Transcript Why is science so complicated?

Why is science so complicated?
Phys 106
April 6, 2010
Do scientists make things
complicated?
• Or is Nature complicated and scientists have a
knack to discover that?
– How does matter behave as we heat and cool it?
• When it is really, really, cold?
– How cold can something get?
• When it is really hot?
– How hot can things get?
» 136F in Libya
– LHC:
• Ultra-high and low pressures
Isn’t the goal of science to simplify?
• Simplicity is a tenet of science
– Occam’s razor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicity)
• "Everything should be made as simple as
possible, but not simpler.”
– Albert Einstein (http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/EinsteinQuotes.html)
– E.g., Einstein’s field equation of General Relativity:
• G = 8pT (deceptively simple …)
• Simplicity can come with abstraction
Power of math and logic
• You’ve probably heard the statement, “Math
is the language of physics”
Why?
Math uses numbers – so what are numbers??
Can two numbers that have not a
single numeral in common be equal?
• Yes, if they have infinite digits
• 1.00… = 0.99…
(bar means infinite digits)
Cantor studied infinities and showed
that some are bigger than others
Georg Cantor, 1845
Proof that √2 is an irrational number
• Prerequisites
– What is a rational and irrational number?
– What is an even and odd number?
– What does “lowest terms” mean?
• Method
– Assume the converse
Pythagoras, ~500 BC