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.
arrows physics entropy
So far as physics is concerned, time's arrow is a property of entropy alone.
perfect impossible physics
It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.
cat would-be physics
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.
science verbs physics
In the most modern theories of physics probability seems to have replaced aether as "the nominative of the verb 'to undulate'."
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.
falling-in-love love-is men
Falling in love is one of the activities forbidden that tiresome person, the consistently reasonable man.
reality
The word reality frightens me.