Ether was the favorite medium in the late 19th and early 20th century for scientists to describe many phenomena like light. Lorentz and later Einstein with his special theory of relativity stripped ether of all its qualities and left it with only one esoteric property; its immobilility. The special theory of relativity neither proves nor disproves the non-existence of ether. A nice talk given by Albert Einstein on this subject can be accessed here.
In a recent article published in Nature (in case you do not know, it is a highly reputed and sought after Journal), astronomers claim that they have found evidence that suggests dark matter is omnipresent. An article about this appeared in bbc a few days ago (link to bbc article). This article made me wonder whether we have moved at all from the yesteryear concept of ether. We have changed the name to "dark matter", but is our conception any different? I am not sure, but is sure interesting to think about.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Monday, January 8, 2007
Mathematics ... Myth or reality?
Galileo remarked - "Philosophy is written in this grand book - I mean the universe - which stands continuously open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics... without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it. Without these one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth."
Think about it for a second. Is nature really written in the "language of mathematics"? A deeper question is whether mathematics is real or a figment of our imagination? I must confess that this line of thought is inspired by Robert Pirsig's famous book The zen and art of motorcycle maintenance (ZMM). Pirsig questions the very foundations of modern thought. I do not want to go as far as that. I am content meddling with something less deep (for now at least!).
To probe the reality (or the lack of it) of mathematics, let us take the simple mathematical concept : equality. Can two physical things (or quantities) ever be exactly equal? Note that the mathematical notion of equality is strict; there is no room for tolerance. If we do not allow for tolerance, (i.e., a little variation that we are willing to overlook) then no two things (or quantities) can be equal.
Did I make an audacious statement? Think about it. To say two things are equal, we should first have an accurate (no tolerance again) measure of the quantities in question. All current measurements are subject to error, it does not matter how small, but the error is always present. This violates our mathematical notion of equality. I can continue giving examples, however I think the point is made.
Now, please note that I am not trying to discredit mathematics. I like mathematics and love its beauty . In fact, I am trying to credit mathematicians for coming up (read imagine) with such a wonderful tool. The surprising (and beautiful) part is that the imagination works like a charm. It is so easy to describe nature in terms of mathematics. This ease has indeed made it the chosen language of scientists for generations and hence it seems natural to us. I do beleive that mathematics has evolved because people wanted to describe natural phenomena and Galelio's language (or rather the translation) seems to suggest that mathematics is eternal. How can it be eternal if it is a figment of our imagination?
Think about it for a second. Is nature really written in the "language of mathematics"? A deeper question is whether mathematics is real or a figment of our imagination? I must confess that this line of thought is inspired by Robert Pirsig's famous book The zen and art of motorcycle maintenance (ZMM). Pirsig questions the very foundations of modern thought. I do not want to go as far as that. I am content meddling with something less deep (for now at least!).
To probe the reality (or the lack of it) of mathematics, let us take the simple mathematical concept : equality. Can two physical things (or quantities) ever be exactly equal? Note that the mathematical notion of equality is strict; there is no room for tolerance. If we do not allow for tolerance, (i.e., a little variation that we are willing to overlook) then no two things (or quantities) can be equal.
Did I make an audacious statement? Think about it. To say two things are equal, we should first have an accurate (no tolerance again) measure of the quantities in question. All current measurements are subject to error, it does not matter how small, but the error is always present. This violates our mathematical notion of equality. I can continue giving examples, however I think the point is made.
Now, please note that I am not trying to discredit mathematics. I like mathematics and love its beauty . In fact, I am trying to credit mathematicians for coming up (read imagine) with such a wonderful tool. The surprising (and beautiful) part is that the imagination works like a charm. It is so easy to describe nature in terms of mathematics. This ease has indeed made it the chosen language of scientists for generations and hence it seems natural to us. I do beleive that mathematics has evolved because people wanted to describe natural phenomena and Galelio's language (or rather the translation) seems to suggest that mathematics is eternal. How can it be eternal if it is a figment of our imagination?
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