![]() ![]() He thus also justified science’s claim of being able to derive and calculate all natural phenomena, a claim which it still maintains in one form or another today and which made it the most influential social and intellectual force of modernity. And Newton not only provided physicists the mathematics which enable them to calculate the planetary motion, but also gave legitimacy to Galilei’s rather daring view that „the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics“. Johannes Kepler was so enthusiastic about the beauty and simplicity of the heavenly motions that he considered his laws of planetary movement the expression of supreme divine principles. The separation of the „unnecessary accessory”ismost easily performed in astronomy (there is no friction in outer space), which hence constituted the starting point of the scientific revolution. Only the simple can then appear as „beautiful“. free the important from all unnecessary accessories (such as friction in free fall), until the „simple“ processes reveal themselves. ![]() Not that is simple, which nature presents to us directly, but the scientists have to first separate the colorful mixture of the phenomena, i.e. „Simple“ for a physicist means just about anything that can be represented mathematically in exactness. It is ironic that beauty express itself precisely through the discipline, whose grammar many artists have never appreciated or mastered. And in this simplicity which finds its correspondence in the mathematical structures of physical theories they aim to discover the true beauty of nature. Thus most theoretical physicists have the deep faith that nature, in spite of the multiplicity of its phenomena, is simplein its fundamental structure. The essential endeavor of scientists is to work out simple structures and processes within the confusing complexity of natural phenomena. Already in antiquity two further concepts for symmetry supplemented the one of ideal proportions: reflection symmetry, as expressed in the relationship of left and right body parts, and the balance of opposites that can be found, for example, in Greek medicine and its teachings on body fluids. It was not by chance that the Renaissance scholar which is still regarded as one of the greatest artist and equally scholar in history emphasized this realization: Leonardo da Vinci. And when the arms and legs are outstretched, their ends describe exactly a square or alternatively a circle with the navel as its center. For example, the ratio of the length of the arm to the whole body is a quarter. ![]() The lead model there by constituted the human body. Just like the perfect harmonies in music these find their expression in corresponding numeric ratios. In the ancient concept of art symmetry described the ideal proportions of ratios of length and distances in sculptures, pictures, or buildings. Symmetry thus means “plane” or “uniform measure”. The term is derived from the ancient Greek symmetría, a combination of syn (together) and métron (the right measure). Theoretical physics of the twentieth century, on the other hand, discovered in it a grounding principle. Most of the ancient and modern art conceptions regard symmetry as an essential criterion of beauty. Symmetry and beauty –A bridge between science and art?Ī concept that moves scientists and artists alike and which seems to be suitable like no other to strike a rare discursive bridge between their two disciplines is the concept of beauty, in a narrower context „symmetry“. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |