Whether in the intellectual pursuits of science or in the mystical pursuits of the spirit, the light beckons ahead, and the purpose surging in our nature responds.
Arthur EddingtonRead
The universe will finally become a ball of radiation, becoming more and more rarified and passing into longer and longer wave-lengths. The longest waves of radiation are Hertzian waves of the kind used in broadcasting. About every 1500 million years this ball of radio waves will double in diameter; and it will go on expanding in geometrical progression for ever. Perhaps then I may describe the end of the physical world as-one stupendous broadcast.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses the fate of the universe as it evolves into a state of radiation, highlighting cosmic expansion.
Arthur Eddington's quote reflects on the long-term future of the universe, describing how it will eventually become a vast expanse of radiation as it continues to expand infinitely. He muses that this transformation can be seen as a grand broadcast, where the physical world's demise leads to a new phase of existence dominated by increasingly longer wavelengths of radiation, illustrating the interplay between cosmic phenomena and the nature of reality.
Themes
UniverseRadiationExpansionWavesCosmos
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a lecture on cosmology to illustrate the future of the universe.
More from Arthur Eddington
All quotes →The physical world is entirely abstract and without actuality apart from its linkage to consciousness.
Arthur EddingtonRead
It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has itself put into them; it may be a far harder thing to extract laws over which it has no control. It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.
Arthur EddingtonRead
Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility toward truth is one of its attributes.
Arthur EddingtonRead
In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the drama of familiar life. The shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow table as the shadow ink flows over the shadow paper. It is all symbolic, and as a symbol the physicist leaves it. ... The frank realisation that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.
Arthur EddingtonRead
So far as physics is concerned, time's arrow is a property of entropy alone.
Arthur EddingtonRead
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