Arthur Eddington
Arthur Eddington
Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington OM FRSwas an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician of the early 20th century who did his greatest work in astrophysics. He was also a philosopher of science and a popularizer of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honor...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth28 December 1882
law mind may
It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has itself put into them; it may be a far harder thing to extract laws over which it has no control. It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.
giving lines may
When an investigator has developed a formula which gives a complete representation of the phenomena within a certain range, he may be prone to satisfaction. Would it not be wiser if he should say 'Foiled again! I can find out no more about Nature along this line.'
matter may genocide
Probably the simplest hypothesis... is that there may be a slow process of annihilation of matter.
may sun difficult
What is possible in the Cavendish Laboratory may not be too difficult in the sun.
responsibility may truth-is
Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility toward truth is one of its attributes.
british-scientist idol whom
Proof is an idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself.
british-scientist mind possible
It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.
british-scientist
Something unknown is doing we don't know what.
british-scientist competent distant future hope judgment shall sound understand
It is sound judgment to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.
british-scientist footprint shores
We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown.
science thinking path
[When thinking about the new relativity and quantum theories] I have felt a homesickness for the paths of physical science where there are ore or less discernible handrails to keep us from the worst morasses of foolishness.
science bottles atoms
The electron, as it leaves the atom, crystallises out of Schrödinger's mist like a genie emerging from his bottle.
men quests physics
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.
falling-in-love love-is men
Falling in love is one of the activities forbidden that tiresome person, the consistently reasonable man.