Version 1
: Received: 9 September 2024 / Approved: 11 September 2024 / Online: 11 September 2024 (08:45:50 CEST)
How to cite:
Kupczynski, M. Mathematical Modelling of Physical Reality: From Numbers to Fractals, Quantum Mechanics and the Standard Model. Preprints2024, 2024090878. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0878.v1
Kupczynski, M. Mathematical Modelling of Physical Reality: From Numbers to Fractals, Quantum Mechanics and the Standard Model. Preprints 2024, 2024090878. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0878.v1
Kupczynski, M. Mathematical Modelling of Physical Reality: From Numbers to Fractals, Quantum Mechanics and the Standard Model. Preprints2024, 2024090878. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0878.v1
APA Style
Kupczynski, M. (2024). Mathematical Modelling of Physical Reality: From Numbers to Fractals, Quantum Mechanics and the Standard Model. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0878.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Kupczynski, M. 2024 "Mathematical Modelling of Physical Reality: From Numbers to Fractals, Quantum Mechanics and the Standard Model" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.0878.v1
Abstract
In physics we construct idealized mathematical models in order to explain various phenomena which we observe or create in our laboratories. In this article, I recall how sophisticated mathematical models evolved from the concept of a number created thousands years ago and I discuss some challenges and open questions in quantum foundations and in the standard model. We liberated nuclear energy, landed on the Moon and built ‘quantum computers’. Encouraged by these successes many believe, that when we reconcile the general relativity with the quantum theory then we will have the correct theory of everything. Perhaps, we should be much more humble. Our perceptions of reality are biased by our senses and by our brain bending them to meet our priors and expectations. Our abstract mathematical models describe only in an approximate way different layers of physical reality. To describe the motion of a meteorite we can use a concept of a material point but the point-like approximation breaks completely, when the meteorite hits the Earth. Similarly, thermodynamic, chemical, molecular, atomic, nuclear, elementary particle layers of physical reality are described using specific abstract mathematical models and approximations. In my opinion, the theory of everything does not exist.
Keywords
physical reality; perceptions and neuroscience; Bild conception; causality; mathematical modelling; classical mechanics; chaos theory, fractals; quantum mechanics; standard model
Subject
Physical Sciences, Theoretical Physics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
