705 Quotes About Mathematics

We present a series of hypotheses and speculations, leading inescapably to the conclusion that SU(5) is the gauge group of the world — that all elementary particle forces (strong, weak, and electromagnetic) are different manifestations of the same fundamental interaction involving a single coupling strength, the fine-structure constant. Our hypotheses may be wrong and our speculations idle, but the uniqueness and simplicity of our scheme are reasons enough that it be taken seriously.

To calculate 'the' fine structure constant, 1/137, we would need a realistic model of just about everything, and this we do not have. In this talk I want to return to the old question of what it is that determines gauge couplings in general, and try to prepare the ground for a future realistic calculation.

I don't believe any scientific field to be superior to another.

Infinity...is used in physics simply as a shorthand for "a very big number.

Physicists believe that the Gaussian law has been proved in mathematics while mathematicians think that it was experimentally established in physics.

At his "World of Physics" Web site, Eric W. Weisstein notes that the fine structure constant continues to fascinate numerologists, who have claimed that connections exist between alpha, the Cheops pyramid, and Stonehenge!

Mathematics doesn’t care about those beyond the numbers.

If one is working from the point of view of getting beauty into one's equation, ... one is on a sure line of progress.

Abstract mathematics combined with physics can discover and see more than any eye ever could.