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May I allow myself at this point a personal reflection? In my entire scientific life, extending over forty-five years, the most shattering experience has been the realization that an exact solution of Einstein’s equations of general relativity, discovered by the New Zealand mathematician, Roy Kerr, provides the absolutely exact representation of untold numbers of massive black holes that populate the universe. This shuddering before the beautiful,” this incredible fact that a discovery motivated by a search after the beautiful in mathematics should find its exact replica in Nature, persuades me to say that beauty is that to which the human mind responds at its deepest and most profound. Indeed, everything I have tried to say in this connection has been stated more succinctly in the Latin mottos: Simplex sigillum veri – The simple is the seal of the true. and Pulchritudo splendor veritatis – Beauty is the splendour of truth.

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May I allow myself at this point a personal reflection? In my entire scientific life, extending over forty-five years, the most shattering experience has been the realization that an exact solution of Einstein’s equations of general relativity, discovered by the New Zealand mathematician, Roy Kerr, provides the absolutely exact representation of untold numbers of massive black holes that populate the universe. This shuddering before the beautiful,” this incredible fact that a discovery motivated by a search after the beautiful in mathematics should find its exact replica in Nature, persuades me to say that beauty is that to which the human mind responds at its deepest and most profound. Indeed, everything I have tried to say in this connection has been stated more succinctly in the Latin mottos: Simplex sigillum veri – The simple is the seal of the true. and Pulchritudo splendor veritatis – Beauty is the splendour of truth.
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Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jul-2023 15:25:29 UTC Robert McNees
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Relativists quickly realized the importance of what Kerr had done.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar said that realizing the Universe was full of "untold numbers" of black holes described by Kerr's solution was "the most shattering experience" of his scientific career.
http://www.parrikar.org/essays/shakespeare-newton-beethoven-page3/

In conversation Wednesday, 26-Jul-2023 15:25:29 UTC from mastodon.social permalink