1.2.1.4 Beauty of Mathematics

In the 1920's, at the beginnings of Atomic theory, there were equations that described the motion of the electron around the nucleus.

Dirac looked at this equation and said

It is more important to have beauty in your equations than to have them fit experiments. P.A.M. Dirac

He decided to improve the equations simply on aesthetic grounds. He did so and to his surprise the equations revealed a imaginary particle which behaved like a positive electron which we know is impossible. A few years later the experimental physicists found such a particle which was called positron.

The point of this story is that Dirac could see beauty in equations. Was he crazy?? I don' t think so.

Let us look for beauty and elegance in our mathematics. You will be well rewarded.