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> It is never the case [...] that an out of the blue theory developed for no reason other than mathematical “beauty” ends up overturning the old order Well, Pa
by DemocracyFTW2 4y ago
> It is never the case [...] that an out of the blue theory developed for no reason other than mathematical “beauty” ends up overturning the old order
Well, Paul Dirac for one did predict the antimatter counterpart of the electron because of mathematical beauty, didn't he?
- adastra22 4y agoNo he created a framework for explaining the behavior of quantum systems moving at relativistic speeds, which was already being observed to diverge from theory in the measurement of cosmic rays. His equation implied the existence of antimatter, which was then looked for and found, but that was more of a happy accident.