Posts Tagged ‘Hermann Weyl’
The asymmetry of history
Wherever God or Christ are represented as symbols for everlasting truth or justice they are given in the symmetric frontal view, not in profile. Probably for similar reasons public buildings and houses of worship, whether they are Greek temples or Christian basilicas and cathedrals, are bilaterally symmetric. It is, however, true that not infrequently the two towers of Gothic cathedrals are different, as for instance in Chartres. But in practically every case this seems to be due to the history of the cathedral, namely to the fact that the towers were built in different periods. It is understandable that a later time was no longer satisfied with the design of an earlier period; hence one may speak here of historic asymmetry.
Breaking down the door
Nice general concepts do not fall into our laps by themselves. But definite concrete problems were first conquered in their undivided complexity, singlehanded by brute force, so to speak. Only afterwards the axiomaticians came along and stated: Instead of breaking the door with all your might and bruising your hands, you should have constructed such and such a key of skill, and by it you would have been able to open the door quite smoothly. But they can construct the key only because they are able, after the breaking in was successful, to study the lock from within.
—Hermann Weyl, quoted by Charles W. Curtis in Pioneers of Representation Theory
Quote of the Day
My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.
Quote of the Day
[Werner Heisenberg and I] were on a walk and somehow began to talk about space. I had just read Weyl’s book Space, Time, and Matter, and under its influence was proud to declare that space was simply the field of linear operations. “Nonsense,” said Heisenberg. “Space is blue and birds fly through it.”
Alec Nevala-Lee 