方程
斷言兩個表達式相等的數學陳述
- 方程式对我更重要,因为政治只看眼前,而方程式是永恒的。
- 原文:Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.
- ——爱因斯坦
- 狄拉克的学生约翰·波罗金侯恩曾回忆道:“有次他被问到对于物理的核心信念,他走向黑板并写下‘自然的法则应该用优美的方程式去描述’”[1]。
- 狄拉克经常谈到应该优先寻找美丽的方程式,而不要烦恼其物理意义。史蒂文·温伯格对此曾有评论:
“ | 狄拉克告诉学物理的学生不要烦恼方程式的物理意义,而要关注方程式的美。这个建议只对那些于数学纯粹之美非常敏锐的物理学家才有用,他们可以仰赖它寻找前进的方向。这种物理学家并不多——或许只有狄拉克本人。[2] | ” |
参考文献
编辑- ↑ John Polkinghorne. 'Belief in God in an Age of Science' p. 2.
- ↑ Farmelo 2009,第428页
- ↑ 见 Feynman&Weinberg 1987,第1页 (位于第1章第1页)。摘录相关文字如下:“到这里来我感到非常荣幸。我应该接受这个邀请,毕竟他始终都是我心目中的英雄,而且我自己能来这儿作纪念他的报告是一件再好不过的事。”
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Physicist Paul Dirac Is 'The Strangest Man'. The Rakyat Post. 2009年10月4日 [2016年10月2日] (英语).
Dr. FARMELO: 'I mean, as I said, people like, you know, Richard Feynman and - these have gone on the records saying he was their hero. He was the person they looked up to.'","Dr. FARMELO: 'Yeah. Well, I think the picture you're talking about is - was taken in Poland. And that was one of the times where Feynman tried to pin Dirac down, something he often wanted to do, because as I said earlier, Dirac was a hero to Feynman. Feynman was working on a theory in photons, electrons, building on Dirac's great work in the mid-1920s. But he found as he - Feynman often said to friends - extremely difficult to get anything out of Dirac. He was a person of such - he was so inward, so to speak...' FLATOW: 'Yeah.' Dr. FARMELO: '...so unwilling to open up that Feynman found it virtually hopeless.'
- ↑ Koh Aik Khoon. Dirac vs Feynman: Two different physicists. 2014年11月11日 [2016年10月1日] (英语).
Dirac asked Feynman point blank: “I have an equation, do you have one, too?”