K40 and K41, which he allocated respectively to three early piano concertos in Bb, D and G respectively. K40, which is rarely found in nature, is radioactive with a half-life of godknowshowmany billions of years, so is going to be with us for quite some time yet.
In his continuing research in Salzburg Mozart was also responsible for radioactive isotopes K37 and K38, which are remembered in piano concerto no. 1 in F, and that rarity - an opera in Latin ("Apollo et Hyacinthus").
Further intensive research in Wien in 1768 resulted in radioactive isotopes K42-K47 which were celebrated with symphonies, two more operas, lieder, piano sonatas, a trumpet concerto, Masses, and other religious works.
There is also the intriguing potassium-vanadium alloy KV, over 600 examples of which are known in Germany. Its metallurgical properties do not seem to have been reported in the literature, but we may assume it is advisable to keep it well away from water.