Arthur Eddington Quotes About Physics

Quotes about: Physics

• If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

  Arthur Eddington

  Hope, Science, Errors

  "The Nature of the Physical World" by Arthur Eddington, (Ch. 4), 1928.

• It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.

  Arthur Eddington

  Math, Perfect, Impossible

  Arthur Eddington (2012). “New Pathways in Science: Messenger Lectures (1934)”, p.105, Cambridge University Press

• To the pure geometer the radius of curvature is an incidental characteristic - like the grin of the Cheshire cat. To the physicist it is an indispensable characteristic. It would be going too far to say that to the physicist the cat is merely incidental to the grin. Physics is concerned with interrelatedness such as the interrelatedness of cats and grins. In this case the "cat without a grin" and the "grin without a cat" are equally set aside as purely mathematical phantasies.

  Arthur Eddington

  Cat, Math, Would Be

  Arthur Eddington (1933). “The Expanding Universe: Astronomy's 'Great Debate', 1900-1931”, p.103, Cambridge University Press

• In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the drama of familiar life. The shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow table as the shadow ink flows over the shadow paper. It is all symbolic, and as a symbol the physicist leaves it. ... The frank realisation that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.

  Arthur Eddington

  Drama, Shadow, Ink

  "The Nature of the Physical World" by Arthur Eddington, (Introduction), 1928.

• In the most modern theories of physics probability seems to have replaced aether as "the nominative of the verb 'to undulate'."

  Arthur Eddington

  Science, Verbs, Physics

  Arthur Eddington (2012). “New Pathways in Science: Messenger Lectures (1934)”, p.110, Cambridge University Press

• So far as physics is concerned, time's arrow is a property of entropy alone.

  Arthur Eddington

  Arrows, Physics, Thrive

  Arthur Eddington (2012). “The Nature of the Physical World: Gifford Lectures (1927)”, p.80, Cambridge University Press

• In Einstein's theory of relativity the observer is a man who sets out in quest of truth armed with a measuring-rod. In quantum theory he sets out with a sieve.

  Arthur Eddington

  Men, Quests, Physics

  Arthur Eddington (2012). “New Pathways in Science: Messenger Lectures (1934)”, p.267, Cambridge University Press

• Unless the structure of the nucleus has a surprise in store for us, the conclusion seems plain — there is nothing in the whole system of laws of physics that cannot be deduced unambiguously from epistemological considerations.

  Arthur Eddington

  Knowledge, Science, Law

  "Relativity theory of protons and electrons".

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