Beauty

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Beauty what beauty?
Beauty Seminar, 3/16/04 Al Albano
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theres visual impact
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Cartwheel Galaxy
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Eagle Nebula
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Eskimo nebula
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Tesselation of the triangle group
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then, theres the beauty of a physical theory
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A theory with mathematical beauty is more
likely to be correct than an ugly one that fits
some experimental data
Dirac
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What makes a theory beautiful?
A historical example the motions of heavenly
bodies.
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It started with the ancients
Circumpolar stars seen from Yellowstone Park
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An earth-centered universe
From Peter Apian, Cosmographia (1524)
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A problem
Retrograde motion of Mars
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A solution epicycles Mars moves on a circle,
the epicycle, whose center moves on another
circle, the deferent. There is a point
inside the deferent, called the equant, not
necessarily at the center of the deferent, such
that the line from the equant to the center of
the epicycle rotates with constant speed. The
earth is located on the same diameter as the
equant, but not necessarily at the center of the
deferent
deferent
epicycle
Mars
Earth
Check out http//www.jimloy.com/cindy/ptolemy.htm
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If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before
embarking upon the Creation, I would have
recommended something simpler.
Alfonso the Wise King of Castille (13th c.)
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It must be simple.
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Enter Copernicus
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A sun-centered universe. But its still all
circles
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Close but not quite right.
Brahe
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Kepler says its ellipses
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Kepler describes the observations, but he does
not explain anything.
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ditto for Galileo And they did not seem to
realize that they were dealing with the same
phenomenon.
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It must explain.
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It must explain.
Version 2 It must tell a story.
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Enter Newton
Theres a force. Its the same force that makes
apples fall, And tides rise, and holds
galaxies Together.
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It must be universal.
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It must be universal.
Version 2 It must explain more phenomena than
those used to construct it.
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and it must be mathematically elegant.
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Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night,God
said, "Let Newton be," and all was light.
-- Alexander
Pope
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Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night,God
said, "Let Newton be," and all was light.
-- Alexander
Pope It did not last the devil howling "Ho!Let
Einstein be!" restored the status quo.
-- Sir John
Collings Squire
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Its not a force. Mass warps space and
time. Apples and planets and galaxies Just move
along paths Of least resistance.
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Mercury does not move on an ellipse it moves on
a rosette.
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Massive objects bend starlight
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Same size as solar system. Weighs as much as 1.2
billion suns!
Black holes exist
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• Problems
• Einsteins theory does not work inside black
  holes.
• It does not work right after the big bang,
  either.

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Verdict Einsteins story does not explain
enough we dont have a beautiful theory yet.