This is basically a hope that one day, the whole of physics could become so simplified that we'd have a set of equations small enough to fit on a t-shirt. One of the biggest difficulties is trying to fit gravity into the mix; however gravity has awkward features that make it impossible to unify the final force of nature with the rest of physics.
Of course, this theory may not even be possible at all. So far the mathematical equations (laws of nature) have been pretty successful at explaining our world, but there is absolutely no guarantee that this success will continue. The universe may in fact be a lot less mathematical that physicists ever imagined.
Even though we have mathematical equations that can approximate nature very well, there is no math tahat can capture it exactly. A mixture of "mutually consistant theories" might also provide workable approxiamations valid in different domains. But there may not be one central principle that combines all of those approximations and works in all domains.
Right now we've got a very "mix-and-match" theory, but it is extremely ugly. For example; the huge list of if/then rules: If speeds are small and scales are big use Newtonian Mechanics; if speeds are large and scales are big use special relativity. "If beauty is truth, then mix-and-match must be false. But perhaps the root of the universe is ugly."
dibs
ReplyDeleteHey Shannon! Great job on your blog. I especially found it interesting when a cone is cut with a plane on an angle you get an ellipse. It seems obvious now, but I just hadn’t made that connection earlier. I was intrigued because the ellipse is that shape that earth orbits around the sun. To me, this means that the plane that our Earth and the Sun are on, could be cutting across a conical shaped universe. This opens up many ideas about how your universe or even how our galaxy is shaped. We don’t know much about what is going on in the universe so it is very possible that something cone shaped is having an effect on our Earth. It was also interesting to learn about how much of an impact the ellipse has had on physics.
ReplyDeleteAnother blog post that I found interesting was chapter 13 because my book dedicated a big part to a “unified theory.” The current unifying theory is the m-theory, and it is so famous because it incorporates gravity into the equation. Like your book stated, gravity was hard to fit into the picture. The difference though, between my book and yours, is that your book discussed the “beauty” of the universe. I liked the different takes on a unified theory that our books present. It reminds me that we really don’t know much about our universe and so we can interpret our information in whatever way we feel right.
Lastly, I found the chapter about the arrangements of the letters pretty confusing. I understand that cba is in reverse order to abc, but when you multiply them and incorporate the picture I get lost. This is, to me, a unique theory because I haven’t heard of it before. I enjoyed learning about permutations, but they were a little confusing.
You did a great job with your blog Shannon, and I learned a lot about physics and mathematics. Thank you :)
Kat
Great Job Shannon, I wish my blog was that good.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'll dive straight into it then, in chapter 6 you talk about permutations and a mathematican's theory that they proved a degree four or higher function is impossible. I understand what a permutation is from data class but this doesn't make sense to me. Of course we now know that is it no impossible but I didn't quite understand what from the permutation made it an impossibility. I don't want you to read the 500 page proof, but am I missing something that was covered in your book with regards to this concept?
On a brighter note, chapter number 7 confused me even more. I quote, "A symmetry happens when an object is transformed but its structure is still preserved." I can accept that, but you go on to talk about tranformations, structure and preservation. From your definition of preservation, it seems like transformations over rule the other two components. That may just be me.
Lastly, I believe I once saw the ugly math that the last chapter speaks of on one of my physics tests, it never quite solved anything that was useful though. Do you think that there will be a discovery, in or beyond our lifetime, that will result in a single equation or set of equations that will be pretty?
Thanks for a great read,
Corey