We must admit with humility that, while number is purely a product of our minds, space has a reality outside our minds, so that we cannot completely prescribe its properties a priori.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
Theory attracts practice as the magnet attracts iron.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Theoretical knowledge draws practical application, similar to how a magnet draws metal.
In this quote, Gauss expresses the idea that theoretical concepts have a compelling power to inspire and guide practical actions, just as a magnet naturally attracts iron. It highlights the intrinsic relationship between theory and practice, suggesting that well-founded theories can lead to tangible results and advancements in various fields, particularly in science and mathematics.
Themes
TheoryPracticeKnowledgeMagnetScience
In practice
Example use cases
A professor might use this quote to emphasize the importance of applying theoretical knowledge in research.
More from Carl Friedrich Gauss
All quotes βI protest against the use of infinite magnitude ..., which is never permissible in mathematics.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
Mathematics is the queen of sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the first rank.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
To praise it would amount to praising myself. For the entire content of the work... coincides almost exactly with my own meditations which have occupied my mind for the past thirty or thirty-five years.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
The problem of distinguishing prime numbers from composite numbers and of resolving the latter into their prime factors is known to be one of the most important and useful in arithmetic.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
Similar quotes
One of the pleasures of looking at the world through mathematical eyes is that you can see certain patterns that would otherwise be hidden.
Steven StrogatzRead
An Experiment, like every other event which takes place, is a natural phenomenon; but in a Scientific Experiment the circumstances are so arranged that the relations between a particular set of phenomena may be studied to the best advantage.
James Clerk MaxwellRead
From the growth of the Internet through to the mapping of the human genome and our understanding of the human brain, the more we understand, the more there seems to be for us to explore.
Martin ReesRead
Rising carbon price is essential to 'decarbonize' the economy - to remove the nation towards the era beyond fossil fuels.
James HansenRead
There are people who could watch a hurricane like Sandy blow out of the Atlantic every other day and blame it on anything but human activity. They are like those who, having been diagnosed with diabetes, eat donuts for breakfast. There's not much to do about them.
Michael SpecterRead
One can say, looking at the papers in this symposium, that the elucidation of the genetic code is indeed a great achievement. It is, in a sense, the key to molecular biology because it shows how the great polymer languages, the nucleic acid language and the protein language, are linked together.
Francis CrickRead