Snipped from the Messenger Lectures (Published as "The Character of
Physical Law", 1965):
"One of the amazing characteristics of nature is the variety of
interpretational schemes which is possible. It turns out that it is
only possible because the laws are just so, special and delicate. For
instance, that the law [Newtonian gravitation] is the inverse square is
what permits it to become local; if it were the inverse cube it could not
be done that way. At the other end of the equation, the fact that the
force is related to the rate of change of velocity is what permits the
minimum principle way of writing the laws. If, for instance, the force
were proportional to the rate of change of position instead of velocity,
then you could not write it that way. If you modify the laws much you
find that you can only write them in fewer ways. I always find that
mysterious, and I do not understand the reason why it is that the correct
laws of physics seem to be expressible in such a tremendous variety of
ways. They seem to be able to get through several wickets at the same
time." - Richard Feynman
Bob Sciamanda
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (Em) http://www.velocity.net/~trebor/
trebor@velocity.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Aaron Titus" <titus@MAILAPS.ORG>
To: <PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 1:30 PM
Subject: quote about unification of physics
| I'm looking for a good quote on the underlying simplicity of physics,
| perhaps relating to grand unification theories or something like that.
| Any favorites?
|
| Thanks,
|
| Aaron
_______________________________________________
Phys-L mailing list
Phys-L@electron.physics.buffalo.edu https://www.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l