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
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.
stars men important
Man is slightly nearer to the atom than to the star. ... From his central position man can survey the grandest works of Nature with the astronomer, or the minutest works with the physicist. ... [K]nowledge of the stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has been reached through the stars.
eye men noses
What we makes of the world must be largely dependent on the sense-organs that we happen to possess. How the world must have changed since the man came to rely on his eyes rather than his nose.
children cutting men
Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers.
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.
reality
The word reality frightens me.
stars hot enough
I am aware that many critics consider the conditions in the stars not sufficiently extreme . . . the stars are not hot enough. The critics lay themselves open to an obvious retort: we tell them to go and find a hotter place.