This great Irish scientist of the nineteenth century invented quaternions.
Kinematics is the mathematical part of Mechanics. Hamilton contributed to Kinematics greatly, his contributions also allowed a unified description of waves and particles, before Quantum Mechanics.
I wonder how much of Mechanics is Kinematics and how much is Dynamics. The latter contains the Natural Laws, the former the mathematical description. The question has to do with how much our mathematics reflect the world out there.
Were quaternions purely kinematical?
It comes to mind the case of quarks, the "quaternions of SU(3)". Murray Gell-Mann got a Nobel Price for using this "Dynamics" (?) to describe components of protons and neutrons.
When does mathematics stop being mere description, and becomes Natural Law?
I wonder how much of Mechanics is Kinematics and how much is Dynamics. The latter contains the Natural Laws, the former the mathematical description. The question has to do with how much our mathematics reflect the world out there.
Were quaternions purely kinematical?
It comes to mind the case of quarks, the "quaternions of SU(3)". Murray Gell-Mann got a Nobel Price for using this "Dynamics" (?) to describe components of protons and neutrons.
When does mathematics stop being mere description, and becomes Natural Law?
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