Physics Quotes - Page 27

• Certainly we do not need quantum mechanics for macroscopic objects, which are well described by classical physics - this is the reason why quantum mechanics seems so foreign to our everyday existence.

  Alain Aspect

  Everyday, Needs, Reason Why

  "Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics: Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy". Book by J. S. Bell, 2004.

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• Quantum physics is no longer an abstract theory for specialists. We must now absolutely include it in our education and also in our culture.

  Claude Cohen-Tannoudji

  Culture, Abstract, Theory

  "Quantum Physics: From Basic Concepts to Applications". Honeywell-Nobel Laureate Lecture at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India, September 15, 2008.

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• The primary consequence of the computational nature of the universe is that the universe naturally generates complex systems, such as life. Although the basic laws of physics are comparatively simple in form, they give rise, because they are computationally universal, to systems of enormous complexity.

  Seth Lloyd

  Simple, Law, Giving

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• Programmed by quanta, physics gave rise first to chemistry and then to life; programmed by mutations and recombination, life gave rise to Shakespeare; programmed by experience and imagination, Shakespeare gave rise to Hamlet.

  Seth Lloyd

  Imagination, Mutation, Firsts

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• I quite like the transitions of being an actor, because you get to explore these little pockets of life. So if you're playing a builder you get to know about building, if you're playing a scientist or a physician or something you get to know about physics. And similarly with this world I like exploring their culture, that very sort of upper middle class, addictive... that's part of the reason I love it.

  Matt Smith

  Class, Pockets, Physicians

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• If physics is too difficult for the physicists, the nonphysicist may wonder whether he should try at all to grasp its complexities and ambiguities. It is undeniably an effort, but probably one worth making, for the basic questions are important and the new experimental results are often fascinating. And if the layman runs into serious perplexities, he can be consoled with the thought that the points which baffle him are more than likely the ones for which the professionals have not found satisfactory answers.

  Edward Condon

  Running, Effort, Important

  "Physics, in What is Science?: Twelve Eminent Scientists and Philosophers Explain Their Various Fields to the Layman". Book by James Roy Newman, published by Simon and Schuster, p. 102, 1955.

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• Now these two questions Does there exist a material reality distinct from sensible appearances? and What is the nature of reality? do not have their source in experimental method, which is acquainted only with sensible appearances and can discover nothing beyond them. The resolution of these questions transcends the methods used by physics; it is the object of metaphysics. Therefore, if the aim of physical theories is to explain experimental laws, theoretical physics is not an autonomous science; it is subordinate to metaphysics.

  Pierre Duhem

  Reality, Two, Theoretical Physics

  "The aim and structure of physical theory". Book by Pierre Duhem, translated by Philip P. Wiener, p. 10, 1991.

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• The formation in geological time of the human body by the laws of physics (or any other laws of similar nature), starting from a random distribution of elementary particles and the field is as unlikely as the separation of the atmosphere into its components. The complexity of the living things has to be present within the material, from which they are derived, or in the laws, governing their formation.

  Kurt Gödel

  Law, Atmosphere, Body

  "Nature's Imagination". Book by J. Cornwall, p.161-189, 1995.

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• At present, when the prevailing forms of society have become hindrances to the free expression of human powers, it is precisely the abstract branches of science, mathematics and theoretical physics, which ... offer a less distorted form of knowledge than other branches of science which are interwoven with the pattern of daily life, and the practicality of which seemingly testifies to their realistic character.

  Max Horkheimer

  Character, Expression, Theoretical Physics

  Max Horkheimer (1972). “Critical Theory: Selected Essays”, p.133, A&C Black

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• Pragmatism , in trying to turn experimental physics into a prototype of all science and to model all spheres of intellectual life after the techniques of the laboratory, is the counterpart of modern industrialism, for which the factory is the prototype of human existence, and which models all branches of culture after production on the conveyor belt.

  Max Horkheimer

  Intellectual, Trying, Culture

  Max Horkheimer (2004). “EPZ Eclipse of Reason”, p.35, A&C Black

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• There are very few things that can be proved rigorously in condensed matter physics.

  Anthony James Leggett

  Matter

  Nobel Lecture, December 8, 2003.

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• One of the most beautiful papers in physics that I know of is yours in the American Journal of Physics.

  David Mermin

  Beautiful, Paper, Journal

  N. David Mermin (1990). “Boojums All the Way Through: Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age”, p.15, Cambridge University Press

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• The new coherent picture is not yet available. With all their immense empirical success, G(eneral)R(elativity) and Q(uantum)M(echanics) have left us with an understanding of the physical world which is unclear and badly fragmented. At the foundations of physics there is today confusion and incoherence.

  Carlo Rovelli

  Confusion, Understanding, Today

  "Quantum gravity". Book by Carlo Rovelli, 2004.

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• Is the purpose of theoretical physics to be no more than a cataloging of all the things that can happen when particles interact with each other and seperate? Or is it to be an understanding at a deeper level in which there are things that are not directly observable (as the underlying quantized fields are) but in terms of which we shall have a more fundamental understanding?

  Julian Schwinger

  Theoretical Physics, Understanding, Purpose

  Julian Schwinger (2013). “Quantum Mechanics: Symbolism of Atomic Measurements”, p.25, Springer Science & Business Media

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• The next grand extensions of mathematical physics will, in all likelihood, be furnished by quaternions.

  Peter Tait

  Next, Mathematical, Extensions

  "Note on a Quaternion Transformation", Communication read on Monday, 6th April, 1863, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, p. 117, 1866.

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• Conferences with open attendance are very important for the stimulation of young people or other people who are new in the field. ... The field of high-energy physics is, as you know, very strongly in the hands of a clique and it is hard for an outsider to enter.

  Victor Frederick Weisskopf

  Hands, People, Important

  "Drawing theories apart: the dispersion of Feynman diagrams in postwar physics" by David Kaiser, University of Chicago Press, (p. 336), 2005.

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• The physics of motion provides one of the clearest examples of the counter-intuitive and unexpected nature of science.

  Lewis Wolpert

  Example, Unexpected, Intuitive

  1992 The Unnatural Nature of Science.

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• [Max Planck] was one of the finest people I have ever known... but he really didn't understand physics, [because] during the eclipse of 1919 he stayed up all night to see if it would confirm the bending of light by the gravitational field. If he had really understood [general relativity], he would have gone to bed the way I did

  Albert Einstein

  Night, Light, People

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• Technological civilization... rests fundamentally on power-driven machinery which transcends the physical limits of its human directors, multiplying indefinitely the capacity for the production of goods. Science in all its branches - physics, chemistry, biology, and psychology - is the servant and upholder of this system

  Charles A. Beard

  Civilization, Psychology, Directors

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• It is difficult to make good scalable use of a CPU like you can of a graphics card. You certainly don't want 'better or worse' physics or AI in your game

  John Carmack

  Games, Use, Want

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• I'm into the law of attraction and quantum physics. Like cosmic ordering. It's all about thinking lovely things that you would like in life, and feeling good about them before they manifest, so that by the time they do, you don't want them because you're on to your next desire.

  Julia Sawalha

  Thinking, Law Of Attraction, Feel Good

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• As you know, a theory in physics is not useful unless it is able to predict underlined effects which we would otherwise expect.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Atheism, Able, Theory

  Richard P. Feynman (2008). “Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman”, p.116, Hachette UK

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• In A Brief History Of Time I used the word "God" like Einstein did as a shorthand for the laws of physics. However, this is not what most people mean by God, so I have decided not to use the term. The laws of physics can explain the universe without the need for a God.

  Stephen Hawking

  Mean, Law, People

  "Gods of science: Stephen Hawking and Brian Cox discuss mind over matter". The Guardian interview, www.theguardian.com. September 10, 2010.

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• At one point I wanted to work for NASA and be an astrophysicist, so I did physics, math, and chemistry before realizing I probably wasn't quite smart enough to do that. But I am still hugely interested in cosmology and astrophysics. That is my geeky subject area.

  Gemma Chan

  Smart, Math, Chemistry

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Creativity is essential to particle physics, cosmology, and to mathematics, and to other fields of science, just as it is to its more widely acknowledged beneficiaries - the arts and humanities.

  Lisa Randall

  Art, Creativity, Science

  Lisa Randall (2012). “Knocking On Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate our Universe”, p.398, Random House

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