Arthur Eddington
Arthur Eddington
Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington OM FRSwas an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician of the early 20th century who did his greatest work in astrophysics. He was also a philosopher of science and a popularizer of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honor...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth28 December 1882
stars science hypothesis
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.
book science understanding
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.
nature tools world
Life would be stunted and narrow if we could feel no significance in the world around us beyond that which can be weighed and measured with the tools of the physicist or described by the metrical symbols of the mathematician.
too-much theory results
Do not put too much confidence in experimental results until they have been confirmed by theory.
truth learning court
For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal.
form primitive
It is a primitive form of thought that things exist or do not exist.
believe results theory
Don't believe the results of experiments until they're confirmed by theory.
may sun difficult
What is possible in the Cavendish Laboratory may not be too difficult in the sun.
witty believe inversions
I don't believe any experiment until it is confirmed by theory. I find this is a witty inversion of "conventional" wisdom.
order genuine should
Philosophically, the notion of a beginning of the present order of Nature is repugnant to me ... I should like to find a genuine loophole.
eye men noses
What we makes of the world must be largely dependent on the sense-organs that we happen to possess. How the world must have changed since the man came to rely on his eyes rather than his nose.
law giving found
If your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.
spiritual bridges keys
In any attempt to bridge the domains of experience belonging to the spiritual and physical sides of nature, time occupies the key position.
observers
Who will observe the observers?