Let's Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum

[John Dibble]

For those of you who don't know who the hell Nikola Tesla was - shame on you. You probably think Thomas Edison was responsible for all our wonderful electricity. Nope. Edison was a jerk. The Oatmeal explains it here...

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

Anywho, Tesla was awesome. He was a legitimate mad scientist - he built an earthquake machine. And yet some jerk wants to tear down his lab and build some sort of retail thing on it. WTF? And so The Oatmeal has started a funding drive to buy the land, save Tesla's lab, and turn it into a museum.

http://www.indiegogo.com/teslamuseum?a=1045989

They're already halfway to the goal and it hasn't even been a day. Give them your money if you want to prove that you don't hate science and that you aren't a jerk like Edison. That is all!

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Death rays for all!

[The Mikado]

Hey, if Tesla was so smart, why wasn't he able to keep Edison from stealing his inventions, eh?  Gullible twit.  Edison showed true American ingenuity by jacking Tesla and making himself rich.  That's the kind of entrepreneureal spirit this country's all about.

[King]

Hey, if Tesla was so smart, why wasn't he able to keep Edison from stealing his inventions, eh?  Gullible twit.  Edison showed true American ingenuity by jacking Tesla and making himself rich.  That's the kind of entrepreneureal spirit this country's all about.

Inventions are no ones to claim.  They are simply discoveries of what has been there all along.

[John Dibble]

Hey, if Tesla was so smart, why wasn't he able to keep Edison from stealing his inventions, eh?  Gullible twit.  Edison showed true American ingenuity by jacking Tesla and making himself rich.  That's the kind of entrepreneureal spirit this country's all about.

Tesla was too busy being a mad genius to care about money. Edison was a jerk who electrocuted dogs and cats. Tesla > Edison.

[Hash]

Hey, if Tesla was so smart, why wasn't he able to keep Edison from stealing his inventions, eh?  Gullible twit.  Edison showed true American ingenuity by jacking Tesla and making himself rich.  That's the kind of entrepreneureal spirit this country's all about.

Romney/Edison 2012.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Thomas Edison was a bit of a bastard.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

And he was a bad neighbor too.

[opebo]

Tesla was too busy being a mad genius to care about money. Edison was a jerk who electrocuted dogs and cats. Tesla > Edison.

That's exactly right, and this is the one your capitalism rewards, Dibble.

[minionofmidas]

Hey, if Tesla was so smart, why wasn't he able to keep Edison from stealing his inventions, eh?  Gullible twit.  Edison showed true American ingenuity by jacking Tesla and making himself rich.  That's the kind of entrepreneureal spirit this country's all about.

More to the point, protecting these kinds of first thieves is what intellectual property laws are all about.

[John Dibble]

And the goal has been reached and surpassed. All hail Tesla, Lord of Electricity!

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I've always like Tesla better than Edison (ironic considering where I work).

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I've always like Tesla better than Edison (ironic considering where I work).

Does it involve the words "Detroit Edison"?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Just read the entire article. Wow. I have to say, the man was even more brilliant than I'd heard and much more insane than I'd been told. Wow. And I like how instead of trying some hippie "let's lie down in front of the lab so it doesn't get torn down" bull, this organization actually worked to buy the land. Congrats to them for that.

[CultureKing]

Just read the entire article. Wow. I have to say, the man was even more brilliant than I'd heard and much more insane than I'd been told. Wow. And I like how instead of trying some hippie "let's lie down in front of the lab so it doesn't get torn down" bull, this organization actually worked to buy the land. Congrats to them for that.

Although that does sound like a much cheaper option..

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

George Holding, running in the 13th district in NC, is running a radio ad that describes the life of Edison and then says "People like him built America, not the gov't."

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I've always like Tesla better than Edison (ironic considering where I work).

Does it involve the words "Detroit Edison"?

No.  Greenfield Village.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Nikolai Tesla is one of a number of physicists who are gravely underrecognized by the general public, though that has really changed in recent years. James Clerk Maxwell and Erwin Schrödinger are also good (maybe better) examples of guys who just don't get their dues.

[minionofmidas]

     Nikolai Tesla is one of a number of physicists who are gravely underrecognized by the general public, though that has really changed in recent years. James Clerk Maxwell and Erwin Schrödinger are also good (maybe better) examples of guys who just don't get their dues.

Maxwell who? Everynerd knows Schrödinger on account of his cute kittycat, of course.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Nikolai Tesla is one of a number of physicists who are gravely underrecognized by the general public, though that has really changed in recent years. James Clerk Maxwell and Erwin Schrödinger are also good (maybe better) examples of guys who just don't get their dues.

Maxwell who? Everynerd knows Schrödinger on account of his cute kittycat, of course.

     His cat is famous, his equation less so. Considering that the equation helped christen an entirely new field of physics, it is slightly frustrating.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

They've raised over $1,000,000, and still have well over a month to go.

[MaxQue]

     Nikolai Tesla is one of a number of physicists who are gravely underrecognized by the general public, though that has really changed in recent years. James Clerk Maxwell and Erwin Schrödinger are also good (maybe better) examples of guys who just don't get their dues.

Maxwell who? Everynerd knows Schrödinger on account of his cute kittycat, of course.

     His cat is famous, his equation less so. Considering that the equation helped christen an entirely new field of physics, it is slightly frustrating.

Well, considering know that equation is complicated, that's not surprising. Even the time independant version we worked with was complicated for us, chemists.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Nikolai Tesla is one of a number of physicists who are gravely underrecognized by the general public, though that has really changed in recent years. James Clerk Maxwell and Erwin Schrödinger are also good (maybe better) examples of guys who just don't get their dues.

Maxwell who? Everynerd knows Schrödinger on account of his cute kittycat, of course.

     His cat is famous, his equation less so. Considering that the equation helped christen an entirely new field of physics, it is slightly frustrating.

Well, considering know that equation is complicated, that's not surprising. Even the time independant version we worked with was complicated for us, chemists.

     The equation is difficult (I've taken a semester of quantum mechanics so far and we almost exclusively worked with the time-independent version), but I don't think the importance of it is too difficult to understand.

[MaxQue]

     Nikolai Tesla is one of a number of physicists who are gravely underrecognized by the general public, though that has really changed in recent years. James Clerk Maxwell and Erwin Schrödinger are also good (maybe better) examples of guys who just don't get their dues.

Maxwell who? Everynerd knows Schrödinger on account of his cute kittycat, of course.

     His cat is famous, his equation less so. Considering that the equation helped christen an entirely new field of physics, it is slightly frustrating.

Well, considering know that equation is complicated, that's not surprising. Even the time independant version we worked with was complicated for us, chemists.

     The equation is difficult (I've taken a semester of quantum mechanics so far and we almost exclusively worked with the time-independent version), but I don't think the importance of it is too difficult to understand.

Oh, I know than it is an important equation, which led to the development of the quantum mechanics (and of related fields, in my case, quantum chemistry and computational chemistry).
It's the root of theorical chemistry and currently, starting with that equation, scientists can draw (with very powerful computers, the appropriate approximations and using appropriate tools, as a good trial function) the exact electronic clouds of atoms and molecules and with that, having a good guess of the properties of the molecule even if it was never synthetised. Obviously, that helps to know in which direction to search to reach the goal (if I remember well, that is currently used to search materials for more efficient batteries).

Obviously, as is done by computers, as each atom is a body and a molecule has many, so, its a many-body case, which isn't solvable and needs approximations, again.

I'm quite sure it's the basis for quantum mechanics, even if that is not my area. Even the base of that quantum chemistry was quite difficult. As long we stay in theory, no problem, but going into maths was more of a problem, especially than the teacher had poor teaching skills, even he is a great man and a reputed scientist in its area. Well, I did that course, surprisingly passed it and forgot mostly about it, as it's quite useless in a chemistry lab.

Sorry for that ramble than some people will struggle to understand.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Nikolai Tesla is one of a number of physicists who are gravely underrecognized by the general public, though that has really changed in recent years. James Clerk Maxwell and Erwin Schrödinger are also good (maybe better) examples of guys who just don't get their dues.

Maxwell who? Everynerd knows Schrödinger on account of his cute kittycat, of course.

     His cat is famous, his equation less so. Considering that the equation helped christen an entirely new field of physics, it is slightly frustrating.

Well, considering know that equation is complicated, that's not surprising. Even the time independant version we worked with was complicated for us, chemists.

     The equation is difficult (I've taken a semester of quantum mechanics so far and we almost exclusively worked with the time-independent version), but I don't think the importance of it is too difficult to understand.

Oh, I know than it is an important equation, which led to the development of the quantum mechanics (and of related fields, in my case, quantum chemistry and computational chemistry).
It's the root of theorical chemistry and currently, starting with that equation, scientists can draw (with very powerful computers, the appropriate approximations and using appropriate tools, as a good trial function) the exact electronic clouds of atoms and molecules and with that, having a good guess of the properties of the molecule even if it was never synthetised. Obviously, that helps to know in which direction to search to reach the goal (if I remember well, that is currently used to search materials for more efficient batteries).

Obviously, as is done by computers, as each atom is a body and a molecule has many, so, its a many-body case, which isn't solvable and needs approximations, again.

I'm quite sure it's the basis for quantum mechanics, even if that is not my area. Even the base of that quantum chemistry was quite difficult. As long we stay in theory, no problem, but going into maths was more of a problem, especially than the teacher had poor teaching skills, even he is a great man and a reputed scientist in its area. Well, I did that course, surprisingly passed it and forgot mostly about it, as it's quite useless in a chemistry lab.

Sorry for that ramble than some people will struggle to understand.

     It's quite a good explanation. Its contributions are even more basic, though. Even many physics majors do not appreciate this fact due to the abstraction of quantum mechanics, but the practical applications are huge. Understanding the quantization of charge was a necessary prerequisite for developing theoretical knowledge of things like lasers and semiconductors.

     Practically all modern technology follows from quantum mechanics, which in turn follows from the Schrödinger equation. Other than maybe the Manhattan Project, no advance in physics since then has had a commensurate impact. And to think that this guy is known to the general public for a thought experiment concerning a cat.