[js1138]

Is anyone else troubled by the fact that the beautiful equations for gravity, relativity, etc. are just approximations (relativity falls apart at the atomic level). And the really great numbers are irrational?

[William Tell]

js1138 said: "Is anyone else troubled by the fact that the beautiful equations for gravity, relativity, etc. are just approximations (relativity falls apart at the atomic level). And the really great numbers are irrational? "

No. The beauty that people are seeing is the satisfaction derived from understanding. Simple Newtonian physics is beautiful as long as it appears to predict physical outcomes. When the quantum theory is developed, it destroys the beauty of Newtonian physics, but replaces it with a beauty which derives from the ability to describe a wider range of phenomenon.

The things that we do not yet understand will someday become the basis for a more complicated, but more "beautiful", equation describing them.

[headsonpikes]

"And the really great numbers are irrational."

Root 2 bump. ;^)

[Leto]

They don't fall apart per se. At different ranges of time. space and mass some equations provide 99.99999% of what we observe. If I drop a rock, electro magnetism, the strong force, relatavistic gravatational and weak forces are acting, Newton's equations describe the event with a high degree of precision.

Such is not the case when describing the interaction of 2 particles at an atomic level, the effects of gravity are negligible.

But Einstein was and others are looking for a unified field theory which describles everything.