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    95 Ansichten21 Seiten

    The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved

    Hochgeladen von

    Marcelo Nemer
    hahahahue

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Als PDF herunterladen oder online auf Scribd lesen
    Markieren Sie unangemessene Inhalte
    von 21
    The Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry pee. Mario Livio Simon € Schuster "2005" + Unly Library, UC Santa Cruz 2005 SIMON eESCHHUSTER Rockler Cane 1280 Aven he Act ‘New Yrs NY to500 Capp 205 by Mai vin Alig ered iain eg of prodton Tnealorinpatiaany orn Sion cSctre and alopecia ‘!Sinpo Scheer ne orinfermaion oping pl icons or bl puns, oe contar Sinn Sr pci ar 1880486698 orboinentnocantchonerom. Designed by Pal Dipti Mufti United Sof Ameca Lier o Congr Cao Pablcon Date ‘sie Mate “Tegan cult tive haw mathemati psa conse ngage of yet / Mai Liv, Ince igri ferns sine, 1 Group dhtey Hin 2. Gala fry History 2. Gai vet BLAIS.” 4 Symmes sry. 5. Symmery“MthontsHinary& Dipl sai nny Tia, airiatse as ToSofie oun Symmetry -ninkblovon a piece of paperis no pasclaly tractive tothe cys but you old he paper before the ink dries you may get something that looks ike igure 1 tar is muck mare incu ing. In fc, the inerpretation of smi inkblns form the bai for the famous Rorschach test developed in the 1920 hy the Sis pyehisrit Hermann Rorschach, The delved purpose ofthe tet ito somehow clic th hidden fens, wil ama, and deeper shoaghts of he viewers iexepeeting the ambiguous shapes The acta valve ofthe testa an ‘ceay of the mind is vebemeney debated in psychological cele. As Emory University peycholoie Scott Lene once po it "Whose min, thar ofthe ciest or the examiner?" [Nevertheless here sao denial ofthe fact hat images sch stat gue 1 convey some sort of atestve ad fas- inating nopeesion, Why? Tee beaoee the human body, most smal and so aay bunan artifits poste» similar bilateral aysumetry? Bowes ‘And why do al those zoclogial feaures and creations ofthe human imagination eaubit such a symmetry in the is place? “Mast people perceive harmonious compositions sach as Botiali’s ‘Binh of Venns (igure 2) a symmetries. Ar isoriaa Brest H. Gow rich even notes thatthe “erie which Rotcli took with azure ia ‘order achieve agrcelotline sto the beauty and harmo ofthe z cox C. The meaning of this formla {st Fora given degee of comple, the aesthetic measure is higher the nore order the objac possesses. Alemativey ifthe amount of order spsiid, de aescheric meusure is hightr the les complex the objet Since for most practical purposes the orders devermined primarily by the symmetries of che objet, Biff theory hers symmetry a6 2 crucial aethei lament ‘Birkhoff was the Hirst wo admit that che precise dfinisions of hs ele- rents O, Gy and M were icky. Nevertheless, he made vlan atempe to provide deuiled prescriptions for the calculation ofthese measures fora vviey fa forms, In parculase stated wit simple geometric cal shapes such as those in ig 7, contin with ormaments and Ci- 1 THE EQUATION THAT COULDN'T BE SOLVED rcs vats, proceed tn barony inthe distonic musical seals and con ‘Judd with the postry af Tennyson, Shakespeare, and Amy Lowell No one, especialy not Bitk- hoff himel, wold clam thatthe inicaes of sesthetcplesure sould be reduced entirely 10 ¢ mere formula. Howeves in Birk offs words, "Ta the ineviable analytic azcompasiment of the eatve proces te theory of ax thetic measur is capable of pe forming» double servis gives « simple, unified account ofthe aes- thetic experience, andi provides means for the sytematic analysis of yp aesthticie" ‘enscning aow from thi brs exo into the lind of seteses vo the speci ase of rotational symmetry, we ate that one of he sim pest eotationally ymmeti gues inthe plane acre gare 84) I you route it around ts center through, sy, 37 degees, remains ‘achanged. In fae you can roti theough any angle around a perpen dicular avs through ts center and you will ot notice any diference ‘he srl therefore hasan infinite nomber of eoatonsl semen. ‘Thos ate not the only symmeries the isle possess. Reston in all he ange cha ut along a diameter (gure 8) aleo lew the cnle ‘changed “The same system can, therefore, have molplesymmetis, or be symmewie under 2 vasery of ymomenrymanrformasions Rong 4 psfect sphere abou ie center, sing an ate running in any dretion, leaves it looking precisely the same, Or examine for instance, the equilateral (ll Sides the same) wiangle in figure 9. We ae allowed reiter to change the shape or size ofthis angle, noe to move it about. What teansformations could we apply otto lave it unchanged? We could rotate it by 120,246 and S60 degrees round an ass perpendicelaro the plane ofthe igure and passing ehough point O (Bgure 98). These rane formstions do interchange he location ofthe vertices, but f you turn your back whil somebody i performing these rotons you won't notice anything diferent. Note tata ration by 36) depres equvae lento dong nothing tall, or reaing by zero degrees. This is known ae thetdentity ransormation. Why Bother wo define such wssformation tll As we sal se lterin the book the identity wansformation plays ‘simile role eo that ofthe murner ae in he athe operation of ‘xin or the number one in uliplicaon—when you add zeo toa umber or molly a number hy one the number tetas unchanged ‘We eanalsomirorefeethe rangle about the vce dash lines ia By sree. Thee ar, therefore, presely sx symmerytransorrations— thyee rotations and three reflctons—astocited with the equliterl ange, ‘What about combinations of sme ofthese transformations, sich a MORRIS, MOZART, AND COMPANY (One ofthe most fila of all symmetric pateras that of repeating, recttring motif rom cere of lsc enpls ad pillar palaces to sarpess and even birdsong, the symmetry of cepeting patterns has always produced a very comforting fariiarty and reassuring effet An elemencary example of this type of symmetry was presented in ge we / 4 retin followed kya rotation! Don' they ad othe nomber off symmetries of the wane? sll eur wo tht quetion in the conte of che language of syminetties, For the moment, however, anther limportan symmetry awaits exposition 34 THE EQUATION THAT COULDN'T BE SOLVED. ‘The symmexy wansformtion in his case ialled anton mean ing displacement or shift bys certain distance slong ceri ne The pattern is called symmatie ican be displaced in various direcions tichou looking ay diferent. In other words, regula designs in whi the same heme repeal fied itera poses trasltonal sym ‘metry: Ornament that are symmetric under ranation can be traced al the way tack 10 17,000 BC (the Paleolithic et), A maramothivory race found ia che Ukraine is masked with repoig gag pate (Oder uansaion-symmetie designs are fond in arey of at forms ranging fom medieval Islami ling the Alhambrs pace in Granada, Spain Figure 102), through Reaassnceeypography othe drawings of the faastic Durch graphic art M.C. Escher (1895-1972; gue 10). Naare also provides examples of wsnsaionaymmetic erste, ch ss the cemipedes, in which decal body sgments may repeats may 2170 tine, “The Victorian artist poet and printer Wl Morris (184-96) was 1 pelle producer of decorative ar. Much of his work is teraly the ‘embodiment of traslaonl symmetry. Hal nile, Mori became fs- inated by mediealarchitetore, and a age twenty-seven he wart & fim of decorators thi ter became famous as Mona Company. Ia «strong eeation tothe increasing industrials in aneeenshcentury 4 “Eagan, Morris looked for waysto revive titi ersmanship and to revitalize the splendor of the decorative st ofthe Middle Ages, Morse snd Company, and late he Kelaseot Press founded by Mocs in 189, Assigned spectacular ties, tableware tele andiluscaed manuseips in medieval desig. Bur it was in wallpaper design where Morris ist achieved his incredible mastery of ransason-symmetsc repeating pa- tems. A couple of hie simpruoss themes are shown in figure 1, While Morris's designs may not have been any moor innovative than thos of tome of his conemporatie, sch a8 Christopher Dreset or A. WN. ogi his infvenesnlegacy have ben norma, Morris himaelf wat Interested in promoting ars and cals and not inthe mathematics of symmetry In The Beauty of Life summarized his oco-zethesc phi Towophy hi way: ‘You may hung your walls with tpesey instead of whitewash or peso yu may cover hen with motor bv the sont hy ‘gent painter al his isnot hur, if Be doe forbear’ sake, td not forsbow: edocs ot break or golden ue Fave noting your houses whic you donot know to be useful or believe o be tena Ainteretng question s whether symmetry with respectto transl tion and indeed reection an rraion ois limited to the visual art ‘may be exhibited by other atc forms, suchas pieces of music Ev 1 THE EQUATION THAT COULDN'T BE SOLVED leaf we refer to the sounds rather than othe layourof the wits ‘muszl acre, we would have to define symmecry operations interme ther than purely geomet, jut as we did in the eas of che pais Aromes. ace we do thas however, the answer tthe qustin, Ca we find sition symmetric mai? ia resounding ys. Ar Rasen ey talphysici G. V Wall wroein 1906 “The pic of msi ihyche. fe ‘consists ofthe roguls, periodic epettion of pat ofthe mil ca Dosion the egule rpeion of dential pare inthe whole coon tees the essence of symmetry." need the ecuving themes tha aeso ‘common ia musical compasiion are the emporal euivaleas of ‘Moss designs and symmetry under eansatio, Even more generally, compositions are often based on fundamental mod reduced a he ‘begining and then undergoing verious metamorphose ‘Simple examples of symmetry under wanton music include the ‘opening measure in Mozart famous Spinpony no, 4 in G Minor (igure 12), 35 well asthe ene structure of tome connon ute forms Io the former example you can se the translational eymmetsy notnly wthinesch ine ofthe score (wherethe shore dediing gestures remarked), bt also baween the isin and the son (Aentd by a snd 6) In ers of overall design, we use the symbols A,B, and C20 dlasrbe entre seions of a movement, then the pater fr arande 144 whole for instance, can he exresed at ABACA or ABACAB: ‘where the Wansatioal symmetry s apparent, Mozart’ sociation wich jess of mathematic should come a oo surprise. His site, Noone, realled hat he ooce covered de walls ofthe staircase and of al the rooms in their house with sumbers, and when no space remained, he moved on tothe walls of «neighboring house. Even he margins of Mozarsmacuscript forthe Fata nd Fugu ©Major cota a= sultans ofthe probability to win the lottery. No wonder then tht Brvsh musicologist and composes Donald Tovey iden he "bexu- tif and symmetrical proportions” of Mora’ compositions ax one af the ey etsons for their poplaiy Another great composer know or hie bration with numbers, rental ges and theirs in complex aus form was Johann Seas Yap Bach (1685-1750 Bosh rlleeion and alton face eequetly in Boch’ mse on nay evel. An arp encompastngefleton by ‘horizontal “miror” isthe opening of Backs Two-Part Invention 10.6 in Major (se igure 13) Imagine miro ia che space between theewo score ines. The ceding trend marked by line is elected (al abit Lae) by the descending vend f and the ene gesture is elected and ‘epeatd again slighty ae (staring at). Ancther example is provided lithe ene arge-ssle sure of one of Bash most notable wok, the fas Mnsce fern. The composition consists of thete musical fone Reesor $Canont TrioSonata $Canons —Ricesat Ieshibits refesion symmetry [bios not sound by sou). ‘Ricerear (fom rierare—"wo research, of aeck st") was an old term used loosely for any ype of plu, usually a ug style. The rest humanitarian, physician, and philesopher Albee Schwelzer (1875-1968) was also s geet Bach enthusiast In his book J . Bach he nous: "The word [sicercr] signifies apiece of music in which we have to sek something-—aaly a theme" Tho Masical Ofering also contains ten canons, whch, by construction invelve the operation of ‘eaulation. Ip any canon (ne word means rule") one melodie stra ~~ 20 THE RQUATTON THAT COULDN'T BE SOLVED, eters the rule (n term of melodic ie o¢shythm) for the ssond ‘more vices The second woe follows at some fixed inerval of tine_atempova ration, A simple familiar examples Rove me ow your boat Geely dwn thestrear Mera ery merty me Lfeisbaca dee, where the second voice starts when dhe fre eeaches the word gent” "The sory surrounding the Mascal Offering i in itself ely fase rating, Thee yours before is death, Bach was on his way to Bes to ‘st is daughter-in-law Johann Maria Danaemann (wif ofthe com- poser Cat Philipp Emanael Bach, who was ac che ime expesing 2 hid. Exhausted from the lag journey, th aged composer made atop St Potsdam, chen the set of King Frederic the Great of Prussia, who “tho employed Carl Philipp Emanel The news of Bach’ avira athe Foy pulace prompted th king to ene planned evening concert fa turing hms playing on the fae is Favor ofan imprompea series of fecitals by Bach on seven new fortepanos. GotredSibermann, she ‘aster orga bilder ofthe German baroque construct eheseinsti- nents Following virtuoso perormanc in seve diferent rooms ofthe alice Bach fered o hs delighted adnnce to improvise fogoe ona theme His Roy Highoes would sugges. Upon etutning home, Bach developed the Maciel Offering from tat improvised fugue le added toita ol magnificently comple snons and wi sonata and elabo- rated upon the other contrapuntal movements. The sonata featured a ‘te (King Fredrik istrument, a vols, and continuo (keyboard tnd cello) For the ttle ofthe Offring, dhe ever word playful Bach hose Ress ins canto ot relia cononice ate resoata (Upon the [Kings Demand the Theme and Additions Reoled in Canonie Sz) ‘which fone he acronym RICERCA. "Thereareoven more symmetries the Musical Offering. In Canoa 1 (he Crab Canon) each vain plays the otee's par ackvard, resin inflection symmetry (ofthe score) ia verti mirror. Finally, canons general wer consderd a thee wo be ome sort of symmety Doe alex. The composer provided the theme, bu twas the musicians sh to igce ou what type of smaetry operation he had in mind forthe theme tobe performed Inthe exe the Maal Offering, Bach accom avid the last two caaons before the tio sonata withthe iscipion| * Quarende nent” meaning "Sec andy shal find.” Ax weshallsce inchaptes thi aot very ileene concep from the puzzleposed toby the universs—it lies inalite glory open toinyperion—forusto find the underlying patterns and symmetries, Even che uncertiaies and ambiguities involved in the atempt to neover the “theory of every- thing” nay havea ably in Bach ills challenge. Youseeone ‘ofthe eanoasinthe Masa Offering har three poniblesokatons “Tanlaton nd cflestion ean be combined int one symmetry oper ation kaowa apie reflecson. The footsincs generate by an alert ing eight left-right wale exhibit ghde-rellecion symmetry (gure 14) The operation consis simply ofa wanstion (te glide) followed by acllection ina ine paral othe dso of the drplacesee (he «ashe nein theFigre}-Equivslny, you cold look glide reflstion tsa miror relleton followed by a anti pill to the mero ‘Glideflecton syste scontmon in asic frees ad alsin the ‘ctamicsof ative Americans in New Mico. Whereas pater that are transla syrmetis tend to convey an impreision of motion in one dliecsion, glide reflectionsymmenic designs ceate a saakeike visual Scnaton: Rel sakes achieve these patterns by akemately contracting Gi lang suucle groupe on both sides of thee body —wbea they Contac a group onthe sgh, the corresponding group on the lee is relased and vice vers “3 CRCECE LP CLP CIP COP ‘Weharsby now encounter lhe rigid rnsformatons that eeu in symmetries in two dimensions. The word rigid simply meass that after the transformation every two point end wp the same dance apart ts they were o begin with-we cannot shrink Srey, inflate thom, of efor dem. Tthee-dinnsioal pace in ationtotherymmetey under ans lation, rotation, retin, and glide refletion, we ea find yet nether 22TH EQUATION THAT COULDN'T RE SOLVED symmetry hoown a srs symmety Tiss the type of symmetry of a ‘hokacte, where rraion about some as iscombined with tansation Slang tha ex Some stems cf plans where the leaves appeu ac egular Feterals after completing the same facéon af a ful cle around the em, poses thi symmetry. Ate these all she syramettes that exis? Debit aot ALL ARE EQUAL, BUT. “Thearts and sieves are chock-full f fascinating examples of symme- tay under the operations of tanshtio, rotation, reflston, and ide felleton, and we shall erm to soe of those in Inter chapters. An Jmtereting tunsformation the aor geometrical in mature involves permattions the diferent rearangemen of ebects, numbers, or on eps For example to test he wear of four differen: brands of es you muy want wo scematize strategy tht wl nearest you interchange ‘the positions ofall th ties very mon for four month, with every ire ‘ccapying every position. If you label the brands A B,C, D and the positions FL (rot lel) FR (Gront igh), RL (res ef) and RR (reat Fight) hen the fourmoneh plan may lok something like this Fa ABO Sed BOA DC Tad oC DAB Towh DC BA ach row or coum represents 2 permutation of the eer A B,C, D. "Nore ha: osecomplish th desired est, no row or calun should con- tain the sme libel ice. Squares ofthe 4 4aypepresncd hee are Iknown a8 Latin square, and they were staied extensively by the famous Swiss mathematician Leonhard Fal (1797-83). Incidentally, you may gct a kick out of elving che following popular eighteenth fensury cd purale: Arrange al the jacks, queens, kings and aes fom feck ofcards in squat, so that a sit value would appear evic in ny row, column, o the two main diagonals. In case you archiving ‘eouble with his batogue braintatr I show a solution in appa 1. ‘Permutation estur in ich diverse eicumstances asthe changing of partners in Scot fll dancing and shed decks of cards The risin concern ofthe operation of permutations i not so much with ‘which object es wheze as with which object ales the pace of which. For esampl inthe permutation: 123444132, the number twat replaced by 4,2 wa ceplacd by 1,3 styed put and was replaced by 2. ‘Thine ually denoted by ta) 4132 whet each number inthe upper row is replaced by da number diecly Utne, The sie permatation opention ould have ban writen as (2) 312, lost precisely the same replacemens took plac, and the order in ‘which the numbers are writen sa importa. You may wonder how ana sytem be symmetric ie, not change) under pervtaion? Ei Aen if you have en books ca shal and they ate all ilferen, any Detmisaton tha is ot the deny (Fearing the books unzosched) wil ‘hinge the order. However if you have thee copies ofthe same hook, for example, clearly some permutations wil eve the order unchanged "The Engish enayist and eric Charles Lamb (1775-183), own for hie selrevesing obserction of life, had 2 rather tong opinion on some such book “rearrangement” He write, “The human species, cording tote bert theory Tan form of incomporad of wo disinct ‘ase the men who boc and the men who lend. Your borrowers of books—those mutlators of coletons, spies ofthe symmetry of halves and crestors of odd volumes” ‘Synmry ander permutation ean appedein move absvact circum: stances, Examine the content of the phrase "Racal s David's cousin.” "The meaning will remain unchanged if we itechange Devid with Rachel The same i not re forthe phrase "Rachels Davis daughtes.” Sina the equality berween wo quads «= ,issymmerric under ‘the ransposton of ead b sine =the sume relation. While his Imay som ial, the sation “greater than” (commonly denoted by the symbol >) docs nos have this property, The rlton > B means “ais {rater than Peanut the lets res in >a" ie rete than 12" and the two rations ae mutually exclusive, 4M THE EQUATION THAT COULDN'T BE SOLvED. ‘Varios mathematical formulae can lo be eytmetic under perma takons. The value ofthe expression ab + be + cx where ab mins times band Son) remains unchanged under any permurainn ofthe lester Bc Aa Tahal icon nore dtl later there ae pecs ix possible permetstions of thie leer, including one (the fst below) thats the deni, mapping each leer ot il (Sr) )) a) ) You ca aly chack da the ove expressions uralerd by these pee- ‘mutations Friastance, she hind permton chang ino, bing and into « The ence formula therefore changes ore: be + ct + ah, However, since in whichever order we ether multiply mur or ad ‘them up the esulis always the sme, che new expression iegul to the orginal one, People plying oulee ina casino provide an intersting case of symmetry under permutations. The role is composed ofa rotating ‘hed in which eghten numibeted ra slo, cighteen black slo, nd ‘vo green slots commonly abled @ and 09 sre masked. A white bale eopped onto te pining wheel, and ater elling rapidly aroand the ma few dines, it bounces round and eventually Lnds and comes 9 resin neo he sles When the wheal smachaniclypefcthe game of rouleue is ablutlysymmerc under any permutation of the pay cs. Everybody has precely the same chance win o lore erespetve cof whether they se exting rats oF novies, experts in probability theory or village iis. The expectation tn win rather to lone, about 3.3 cents for every delle bet, onthe average) does nt depend onthe amount of money being risked or on the player's sratgy. While no mechanical ‘eel can be tly perfect, centuries of profits for casinos prove that ‘wiowever small deviations may exist ehey donot lad to signin oliton ofthe symmery wider permutations ‘Notall gambling svt ae symm uader permutations of the players. Blackjack sa card game in which each gamble athe able play guns the dealer, Hach number ead has its face yale, with lhe pi ture cazde having she valve of wn, andthe ace ollerag the option of bing counted as one or eleven, The objective isto getthe sam ofthe ral- sus of the del card tobe cose otwenty-one th the eae’ hand ft without excealing twenty-one. What mes blackjack tymmeti with sespet to pezetations ofthe players is preily the fat ha strategy Jimportan. In the 1960s casinoe dconered the hard way the exten to ‘which suategy counts. Mathematician Eaward O. Thorp uncovered a flaw inthe way casinos were cleusing probable wen the deck of cards was dwidling dow. He usd tis information to develop an caremely profitable method of ply. In cae you wonder, the casinos have since taken corective ation. Nonetheless, it remains true that strategy doos make «difference in blackface Indes, sie MIT sedente tno communicated with crd-coua cade words made millions in Lat Vegas inthe 19905, ‘ermitation symmetry and some ofits scien close cousins have far-reaching consequences the phy ssf the subatomic woel, and we shall esi to some of thos in chapter 7. Here I wll only mention ‘belly one simple example cat expins an otherwise perplexing fact shout atoms of dillerent elements —they ce ll oughly the same sie, Atoms somewhat resemble miniature solar systems. The electrons ia the atoms ae orbiting » central nls jut a he planes ae evr ‘ngeroundchesun. Theforcthaholdstheclectrons inti ois, bow ve is eleeomagnes, rather then gravitational, The les cones prorns that have positive cleric charges (and neurons, which ae neu- tel) while the ein cletons (equal in nimberto the protons) te negatively charged. Opposite eee changes attract eich oer Unlike Dhnetary systems, which ea have obits of any srs stoms mst obey the rules of che subatomic real—quentum mech, The highest probabiiy of finding the elecroasis along eran speci, “quanived™ ‘orbits restricted tpt series of discrete ies. The permited o- bias are characterized mainly by their energy. Broadly speaking, the igher dhe energy associated with the obit the lirgrit siz, The sua tions somewhat analogous oa ight of stirs, wih the nucleus repre seating the botsom and the higher energy levels corresponding to nresigl higher steps Here however, comes the purzie Physi and indo everyday if teach that systems ae mos stable in thee lowe passibleenrgy sate (eq aballrollingdownthestepeaches silty t {he bottom). This would mena tht wheter we ate dealing with hel roger atom, which hs only one clacton, the oxygen tom, with ight eleezons, or uranium, sisety-ewo leon all he eletrons would be 26 THE EQUATION THAT COULDN'T BE SOLVED, ster inthe smallest poe sibleorbit Because the nore electron and. procoach aoms ae, the stronger the ‘lestreal trction between the maceas and he dle trons, re would expect hat the oxygen atom would be muller the bydeogen to andthe wanna mach sale i (st depicted schemtilyin Spore). Experiences show; howeves hat thie ar fom being the case. Rather, respective ofthe amber of lee eons, the atoms arefound we oughly thesumesize. Why? "The expansion was gin by the famous phyicit Wolfgang Pali (1900-55). He proposed in 1925 a poweeul law of nature (which won im dhe Nobel Prize in 195), hoown as the Pauli exclsion principle "The lay eet o some elememary particles of dhe same type, such 26 lecrons.Allte cleczonsin the universe ae precy deni interne ‘of thse intrinsic properties ther ino way ta diinguish ne for the ‘other In addition to thei mate and lectric charge, electrons have nother fundamental property ale pin Spin coll be thought of or some purposes ari the eleton were a ny ball spinning around ie ss. Quantum mechanisahe theory that desribee stom light, nd subatomic pariclstells us that the electron spin an have only t0 ‘ates lovely analogs othe ball spinning a specif atin one oF the opposite dren. The Psu exclusion principle ser tha no 10 decors cau bein preciely the same wats; thats ving excl the tame orbit and dieton of pi, Hw is his elated vo symmetry? To phrase dhe exclusion principle more aceursly, we ned wo eelze cat ‘quan mechanics speaks in ce language of probabisies, We ean ‘over determine precisely the locaton of an electron witin the atom. ‘Rats we can only determine che diferent proba of nding et ‘ious positions, The collection of aloft probabilities is kaown at the probity funcin. The peobabilcy funtion plays the role of = snap, showing us where we ae mosikely find the elesteon.Aczoed- ingly, Paul alo formulated hs exclusion principle interns of property ofthe probability function desrbing the mosion of electrons inthe ‘wom, He sisted tha the probability faction is antiymmetial with ‘espectto interchanging any sletron pir Such fneton ical n= symmetric ransposing wo clestrons that move slong these ori td hve the same pin cretion changes only the ig af he fanction (eg from pls 0 minus), but noite vale. Foe instance, imagine that the leer «symbolizes the vl of ame propery of the Brst elec, aud th ever the vale ofthe same propery fr the second elec. A function that kes the value «+ bis symmetrical under the exchange of| thermo cletronsrincea + bequalsb + Onche other hand, a function represen by « ~ Bi ansymmetria, since changing wo band Bo (changer a ~ Binto ba and b~ ais preely the negative of ~ B (eps 3229-5 Pauls statements therfore the crux of the mate, On one hand we koow thitf we interchange wo denial elecons this should maken Alfeence whatcever and the probably function showld remain ‘unchanged. Oa the aor ce exclusion principle tells thatthe proba bility fanston should change i siga (from postive to negative) tnder sucha pennutation, What kind of ruber sequal tthe neatve ‘ofall Thee is only one such number—zer. Changing the signin Front of azera doesnot change the vale by one os mins aro equals plus ao, In her words, he probability of indiagewo electrons with the ame spin moving long the same ori i zero—no such tate exists Paul's exlision principle ela that lecron withthe same prop. cates do's ike tobe busch up inthe same place. Consequently, no ‘ore thin tw eletrons (one with each dizction of spi) ae allowed in any given obi Instead of llth leaons crowding the smallest ow st energy) orbit, electrons ae forced into successively higher-nerey Tacgersize orbit, The net resale is that eventhough the sizes of all he ‘quantized obits are smaller in the beaver (ore proton-re) toms, ‘erons have no choice but to occupy aa increasing number of orbit, ‘Amazingly the behavior ofthe probability fneton ander permstsions “of electons provides the explanation wh, unlike in gare 15, toms are early equ insze ‘Return now o permutations in gener olor transformation may ‘be conser a ns in For any pater that ar mer than one coos, sich ea chessboard, the colors canbe etrchangel. Stil speaking, cou paras areunllynoteymmetria undereolorrasformation— they do change A few ofthe imaginative design of M.C. Escher come just about a close atone ax expect o bing olor symanetrial gure 16). Nore thatthe mage does aot enn traly the sme wien blk nd 28 THE EQUATION THAT COULDN'T BE SOLVED. hice are transposed snd neither des a chessbose However the gon- ‘alvin impression remain the same. acher himself was never quite are wha ad ed im to his obees- sion with wansasion words, ,ymmetri, colorsymmetic patents, In is own 1 often wondered st my own mania of mtking periodic drawings ‘Onvelsked a indof mine, a peyclegi,about te reson of ‘beings fancinate by then, bhi answer dh mut be den by 1 praive, prototypical instinct door a0 xpi anything. What aa be the eon of my being lore inthis eld? Why does sone of my fllow-rite sem be fiat ae Tam by these nner looking shapes? Ye dae rales are pel objective ones, wich every sci could apply in his own per~ sonal wy! Bacher rewospecive musings touch ‘pon to import topic the rle of symmeuy ia the. “primitive” process of perception, and the alee that undedie symmetry. The laver topic wil be dhe subject of several Inter chapters However, since all the information we obttin about the ‘world comes through ou sees, the question of symmeary 3 poten {ial factor in peoeprion becomes of fe -1wo- eyE s’'dniM eht ni yrtemmyS wohl for pereeption. However, the eyes are only optical levies perception reguits the patcpstion of the bin ‘Vinual perception fa soraplexof proses inthe bai, combining sn sstons frm the external word to produc a informative image: Our ‘svrontene produces many mote ignals tan wecan posbly analyze Consequently, pseepion inelves sing through the weikh of dats aud sletng the most fl fests, When homan ches players con Sider their next move, they do not mentally examine every possible ‘ore onthe board. Tey fous on those few moves that sppest 1 be ‘ort bent when viewed agai the batlin of accumlatd infor ‘avion-tht thing we call memory In che Woody Allen movie The (Cuts of be Jade Scorpion, Dan Aykroyd play the bos of a insurance company. In one sene heels one of it investigators, C. W: Briggs (played by Woody Allen), “You know, there's award for people who think everyone i conepirng sist them.” To which Woody Alen repos, “Yea —perpivel” Ia zeit, of course, paranoia epresens 2 ‘tortion of percep. ‘Oa de face of vsul percepsion must accomplish an imposible task, Ie need to tracaform the physial impinging of waits of Eight nergy (lle photons) on receptors athe bck af the eye into mental Piturs of objects As we sl eon ee symmetry prover an spor tanaid toward this gosh ist however we mus appreciate what types of lficaies have to be overcame, Antonomty can help llostate ane of the many obs aN mongall the human sese, vision is by farthe mostimporant ~six- Groups ma isso acter ie it oe yos wat ihe ern nina er oun ese Ter Wey sd Gale Alyse dos cauin pean of pote sclans How un emus a Ered ec lao tl syhings ? The fee tent inows ine seamed er Arpmvedso ptr omel byt tae en indeed os har {ileum ALO trate Along se snl pans Iau touch conte OL GAS, COAL GO Allan ‘on iw mn ie sangenc ding mening tear inGALOlen we cnn These nt lsat adsense npc toc earl Tek ‘cual Balowforsrosnepenn AD BA Theo, By cscon vm oman ACH AG, BCA Ch Teper a ep spe Wi Cyc ne ele owe th habe pes id, ore e he Sheds male or Aree precy per eee (ceri A soca cn bec otha on pc tin fr i Tete nen ef rugemes ele 2 “i=. TRennelgeplaoay soto Fo he ce emCATOW cea ilantndnfndea t= 28aier Sang day morn face ca metre Detredx (Bere pean Tote be Tasch emanates (780-1 es he tou (fcr ena prota Te ub of pe Imran aie cree pecs (One ofthe ear recorded studs of permutations occurs not ina rath Book, bat ther ina hook of Jewish mystiim that dats back xo sometime betwen the hid and sith entries, The Sefer yee (Book of Craton) ie short enigmatic hook that propose to salve the 95~ tery of eration by examining combinations of the lees of the Hebrew spabee. The general premix of the book (bic x tba by kab bali legend tothe Jewish forefather Abraham) is tha diferent cate- ies of leer frm divine building boc rom which allhings cabo ‘onstrated Inthispisit, the book states, "Tw eters bud ewe words, ‘ioe build ai words four build 24 words fie bul 12, sx bil 72, seven build 040°" "To see how uncovering the retions among differet permutations and thee properties ca lead to new and deper insights, examine the ‘penta tha permutes GALOISinto AGLISO, This operation ie ep- ‘sete by in the action troduced in Chapter) fee Lor B) AGLISO, ‘where cach lee inthe upper row is replaced by the leer directly Underneath ic Specify, Gir eplaced by A, Aby GL stays the same by I Eby and Sby ©. ‘What happens if we apply the sme operation tice? You en easly choc thit performing pessely the same subctions 2 second tine turn the AGLISO into GALSOL Imagine now that starting with ‘GALOIS, compurertharhas gone haywirerepas these opeation, sy 27 rmes Can we prac the final outcome? OF course, weeould find the esl the hard way by applying se operation aps and again, ‘rth in extremely tious and rely prone to many aes. I there anasir wy tnd the answer? You may wane spend few minutes thinking about thi problem, since ie decipbering reves interesting properties of permatons thu ris the spit of Galois root Inany ‘x1 ive the solution present ‘Qa the ecreational mathematics side, permutations an thse cha- scenes featured promiendy in at lest eo very fans puzzles the 1-15 puzle and Rubik's Cube. “The 14-15 pul wasietsoduced inthe 1870 by America's rete pra, Simul Loyd (1841-191), and for awhile i drove the entre ‘worl ray. A the time, Loyd was already the foremost composer af 60 THLE RQUATION THAT COULDN'T BH SOLVED. PRM Ee f Bis] mp stel7ie|[siei7feii4{slel7 of ioftfi2)| 9 tof mafi2| 8 | 9 [10] 11) © © ame hess problems inthe United States, a welt chess columns in ser tral magazines, Even before the brated 14-18 puzzle, however, be began publishing «wide wary of other types of matemascal puzzles. The 4-15 puree consis ofa gid of 4x 4 es numbered 1-15 ce 74) The general gol wa ose the tls yp, down, or sideways and rearrange them in serial order from any intl confgursion. The atc erin ofthe 14-18 parse tat xusedall te commotion was fein which alle numbers were ia replat order with the exception of the {4 and 15, which were reverse (in figure 740) Loyd offered = prize of one thousand dallas ta te ist person who could present + eves fides that woul led to the swapping of only the 14 andthe 1. “The puctle created an unprecedented mania and faite people mn allwalisof ie Lays son, whe lier published facinating ellecion of his father’s mind bopling rides (called Cylpedia of Paz) ‘wrote in is description ofthe universal infamation that * Known to fave deseretheirplows" to struggle withthe store puz- ale elie, Loyd knew very wel hat he bd shed absoluely noth ing by offering the pre —he could prove shat the puzzle coulda’ be solv To understand the eax of Lay’ prou, consider fr example, the following permatsion: CECERGlaecaicacta 23467 ensHu Bs BH ‘You can easily discover dt his permutation is achievable from Loyels 115 god, originally arranged in serial ede (ain gure 74) Bven if you doa’ have Loye' ei at hand, by mentally wating the followin quence of moves (where every number repeesent the aneto be sli z0 cnours 1st ‘he Banke space) 15, 14,13, 9,5, 6,75 12, 18—yow wil find thet produces the dest permutation above Le ws count up how many es of numbers in this permutation ar ot of cei natural oder. For fnetancrinthe natural onde, comer air 5, btn ths permutation the cede of zu revered, We can take each digi inthe secon ow in tm and count up the umber of reveal 1 conrbutssnoroverls.—Oreverals 2 contributes no reversls Orevereals 5 comtributesno reversals reveals 4 contibutesnoreverls — Oreverls 6 isallowed by I revere 7 iafollowed by § A rerenal 1 iafollowed bys 1 reversal 12 sfollowedby 510,119 4reveras 5 conmibures no revere eevee 10 isfollowed by 1 eerenal 11 isfollowed by 9 A reversal 15 isfollowedby9,13,14 Severs 9 contsibutesno reveals Oreverals 13 contributesno reversals Oreverals 14 contibutesno reveals Oreversls Total momberofreversls 12 “The oulaumber 12, even, so this parca permutation called anseven permutation Silly, whe the cube of reversals i odd, we ‘peak of an odd permutation Aline experimentation wll eonvince you thar, by design, the permutations thar can be sieved with Lovds toy ac always eve, a Tonga you start withthe aturl order and end up leaving the boron right-hand corner emp Since reversing the one pair of number 14 and 15 results nan old permutation (1 revere, 0 Imre how hard you ry you can never recover the natal order. Loyd sve assred that he would never have to pay the offered pie, he 14-15 poze somehow caught your fancy ad you happen to bein possession of Lays toy, you may want toy the following rom the inl configuration with the Mand 15 reversed (igure 745), ean ‘you reich the ner order th acan quaein the final eonfigraion fea the upper lfehand corer (ain figure 4s)? The answer pre sted in appendix, s@ THe BQUATION THaT COULDY’ Bx SOLVED. Abou century afer the appearance of Loe pul the Hung ian architect end Rubik came up with n even more sophisticated ed Inugly popula device. Rubik's Cube (Sgute 79) consists of 3 3 3 satis of smaller ees The faces ofthe ll ues ae paid in i ferent colors, and the faces of the large cabo are pivoted such ha they canbe rotated in different directions, ‘The objective ofthe purl io po sce = configuration in which eich face ofthe age cubeiscomposed of 2 single color Rubik invented dhe ube in 1974 aod by 1980 ie bessme sinteraionalsesiion Fr about ‘vee yer the Robilkcraze swept the world. From lie children at school {© CHOs in fancy oie, everybody was tying to solve the cube, and to Ao tin evershortar tne. In honoof the inventor on june 8, 1982, Badapet hosted ches world championship forthe ues cube valve ‘Ninetsen national coasts tha ad been held eater produced cha ons who cameo Budapest-Thewinne, Minh’ Tha ol the Unite Sate, secomplihed the isk aan atonishing 2298 seconds even though the cubes used inthe competition were new, and therefore lower in thee roration than ther “beoken in” counterpars, Sil hover times have ‘nen reorde since. Atchetime ofthis wring, Jes Bonde of Denmark fas registered the shortest tne ahieved nan oli champlonship— 16.53 seconds! Even fone were to exch the innumerable imitations of Rubles Cube, a saggeriog numberof more than 209 mln cabes lave bee volo dite worldwide. Since there reno fewer tha 43252003,274,489,856000 differnt patterns that the cube can ahi, you exo imagine thee nobody has sctully trad them allo solve ie Rates, each move of Rubik's Cube maybe represented as permutation of venice. Ide the sosion ‘othe cube’s purl an be cast entirely in dhe langage of goup theory. Mathematician David Joyner of the US. Naval Academy hes even schematized a complete course ingroup theory around Rubik's Cobe snd sila mathematical toys, Retuming now so the GALOIS-AGLISO przzle presented athe ges EE SS crours 1 KIT AI PAI RD beginning ofthis section, how can we find whit permutation would be obtained aher 1327 applications ofthe sare transformation? Fis, note thatthe operation leaves the lever I snchanged, nthe thi position, Second we discover thatthe lees OS ate permuted in such sway shar heeft sto move them “round in xi” as fn igute76)This issimilarto baseball practice outing in which the players form ne ad after shooting to the bathe ach player eeturns to te back ofthe lie Peemataions ofthis sype ar elle eli permatatons. An impor tant property of cyclic permutations i the they return to che ginal cede after + fed! namber of applications clad the period. Figure 76 Shows thar te eyelie permetaton of O, 1 Sis of period 3—the oder (OI is recover after shrce ep. The I point to notoe abot the [GALOIS-AGLISO operstionisthattheleters Gand A ate transpose, _recumnngto the original order her every two operations. we put all ofthese pieces of information tpethen we discover ancy way to crack. this problem. Sine O 5 eearato thee inial order every thee steps and G, A every two steps (and Lzessns unchanged), we recover the ‘crginal word GALOIS every 3 2~ 6 steps (you can check this by repeating te substation ix ine) The number 1327 i aqua t0 6 221 + 1 This means tha after the 1826th (= 6» 221) ep theses spell GALOIS, and then the one extra ep simply changes that to AGLISO~the fal word. There isan importa leson to be learned here: The analy of be properties ofthe pertain allowed we to pre dis with confidence the ial ontome tone astualy having ta per form the experiment. This was the basic pilosophy Behind Gales ‘theory aswell He discovered an ingenious way to deere whether an ‘equation is slvable from an xaminssion of the symmetry properties of Permutations ofits solstons Just as ewo consecutive sulle of «deck of cards produce nothing ‘more than diferent sulle performing one permotstion allowed by another sults ia yet thied permutation. Conseqeey prmrations obey the closure requizemest of groups stomatal. Res that = 6 THK EQUATION THAT COULDN'T BE SOLVED. sere near that combining two group members by the group operation elds anothr geoup member For inetance, the st ofall the posive numbers (integers, facions, and isons numbers) forms 4 group under the operation of ordinary muiplisaton, partly the requirement of lure is sts, becasethe product af any wo pos tive umber ie abo a posi ssmber. The idetifcatin of permis tions as ruc mathematical objects worthy of study ths set Gloom the oad to formulating group theory. GROUPS AND PERMUTATIONS Permutations and groups ar intimately rel. atthe group com ep was born ou ofthe stay of ermuttions. For Gali his was only the fist ina series of ingens inventions ad ideas that paved the way ta hisriliant pool Let me provide brie reminder ofthe precise definition ofa group introduced in chapter 2. A gronp consis of meters that have co obey four rates with respec to the group opeston. Asan example tae the «lection ofall he possible deformations tha an be peforined on a piece of Play-Doh, with the operation being defi “fllowed by.” “The rules areas follows, is, the combination of any two members by the group operation has to produce another member (his propery called cost). Obvious deformation ofthe Play-Doh followed by 1 second deformation simply genertes another deformation, Second, the operation has co be associative, meaning that when thee ceded members are combined the elt does aot depend on which we are combined fist. Successive transformations sh asthe Play-Doh defor smatons sai thi eale automatically. Third, te group aust contia + “satus quo” or identity element, tac when combined with any other member it eaves that member unchanged, Forte Ply-Doh, the defor ‘maton “do nothing” plays this rol. Final foe every member ofthe group there must he an "as you ware” of vere eloment uch that when & member is combined with ts inert the combination yields the identity For every Phy-Doh deformation, there exists a counerdfor= mati that etores the orga shape, anne now the collection ofall posible permuraion ofthe thee mbes 12,3: cnours 18 8) &) 62) @) @) @) "Here order to he abet refer them, tive labeled each one of the

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