The Quest for a Theory of Everything
Is there an underlying order to the universe? It’s a question that’s puzzled humanity since the dawn of time. After all, while life can feel chaotic, certain patterns remain stable. The sun rises and sets each day; apples always fall to the ground.
More than 2,000 years ago, Greek philosophers were already attempting to explain the nature of reality. Aristotle suggested that all matter was made up of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Another philosopher, Democritus, proposed that the world consisted of tiny, indivisible parts called atoms.
These early theories are noteworthy for their novelty and insight, but, as classical civilization rose and fell, progress on these debates slowed. But as Europe entered the Renaissance and beyond, a new batch of thinkers began to examine the laws of reality.
The key message here is: Early thinkers Newton and Maxwell laid the groundwork for modern physics.
By the seventeenth century, scientists were again seeking to understand the universe. In Germany, Johannes Kepler used careful observation to accurately describe the motion of planets in the sky. In Italy, Galileo Galilei used a telescope to first record the details of celestial bodies. But, the two greatest breakthroughs came from England.
Before Isaac Newton, common wisdom said that the heavens and Earth were governed by separate laws. But, in 1666, Newton suggested the opposite. He argued that all motion – from apples falling on Earth to the moon orbiting above – was determined by a single power. He called this invisible force gravity and proposed that it acted on all physical objects equally. What’s more, he showed that gravity’s effects could be calculated and predicted using simple mathematical equations.
Some 200 years later, James Maxwell used math to demystify another invisible force. Building on the earlier experiments of Michael Faraday, he showed that electricity and magnetism were actually one united force, which hence became known as electromagnetism. In a series of equations, Maxwell showed that electromagnetism was propagated by oscillating waves and that you could transform electricity into magnetism and vice versa.
Newton’s laws of motion and Maxwell’s equations provide an astoundingly accurate view of the physical world. These twin insights paved the way for all our modern engineering feats, from skyscrapers and space flight to microwave ovens and radio. Yet, in the early twentieth century, another thinker would complicate these theories. We’ll explore that in the next blink.
The God Equation (2021) is an approachable look at the history and present of theoretical physics. This primer untangles the science behind relativity, string theory, and the search for the elusive “theory of everything.”
Newtons and Maxwells equations gave us a very convincing theory of everything. . . . Or at least everything then known.
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Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
