This article is cited in 12 papers

FROM THE HISTORY OF PHYSICS

Birds and frogs in mathematics and physics

F. Dyson

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Abstract: Some scientists are birds, others are frogs. Birds fly high in the air and survey broad vistas of mathematics out to the far horizon. They delight in concepts that unify our thinking and bring together diverse problems from different parts of the landscape. Frogs live in the mud below and see only the flowers that grow nearby. They delight in the details of particular objects, and they solve problems one at a time. A brief history of mathematics and its applications in physics is presented in this article.

PACS: 01.30.Bb, 01.65.+g, 01.70.+w

Received: June 23, 2009

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0180.201008f.0859

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 2010, 53:8, 825–834

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