Quotes About Physics

The distinction between mathematics and science is pretty well settled. It remains mysterious to us why mathematics that is invented for reasons having nothing to do with nature often turns out to be useful in physical theories. In a famous article,8 the physicist Eugene Wigner has written of "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.

What is surely impossible is that a theoretical physicist, given unlimited computing power, should deduce from the laws of physics that a certain complex structure is aware of its own existence.

From past experience, it seems that at my rate of writing it takes about a decade to produce enough new essays for assembly in a collection. I hope nevertheless that this will not be my last collection. But given actuarial realities, perhaps this would be a good time for me to add a word of thanks to readers who over many years have put up with my polemics and explanations, and have thereby given me a precious contact with the world beyond physics.

Physicists are more opportunistic, demanding only enough precision and certainty to give them a good chance of avoiding serious mistakes. In the preface of my own treatise on the quantum theory of fields, I admit that "there are parts of this book that will bring tears to the eyes of the mathematically inclined reader.

we think that all the forces of nature become united at something like the Planck energy, a million billion times larger than the highest energy reached in today's accelerators.

La diferencia fundamental entre la ciencia de Aristarco y la nuestra no son los errores de sus observaciones. Algunos errores esporádicos graves siguen afectando a la observación astronómica y la física experimental[...]. La verdadera diferencia entre Aristarco y los astrónomos y físicos de la actualidad no es que los datos de sus observaciones fueran erróneos, sino que jamás los puso en duda, y ni siquiera reconoció que pudieran ser imperfectos.

The theologian Paul Tillich once observed that among scientists only physicists seem capable of using the word "God" without embarrassment. Whatever one's religion or lack of it, it is an irresistible metaphor to speak of the final laws of nature in terms of the mind of God.

This is often the way it is in physics. Our mistake is not that we take our theories too seriously, but that we do not take them seriously enough. It is always hard to realize that these numbers and equations we play with at our desks have something to do with the real world.

much of the writing of physicists barely reaches the level of prose.

The value today of philosophy to physics seems to me to be something like the value of early nation-states to their peoples. It is only a small exaggeration to say that, until the introduction of the post office, the chief service of nation-states was to protect their peoples from other nation-states. The insights of philosophers have occasionally benefited physicists, but generally in a negative fashion—by protecting them from the preconceptions of other philosophers.

In a famous article,8 the physicist Eugene Wigner has written of "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.

There is a beauty in these laws that mirrors something that is built into the structure of the universe at a very deep level

Finally, there is a more subtle relation among F, E, and V.

The dream of a final theory inspires much of today's work in high-energy physics, and though we do not know what the final laws might be or how many years will pass before they are discovered, already in today's theories we think we are beginning to catch glimpses of the outlines of a final theory. The

after all, our purpose in theoretical physics is not just to describe the world as we find it, but to explain — in terms of a few fundamental principles — why the world is the way it is.

There is no law, written in the stars which says that theoretical physicists have to be happy

At sufficiently high energy the force of gravitation between two typical elementary particles becomes as strong as any other force between them. The energy at which this happens is about a thousand million billion billion volts. This is known as the Planck energy.

If warm air rises, Heaven could be hotter than Hell.

I heard that in relativity theory, space and time are the same thing. Einstein discovered this when he kept showing up three miles late for his meetings.

This web of life, the most complex system we know of in the universe, breaks no law of physics, yet is partially lawless, ceaselessly creative.

Do you remember his science project, Harry Sue, on the trajectory of spitballs? I tell you, that modest little display taught our students more about physics than I could accomplish in a weeklong unit at the middle school

Physicists are working on the Big Bang, and one day they may or may not solve it.

I want to know what dark matter and dark energy are comprised of. They remain a mystery, a complete mystery. No one is any closer to solving the problem than when these two things were discovered.

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