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XI.—The Relation between Mathematics and Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

P. A. M. Dirac
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Extract

The physicist, in his study of natural phenomena, has two methods of making progress: (1) the method of experiment and observation, and (2) the method of mathematical reasoning. The former is just the collection of selected data; the latter enables one to infer results about experiments that have not been performed. There is no logical reason why the second method should be possible at all, but one has found in practice that it does work and meets with remarkable success. This must be ascribed to some mathematical quality in Nature, a quality which the casual observer of Nature would not suspect, but which nevertheless plays an important rôle in Nature's scheme.

Type
Proceedings
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 59 , 1940 , pp. 122 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1940

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References

note page 127 * The recession velocities are not strictly proved, since one may postulate some other cause for the spectral red-shift. However, the new cause would presumably be equally drastic in its effect on cosmological theory and would still need the introduction of a parameter of the order 2 × 109 years for its mathematical discussion, so it would probably not disturb the essential ideas of the argument in the text.