Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays [Paperback]

Eugene P. Wigner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1970

This volume contains some of Professor Wigner's more popular papers, which, in their diversity of subject and clarity of style, reflect the author's deep analytical powers and the remarkable scope of his interests. Included are articles on the nature of physical symmetry, invariance and conservation principles, the structure of solid bodies and of the compound nucleus, the theory of nuclear fission, the effects of radiation on solids, and epistemological problems of quantum mechanics. Other articles deal with the story of the first man-made nuclear chain reaction, the long-term prospects of nuclear energy, the problems of Big Science, and the role of mathematics in the natural sciences. In addition, the book contains statements of Wigner's convictions and beliefs, as well as memoirs of his friends, Enrico Fermi and John von Neumann.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (August 15, 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262730219
• ISBN-13: 978-0262730211
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,979,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why we can discover laws of nature, February 3, 2004

By 

Professor Joseph L. McCauley "Joseph L. McCauley" (Austria+Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays of Eugene P. Wigner. (Hardcover)

Although simply written, this is not a book for beginers. On the other hand it doesn't hurt to read it early and think about it for a long time, rereading it from time to time, in order finally to get the main point. Wigner points out that the basis for answering the question posed by him, 'Why is it possible to discover laws of nature?' is explained in every elementary physics text but the point is too subtle, is therefore lost on nearly every reader. The answer, he explains convincingly, lies in invariance principles. As an example, were local Galilean invariance not true it would have been impossible for Galileo to have discovered any law of motion at all. The same holds for local translational, rotational and time-translational invariance. Inherent in Wigner's argument is the explanation why the so-called principle of general covariance is not the foundation of general relativity, which also is grounded in the local invariance principles of special relativity.

Contrast this with the nonsense propagated in the first chapter of Samuelson's well-sold Economics text, where he asserts on the basis of a hokey picture that the difference between physics and the social sciences is not as great as it seems. In fact, there are no known invariance principles in the socio-economic sciences, and no corresponding laws of socio-economic motion (motion of money, e.g.). At best, there are intelligent gambling strategies like the equations for predicting option pricing, but these depend on market statistics that can change from one era to the next. Nor is it guaranteed that options traders will forever favor the dalta-hadging strategy and it's refinements. The last word: mathematical modelling and computer simulations are a completely different cat than approximate predictions based on laws of nature, like the laws of physics and genetics. The fact that we cannot yet (if ever) solve the Navier-Stokes equations for turbulence, which are grounded in local invariance principles and physical law, has nothing to do with our general inability to model human behavior mathematically.