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It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.

Arthur Eddington

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Arthur Eddington
Age: 61 †
Born: 1882
Born: December 28
Died: 1944
Died: November 22
Astronomer
Astrophysicist
Philosopher
Physicist
Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington
Sir Arthur Eddington
Impossible
Traps
Perfect
Probability
Mathematical
Probabilities
Anything
Math
Outset
Physics
Determinism
Mathematics
Predicting
Deals
Idolatry
Modern
Trap

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There was a time when we wanted to be told what an electron is. The question was never answered. No familiar conceptions can be woven around the electron it belongs to the waiting list.
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An electron is no more (and no less) hypothetical than a star. Nowadays we count electrons one by one in a Geiger counter, as we count the stars one by one on a photographic plate.
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[When thinking about the new relativity and quantum theories] I have felt a homesickness for the paths of physical science where there are ore or less discernible handrails to keep us from the worst morasses of foolishness.
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It is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory.
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The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory.
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We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong.
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I believe there are 15, 747, 724, 136, 275, 002, 577, 605, 653, 961, 181, 555, 468, 044, 717, 914, 527, 116, 709, 366, 231, 425, 076, 185, 631, 031, 296 protons in the universe and the same number of electrons.
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Asked in 1919 whether it was true that only three people in the world understood the theory of general relativity, [Eddington] allegedly replied: Who's the third?
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The electron, as it leaves the atom, crystallises out of Schrodinger's mist like a genie emerging from his bottle.
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Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility toward truth is one of its attributes.
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The mathematics is not there till we put it there.
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When an investigator has developed a formula which gives a complete representation of the phenomena within a certain range, he may be prone to satisfaction. Would it not be wiser if he should say 'Foiled again! I can find out no more about Nature along this line.'
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An ocean traveler has even more vividly the impression that the ocean is made of waves than that it is made of water.
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The understanding between a non-technical writer and his reader is that he shall talk more or less like a human being and not like an Act of Parliament. I take it that the aim of such books must be to convey exact thought in inexact language... he can never succeed without the co-operation of the reader.
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In the most modern theories of physics probability seems to have replaced aether as the nominative of the verb 'to undulate'.
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Who will observe the observers?
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We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about 'and'.
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Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate. One thing at least is certain, light has weight. One thing is certain and the rest debate. Light rays, when near the Sun, do not go straight.
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For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal.
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What is possible in the Cavendish Laboratory may not be too difficult in the sun.
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