Mar 26, 2016 03:04 AM
Symmetry making and symmetry breaking
https://plus.maths.org/content/symmetry-...y-breaking
EXCERPT: It's good to have a sense of balance, even in physics. In the 1920s the physicist Paul Dirac developed an equation to describe the behaviour of electrons. The equation contained mathematical terms that had no physical interpretation, so to balance things out, Dirac swiftly invented one. He stipulated that each electron should come with a anti-electron, called a positron, which is what those extra components of the equations represent. A few years later, positrons were duly discovered in cosmic rays, and today they benefit the millions of people who get their medical diagnoses from positron emission tomography (PET) scans. That seems like an amazing fluke, but it's not the only example of theory preceding discovery. A preference for balance — for symmetry to be precise — is what guides much of modern physics....
Ping pong balls, infinity and superpowers
https://plus.maths.org/content/ping-pong...per-powers
EXCERPT: Infinity is a bendy concept that can lead to all sorts of paradoxes. In this article I plan to hit you with not one, not two, but three bamboozlers! And they're real beauties. It's the concept of infinity that will mess with your minds. I think you'll have a lot of fun recognising just how crazy and exciting a concept it is....
https://plus.maths.org/content/symmetry-...y-breaking
EXCERPT: It's good to have a sense of balance, even in physics. In the 1920s the physicist Paul Dirac developed an equation to describe the behaviour of electrons. The equation contained mathematical terms that had no physical interpretation, so to balance things out, Dirac swiftly invented one. He stipulated that each electron should come with a anti-electron, called a positron, which is what those extra components of the equations represent. A few years later, positrons were duly discovered in cosmic rays, and today they benefit the millions of people who get their medical diagnoses from positron emission tomography (PET) scans. That seems like an amazing fluke, but it's not the only example of theory preceding discovery. A preference for balance — for symmetry to be precise — is what guides much of modern physics....
Ping pong balls, infinity and superpowers
https://plus.maths.org/content/ping-pong...per-powers
EXCERPT: Infinity is a bendy concept that can lead to all sorts of paradoxes. In this article I plan to hit you with not one, not two, but three bamboozlers! And they're real beauties. It's the concept of infinity that will mess with your minds. I think you'll have a lot of fun recognising just how crazy and exciting a concept it is....