physicists

It may be appropriate to quote a statement of Poincare, who said (partly in jest no doubt) that there must be something mysterious about the normal law since mathematicians think it is a law of nature whereas physicists are convinced that it is a mathematical theorem.

Among physicists, I'm respected I hope.

If a problem is clearly stated, it has no further interest to the physicist.

If antimatter and matter make contact, both are destroyedinstantly. Physicists call the process __nnihilation.

God is a pure mathematician!' declared British astronomer Sir James Jeans. The physical Universe does seem to be organised around elegant mathematical relationships. And one number above all others has exercised an enduring fascination for physicists: 137.0359991.... It is known as the fine-structure constant and is denoted by the Greek letter alpha (α).

Physicists love this number not just because it is dimensionless, but also because it is a combination of three fundamental constants of nature. Why do these constants come together to make the particular number 1/137.036 and not some other number?

I__ relieved to seethat even brilliant physicists make mistakes.__ohler looked over. __hat do you mean?___hoever wrote that note made a mistake. That column isn__ Ionic. Ionic columns are uniform in width. That one__ tapered. It__ Doric__he Greek counterpart. A common mistake.__ohler did not smile. __he author meant it as a joke, Mr. Langdon. Ionic means containing ions__lectrically charged particles. Most objects contain them.

The goal is nothing other than the coherence and completeness of the system not only in respect of all details, but also in respect of all physicists of all places, all times, all peoples, and all cultures.

While twentieth-century physicists were not able to identify any convincing mathematical constants underlying the fine structure, partly because such thinking has normally not been encouraged, a revolutionary suggestion was recently made by the Czech physicist Raji Heyrovska, who deduced that the fine structure constant, ...really is defined by the [golden] ratio ....