PHYSICS 7C Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes -

• School: Berkeley
• Department: Physics
• Course: PHYSICS 7C
• Professor: kasen

Document Summary

The concept of symmetry may be one of the most important guiding principle in physics, pointing us to the right form for the fundamen- tal equations. Mathematically, symmetry is the property of something remaining invariant (unchanged) under a certain transformation. Figure 1. 1 shows common shapes possessing numerous re ection and rotational symmetries corresponding. The circle is the most symmetric shape; it can be re ected about an in nite number of lines or rotated by any angle and remain unchanged. Equations of physics also possess symmetries, although they may not be so obvious to the eye. These symmetries have deep physical meaning; they mean that the laws of physics refer to no special point in space, and no special direction in space. We also believe that the laws of physics should hold in any inertial reference frame. Figure 1. 1: some symmetries of various common shapes. The shapes remain unchanged if all points are re ected about the dashed lines shown.