Emmy Noether (1882 - Germany, died in 1935, PA). Considered by Einstein and other geniuses such as Norbert Weiner as the greatest female mathematician in history. Considering her "Noether's Theorem", one might easily say, "one of the greatest mathematicians ever"...period Why? because her theorem bridged the gap between pure math and physics by way of the point-of-view invariance principle, from which virtually all of classical and quantum mechanics can be derived from it, either directly or by chains of secondary, tertiary, etc...causation. However, as pointed out by physicist Dr. Victor J. Stenger (died a few years ago) in "GOD and the Multiverse", p.221, we should clarify the phrase "laws of physics". As I understand what he's saying, there's always an element of selection bias when enumerating such laws and describing their importance. Stenger states, "...what we call the laws of physics are simply logical requirements placed on our models in order to make them objective, that is, independent of the point of view of any particular observer." (p. 221). Then, concerning the question "Where Do the Laws of Physics Come From?" (the title of his other book), he states "They didn't come from anything. " They are "...metalaws that are the necessary requirements of symmetries that preserve point-of-view invariance, or bylaws that are accidents that happen when some symmetries are spontaneously broken under certain conditions.. Now, back to Noether's Theorem:
"...in 1915 Emmy Noether proved that the three great conservation principles of physics - linear momentum, angular momentum and energy - are automatically obeyed in any theory that possesss respectively, space-translation symmetry, space-rotation symmetry, and time-translation symmetry." Then, virtually all of classical and quantum mechanics can be derived from the conservation laws. . In a nutshell The laws of physics are a group of metalaws that are necessary requirements (as proved by Noether)" of point-of-view invariant symmetries. As an extension of the phrase "point of view", Stenger states "Note that if there are multiple universes, they should all have the same metalaws but probably different bylaws". Make sense? If not, then remember: symmetry implies conservation laws, and virtually all of classical and QM can be derived from conservation laws. Noether fled to the US in 1934 then the Nazis turned up their anti-Semitic persecutions. Had a position at Bryn Mawr and lectured at Princeton. Died in 1935 in PA. Emmy Noether - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Noether#/media/File:Noether.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Noether#/media/File:Noether.jpg Emmy Noether - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Noether#/media/File:Noether.jpg Emmy Noether (German: [ˈnøːtɐ]; official name Amalie Emmy Noether;[1] 23 March 1882 – 14 April 1935) was a German Jewish mathematician known for her l... View on en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Noether#/media/File:Noether.jpg Preview by Yahoo
