Skip to main content
Log in

Invariance, Symmetry and Meaning

  • Published:
Foundations of Physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The role of the concept of invariance in physics and geometry is analyzed, with attention to the closely connected concepts of symmetry and objective meaning. The question of why the fundamental equations of physical theories are not invariant, but only covariant, is examined in some detail. The last part of the paper focuses on the surprising example of entropy as a complete invariant in ergodic theory for any two ergodic processes that are isomorphic in the measure-theoretic sense.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • O. Jones, The Grammar of Chinese Ornaments (Gilbert, London, 1867).

    Google Scholar 

  • A. N. Kolmogorov, “A new metric invariant of transient dynamical systems and automorphisms in Lebesgue space,” Dokl. Akad. Nauk. SSSR 119, 861 (1958); (Russian) MR 21 #2035a.

    Google Scholar 

  • A. N. Kolmogorov, “Entropy per unit time as a metric invariant of automorphism,” Dokl. Akad. Nauk. SSSR 124, 754 (1959); (Russian) MR 2 #2035b.

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Lindenbaum and A. Tarski, Über die Beschränktheit der Ausdrucksmittel deductiver Theorien (Ergebnisse eines mathematischen Kolloquium, fascicule 7 (1934/35)), pp. 15-22; translated by J. H. Woodger, in Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics, 2nd edn., J. Corcoran, ed. (Hacket, Indianapolis, 1983), pp. 384-392.

    Google Scholar 

  • I. Newton, Principia (1686); translated by F. Cajori (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1946).

    Google Scholar 

  • E. Noether, “Invarianten beliebiger Differentialausdrucke,” Nachrichten von der Gessellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (1918), pp. 37–44.

  • D. S. Ornstein, “Bernoulli shifts with the same entropy are isomorphic,” Adv. Math. 4, 337 (1970).

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Palladio, The Four Books of Architecture (1570); translated by Isaac Ware (London, 1731).

  • Y. G. Sinai, “On the notion of entropy of a dynamical system,” Dokl. Akad. Nauk. SSSR 124, 768 (1959).

    Google Scholar 

  • P. Suppes, “Axioms for relativistic kinematics with or without parity,” in The Axiomatic Method with Special Reference to Geometry and Physics, L. Henkin, P. Suppes, and A. Tarski, eds. (Proceedings of an international symposium held at the University of California, Berkeley, December 16, 1957-January 4, 1958) (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1959), pp. 291–307.

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Tarski and S. Givant, A Formalization of Set Theory without Variables (American Mathe-matical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 1985).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Suppes, P. Invariance, Symmetry and Meaning. Foundations of Physics 30, 1569–1585 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026437914611

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026437914611

Keywords

Navigation