Paul Dirac, one of the greatest mathematical physicists of the last century, is a good person to have on your side when you’re arguing with your experimentalist colleagues:
I think there is a moral to this story, namely that it is more important to have beauty in one’s equations than to have them fit experiment.
(“The Evolution of the Physicist’s Picture of Nature”, Scientific American, May 1963.)
A dangerous principle, but one that’s very powerful in the right hands… The whole article is worth reading.
(DP)
Degree of Freedom 