Joint AIP/AustMS Public Lecture
Date: Tuesday, 16th October, 2001
Time: 7:30pm
Place: Union Hall, University of Adelaide
Emeritus Prof. Roy Chisholm
(University of Kent) "Space, Time and Matter"
Over the ages, philosophers have asked why space and matter share the same
arithmetic properties of distance measurement, or 'metric'. Newton`s
postulates of absolute space and an evenly-flowing time complicated the
question, since this space and time are not experimentally verifiable
concepts.
The simple metrical properties of distance hold in any direction in physical
space. In the nineteenth century, Hamilton and Clifford showed how to extend
these simple metrical rules to the geometry of spaces of three and
arbitrarily high dimensions. Clifford`s algebras not only describe the
geometry of three-dimensional space and relativistic space-time: they are
also fundamental to the theory of elementary particles. Together with
Einstein`s identification of gravitation with curvature of space-time, they
point a way forward to developing a unified picture of space, time and
matter.
