In the Beginning Was Information Read Online Free PDF

expected perturbations caused by their mutual gravitational attractions, of the orbits of the then known major planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The French astronomer Urban J.J. Leverrier (1811–1877) also computed the deviations of these orbits from the perfect Kepler ellipses independently. It was found that Jupiter and Saturn "lived up to the expectations," but Uranus exhibited deviant behavior.
    Relying on the validity of Newton’s law, both astronomers were able to deduce the position of a hitherto unknown planet from these irregularities. Each of them then approached an observatory with the request to look for an unknown planet in such and such a celestial position. This request was not taken seriously at one observatory; they regarded it as absurd that a pencil-pusher could tell them where to look for a new planet. The other observatory responded promptly, and they discovered Neptune. Leverrier wrote to the German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle (1812–1910), who then discovered Neptune very close to the predicted position.
    2.5 The Classification of the Laws of Nature
     
    When one considers the laws of nature according to the ways they are expressed, one discovers striking general principles which they seem to obey. The laws can accordingly be classified as follows.
    Conservation theorems: The following description applies to this group of laws: A certain number, given in a suitable unit of measurement, can be computed at a specific moment. If this number is recomputed later after many changes may have occurred in nature, its value is unchanged. The best-known law in this category is the law of the conservation of energy. This is the most abstract and the most difficult of all the conservation laws, but at the same time it is the most useful one, since it is used most frequently. It is more difficult to understand than the laws about the conservation of mass (see footnote 5), of momentum, of rotational moment, or of electrical charge. One reason is that energy can exist in many different forms, like kinetic energy, potential energy, heat energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, and nuclear energy. In any given process, the involved energy can be divided among these forms in many different ways, and a number can then be computed for each kind of energy. The conservation law now states that the sum of all these numbers stays constant irrespective of all the conversions that took place during the time interval concerned. This sum is always the same at any given moment. It is very surprising that such a simple formulation holds for every physical or biological system, no matter how complex it may be.
    Equivalence theorems: Mass and energy can be seen to be equivalent in terms of Einstein’s famous formula E = m x c 2 . In the case of atomic processes of energy conversion (nuclear energy) there is a small loss of mass (called the deficit) which releases an equivalent amount of energy, according to Einstein’s formula.
    Directional theorems: From experience in this world we know that numerous events proceed in one sense only. A dropped cup will break. The converse event, namely that the cup will put itself together and jump back into our hand, never happens, however long we may wait. When a stone is thrown into a pool of water, concentric waves move outward on the surface of the water. This process can be described mathematically, and the resulting equations are equally valid for outward moving waves and for the imaginary case if small waves should start from the edge and move concentrically inward, becoming larger as they do so. This converse process has never been observed, although the first event can be repeated as often as we like.
    For some laws of nature, the direction does not play any role (e.g., energy), but for others the process is unidirectional, like a one-way street. In the latter case, one can clearly distinguish between past and future. In all cases where friction is involved, the processes