It takes so long to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them.
Eugene WignerRead
The unreasonable efficiency of mathematics in science is a gift we neither understand nor deserve.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mathematics plays a crucial role in science, yet its effectiveness often feels surprising and beyond our comprehension.
Eugene Wigner reflects on the profound and somewhat paradoxical relationship between mathematics and the physical sciences. Despite the abstract nature of mathematics, it consistently provides tools and frameworks that allow scientists to describe and understand the complexities of the natural world. This efficiency is viewed as a remarkable gift that humanity does not fully grasp or feel entitled to, highlighting the mysterious interplay between logical reasoning and empirical investigation.
Themes
MathematicsScienceEfficiencyGiftUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the role of mathematics in scientific discovery, one could use this quote to emphasize its significance.
More from Eugene Wigner
All quotes βIt was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness.
Eugene WignerRead
The full meaning of life, the collective meaning of all human desires, is fundamentally a mystery beyond our grasp. As a young man, I chafed at this state of affairs. But by now I have made peace with it. I even feel a certain honor to be associated with such a mystery.
Eugene WignerRead
The great mathematician fully, almost ruthlessly, exploits the domain of permissible reasoning and skirts the impermissible. That his recklessness does not lead him into a morass of contradictions is a miracle in itself: certainly it is hard to believe that our reasoning power was brought, by Darwin's process of natural selection, to the perfection which it seems to possess.
Eugene WignerRead
The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve.
Eugene WignerRead
The simplicities of natural laws arise through the complexities of the language we use for their expression.
Eugene WignerRead
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I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the Scriptures, but with experiments, and demonstrations.
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It was one time when people thought the value of the fine structure constant was important. Now of course it's still important, of course, as a practical matter,but we now know that the value it has is a function, that in any fundamental theory you derive the fine structure constant as a function of all sorts of mass ratios and so on and it's not really that fundamental.
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Opponents say natural selection is not a theory supported by observation or experiment; that it is not based on fact; and that it cannot be proved. Well, no, you cannot prove the theory to people who won't believe in it any more than you can prove that the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. However, we know the battle happened then, just as we know the course of evolution on earth unambiguously shows that Darwin was right.
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