Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
- Stephen Hawking, cosmologist, theoretical physicist and popular science educator, died on March 14, 2018.
- The Royal Mint is celebrating his work and life with a collector’s coin that’s selling for 10 pounds.
- Hawking’s younger son said he imagined his dad reacting to the news with “one of his huge, wide smiles. ”
The U.K. Royal Mint has issued a 50-pence coin commemorating the late physicist Stephen Hawking, who died nearly one year ago at age 76.
The collector’s coin, which is selling online for $10 pounds, depicts Stephen Hawking’s name surrounded by lines that form concentric circles representing a black hole. Written above his name on the coin is the Bekenstein-Hawking formula, which describes black-hole entropy, and shows that the surface area of a black hole expands as it consumes more matter. It also supports the idea that black holes aren’t completely black.
“This is such a lovely way to commemorate him and his legacy,”
Coin designer Edwina Ellis said she “wanted to fit a big black hole on the tiny coin and wish he was still here chortling at the thought.”
“The initial inspiration was actually Stephen…
The post U.K. Royal Mint honors Stephen Hawking on new 50p coin appeared first on FeedBox.