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Arthur Eddington

Arthur Eddington Quotes

Astronomer

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Famous Arthur Eddington Quotes

“The universe will finally become a ball of radiation, becoming more and more rarified and passing into longer and longer wave-lengths. The longest waves of radiation are Hertzian waves of the kind used in broadcasting. About every 1500 million years this ball of radio waves will double in diameter; and it will go on expanding in geometrical progression for ever. Perhaps then I may describe the end of the physical world as-one stupendous broadcast.”

WorldYearsKindMayEndsUsedUniverseMillionsGoes OnBecomingFutureBallsWaveRadioPassingPassingsLengthRadiationPredictionsExpandingProgressionBecoming MoreBroadcastingRadio Waves
Author:Arthur Eddington
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“To the pure geometer the radius of curvature is an incidental characteristic - like the grin of the Cheshire cat. To the physicist it is an indispensable characteristic. It would be going too far to say that to the physicist the cat is merely incidental to the grin. Physics is concerned with interrelatedness such as the interrelatedness of cats and grins. In this case the "cat without a grin" and the "grin without a cat" are equally set aside as purely mathematical phantasies.”

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Book:The Expanding Universe: Astronomy's 'Great Debate', 1900-1931
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“But it is necessary to insist more strongly than usual that what I am putting before you is a model-the Bohr model atom-because later I shall take you to a profounder level of representation in which the electron instead of being confined to a particular locality is distributed in a sort of probability haze all over the atom.”

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Book:New Pathways in Science: Messenger Lectures (1934)
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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.”

HumansBookScienceLanguageUnderstandingHuman BeingsReaderSucceedAimOperationsParliamentPublication
Book:New Pathways in Science: Messenger Lectures (1934)
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“Observation and theory get on best when they are mixed together, both helping one another in the pursuit of truth. It is a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in a theory until it has been confirmed by observation. I hope I shall not shock the experimental physicists too much if I add that it is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they have been confirmed by theory.”

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Author:Arthur Eddington
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