Healey, Richard (2007) Perfect Symmetries. [Preprint]

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Abstract

While empirical symmetries relate situations, theoretical symmetries relate models of a theory we use to represent them. An empirical symmetry is perfect if and only if any two situations it relates share all intrinsic properties. Sometimes one can use a theory to explain an empirical symmetry by showing how it follows from a corresponding theoretical symmetry. The theory then reveals a perfect symmetry. I say what this involves and why it matters, beginning with a puzzle which is resolved by the subsequent analysis. I conclude by pointing to applications and implications of the ideas developed earlier in the paper.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Healey, Richard
Keywords:	theoretical symmetries, empirical symmetries, gauge symmetry, relativity principle, Faraday cube, electromagnetism
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User:	Richard Andrew Healey
Date Deposited:	19 Dec 2007
Last Modified:	07 Oct 2010 15:16
Item ID:	3744
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date:	December 2007
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/3744

Available Versions of this Item

• Perfect Symmetries. (deposited 19 Dec 2007) [Currently Displayed]
  • Perfect Symmetries. (deposited 03 Aug 2008)

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