Feb

23

On Growth and Form, by D'Arcy Thompson

The quest of physical causes merges with another great Aristotelian theme—the search for relations between things apparently disconnected, and for ‘similitude in things to common view unlike’. Newton did not show the cause of the apple falling, but he showed a similitude between the apple and the stars. By doing so he turned old facts into new knowledge; and was well content if he could bring diverse phenomena under ‘two or three Principles of Motion’.

The author's goal was to show organic forms exist in conformity with physical and mathematical laws. This was Chair Victor Niederhoffer's genius: to take similitudes from trees, surfing, checkers and give mathematical form to the chaos of the markets. The search for causes is in vain. Quantifying a relationship can provide meals for a lifetime.

All we can do meanwhile is to analyse, bit by bit, those parts of the whole to which the ordinary laws of the physical forces more or less obviously and clearly and indubitably apply. But even the ordinary laws of the physical forces are by no means simple and plain. In the winding up of a clock (so Kelvin once said), and in the properties of matter which it involves, there is enough and more than enough of mystery for our limited understanding: ‘a watchspring is much farther beyond our understanding than a gaseous nebula.’ We learn and learn, but never know all, about the smallest, humblest thing.

This famous quote is by the astronomer Johannes Kepler:

Plurimum amo analogias, fidelissimos meos magistros, omnium Naturae arcanorum conscios

Here is the translation from Latin to English:

I love analogies most of all, my most faithful teachers, acquainted with all the secrets of Nature.


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