Dirac Lecture 2011 – Beauty and truth:their intersection in mathematics and science
Lord Robert M. May Zoology Department, Oxford University, supported by the Royal Society of NSW & Australian Institute of Physics. “In the mists of prehistory, it seems clear that our ancestors…
WTF, what’s with the put down of the Tea Party? What kind of snob is this
guy?
Dick Medvick — Dear Lord Robert M. May,
Thank you very much for an important talk – Following are my thoughts:
Mathematically Beautiful Music — I will forward your speech to my friend,
who is a Professor in the Music Dept. at Princeton University. Composers
tend to use base 12, while creating beautiful music, while we engineers
tend to use base two, while creating electrical circuits. There should be
mathematical base-12 patterns for evaluating resonance and dissonance; and
for creating beautiful music.
Testing — Testing is valuable, when this is possible. I like the idea of
testing musical ideas to evaluate how beautiful they are; before spending
long hours in development. As an engineer, I also like testing prototypes
before entering mass production on millions of units. However, the
infamous Chinese Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of
Michigan (Go Blue!) says, “No…o second guesses – you “F**k” up; bridge fall
down!”
Decision To Forge Ahead – We almost never have 100% certainty, before
entering the melee. Therefore, when there is time, assess the probability
of achieving a quantified potential gain and compare that to the
probability of incurring a quantified potential loss; before jumping in
with both guns blazing.
Michelson-Morely Experiment — In the 1880’s, while corresponding with
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, who was in Leiden, Holland; Physics Professor
Albert Michelson at the Case School of Applied Science and Chemistry
Professor Edward Morley at Western Reserve University created and operated
a measurement device in the basement of Adelbert Hall of Western Reserve
University. Their accurate and precise measurements of the velocities of
light in perpendicular directions, inspired the Lorentz Transformations and
Albert Einstein’s subsequent Special Theory of Relativity. Both Case and
Western Reserve are now part of Case Western Reserve University, in
Cleveland, Ohio.
Who is Buried in Grant’s Tomb? – We Bloody Yanks here in the Colonies used
to have a quiz show on TV (The Telly). The question for the consolation
prize was “Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?” Every American knows that
Ulysses S. Grant is buried in Grant’s tomb. Lord May, you frequently cited
the Lorentz Transformations. Please do your homework — Einstein did not
discover nor document the Lorentz Transformations, which were published
before Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity.
General Theory of Relativity – The Special Theory of Relativity has only
linear relationships, with no accelerations. Therefore, in addition to
integrating Lorentz’ Transformations with Newton’s F = GMm/d^2, Einstein
also integrated Lorentz’ work with Newton’s F=ma.
Einstein’s Being a Comic Book Super Hero – Albert Einstein was a true
genius, with an incredible mind. He performed as an outstanding member of
a great team of scientists, whom Earnest Solvay assembled for the Solvay
conferences, which started in 1911. Einstein was a great thinker, who made
significant contributions to what may be the greatest group of physicists,
who ever were; or ever will be assembled. Google “Solvay Conferences,” and
watch the YouTube video of Einstein, et al, leaving the 1927 Solvay
Conference in Brussels. This is where Einstein said, “God does not play
dice!” Hendrik Antoon Loretz chaired all of the Solvay conferences, before
Lorentz died.
Time Magazine’s View of Paul Dirac — In the Time Magazine book on Great
Scientists, Michael Lemonick writes, “Dirac’s colleagues found him
exceedingly odd. He may have had autism. Albert Einstein once said, ‘I
have trouble with Dirac. This balancing on the dizzying path between
genius and madness is awful.’ Niels Bohr called him, ‘the strangest man
who ever visited my institute.’” Lord May, do you concur with Michael
Lemonick?
Thanks again,
Dick Medvick
MS – Engineering Management – Case Institute of Technology – Cleveland,
Ohio, USA
BS –Mechanical Engineeing – General Motors Institute – Flint, Michigan, USA
Dick Medvick — Paul Dirac can be seen in the film on the Internet of the
1927 Solvay Conference
Nice talk of the beauty could be seen into many things in a deterministic
way. Emotional, although rational.
Scalativity – “The New Scientific Paradigm” Episode 1 – Fractal Big Bang
Theory
*Dirac Lecture 2011 – Beauty and truth:their intersection in mathematics
and science*
Lord Robert M. May Zoology Department, Oxford University, supported by the
Royal Society of NSW & Australian Institute of Physics.
“In the mists of prehistory, it seems clear that our ancestors sought to
make sense of their world through myth and magic, memorably associated with
evocative cave paintings, stone circles, and the like. The Greeks attempt
to understand the motions of heavenly bodies were constrained by
essentially aesthetic ideas about the perfection of circles. Did the advent
of the experimental method overturn this conjunction of truth with beauty?
Dirac’s equation speaks eloquently and amazingly to a contrary view. My
talk will cover this general ground in an opinionated way.”
Dirac Lecture 2011 – Beauty and truth:their intersection in mathematics and
science
#pauldirac #lecture
a perhaps more egregious error is the incorrect interpretation of e=mc^2
and the implication that mass is converted to energy in “some other form”
during fissile nuclear processes.
Thank you!! <3
Two errors: (nit picks) 1) It was Indiana, not Wisconsin in the pi story;
the bill made it out of committee but not passed. 2) MM experiment was at
Case Western, not Caltech.
Another oops: Nobel prize for Einstein 1921 well before Dirac, and not for
relativity BTW but Photoelectric effect.
Awesome lecture, but the editing butchers it, dammit! Just show the whole
lecture including all Lord May’s digressions, and no cutting please. Dammit.
Galileo proved this a long time ago, using the inertial properties of a
giant pendulum, the earth was moving. today much more sensitive gyrocopes
are used to detect acceleration of any kind, even gravity waves
I was looking for the next night’s speech, or the one they said he was
doing next, about banking, “the problems of tomorrow will come from not
understanding human nature today” – or something like that. Couldn’t find
it! But it looks like he reproduced these lectures or something similar in
2012 at the Santa Fe Institute. FYI – This looks like it’s similar to the
next lecture that’s referred to above. “Lecture II – What Is Stability in
Today’s Complex Financial Systems?” Just YouTube it.
The SPEED of light is an absolute constant in special relativity. Velocity
is a vector not a scalar, so you cannot state that the velocity of light is
an absolute constant if its direction varies. The magnitude of the velocity
is a constant
Humans are animals. However, we are more than mere animals. I agree.
Unfortunately, I don’t agree with his ideas about the economic situation
(which is typical). He seems willing to accept complicated-sounding
band-aids instead of being more ruthless and simple about it. Since he is
working for bankers he is already unreliable as a theorist and a problem
solver. The solutions are simple. They are even beautiful. But they are
ruthless. And he is unable to put them on the table.
One CAN ask if the earth orbits the sun or if its the other way around. Of
course the motions are relative but how can you give equal validity to both
relative motion. You can’t.
Lecture starts around 12:30, just skip there unless you want to hear about
what a great guy the speaker is
Euclid collated what previous greek mathematicians discovered. Basically
Euclidean elements are a record. An encyclopedia. He is an editor
Dirac shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1933 with Erwin Schrödinger but
Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics unlike the author said
I love how this guy identified some of the higher up cooperates as being
crooks. I always thought it amazing how these people can be so arrogant
when you see them in public places, restaurants etc. and are nothing more
than crooks. They don’t even care what you call them or what they actually
are as long as they can fill their wallets. Being high on the food chain
should be reserved for animals not human beings.
Wow, there are some problems here. First, he takes us though the same cycle
of math/physics highlights that we all hear about nowadays. Then, he
proceeds make negative comments about Einstein’s fame. However, his theme,
which is to question how the theory of math stacks up to reality goes
against his very argument against Einstein. The discovery of positrons, to
my knowledge, has not lead to any additional non-research based tools,
while Einstein’s E=MC^2 has seen many physical applications.