Recently, while I was going through the Feynman Lectures on Physics, I read (and heard the audio) of his session on symmetry in physical laws. Here I've (for the benefit of those who've not heard him) reproduced a part of his lecture.
"...so our problem really is to explain where this symmetry comes from. Why nature is so nearly symmetric....let's put it the other way, instead of saying why is she so nearly antisymmetric, say why is she so nearly symmetric? ...'cos it isn't absolutely symmetric, it's nearly so....the question is why it is nearly so.
Nobody has any idea. The only thing I might suggest is something that I...just as aaa....point there's an interesting point...there's a gate in Japan, a gate in Nikko, which is sometimes called by the Japanese the most beautiful gate in all Japan, but it was built at a time when there was great influence in(of) the Chinese art. It's the Youmeimon Gate, and um it a very elaborate Gate, with lots of gabels, elaborate and beautiful carvings all over and lots of columns which have dragonheads here, and dragonheads there and it's a beautiful thing; marvelous gate with figures of princesses carved into the pillars and so on.
But then.... when you look closer, you'll see...that in the elaborate and complex design along one of the pillars,one of the design elements, one of the small design elements...is carved upside down on one of the pillars. Otherwise the thing is completely symmetrical - left and right - but this one thing is turned upside down.......and if you ask why is this, then the story is this:
It's carved upside down, so that the Gods will not be jealous of the perfection of man...that man is so perfect, so they purposely put an error in there, so that the Gods would not be jealous and be angry at human beings.
So I'd like to turn the idea around, and claim that the true explanation to the near symmetry is this......that God made the laws only nearly symmetrical so that we shouldn't be jealous of His perfection...Thank You! "
(applause)
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5 comments:
Heh heh.
Nice post.
Feynman is without doubt the funniest and most marvellous physicist ever.
i think its a fantastic post :)..i second Shauny's opinion..
Hey Kunal, nice bumping into online.
I feel its this imperfection in the laws of nature thats keeping science alive.
Also, I sometimes wonder whether the imperfection is in nature or our ability to observe it. Is nature asymmetrical or do we, by being part of it as observers cause the assymetry?
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Aditya, yes what you say does make sense, but, there are 'laws' which are true by themselves, apparently even corroborated by experiment. Symmetry, and the imperfections,come into picture only by our ability (khaaj?) to correlate them.
That said, however, we have to admit that laws as they appear today, may themselves be an imperfect rendition of nature's reality - remember Newton, and Einstein? (However not all laws qualify for the above).
Then again there is the imperfection of measurements.
Well I guess I almost (but not quite completely) agree with what you say :)
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