PHYSICS
Isaac Newton James Clerk Maxwell Albert Einstein Paul A. M. Dirac
Theoretical physicist Paul Dirac once remarked that “There is no logical reason why the method of mathematical reasoning should make progress in the study of natural phenomena, but one has found in practice that it does work and meets with reasonable 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 role in Nature’s scheme. . . What makes the theory of relativity so acceptable to physicists in spite of its going against the principle of simplicity is its great mathematical beauty. This is a quality which cannot be defined, any more than beauty in art can be defined, but which people who study mathematics usually have no difficulty in appreciating. The theory of relativity introduced mathematical beauty to an unprecedented extent into the description of Nature. . . We now see that we have to change the principle of simplicity into a principle of mathematical beauty. The research worker, in his efforts to express the fundamental laws of Nature in mathematical form, should strive mainly for mathematical beauty. He should still take simplicity into consideration in a subordinate way to beauty. It often happens that the requirements of simplicity and of beauty are the same, but where they clash the latter must take precedence.” (ellipses added)