Open your physics textbook in a million years and its equations will work as they do now, which holds profound implication for the law of conservation of energy. Leon Lederman:
What we have learned is that, if the laws of physics were changing in time, then the principle of energy conservation, would cease to be true. If the forces of nature are different at one time than at another, then the amount of energy invested in a physical process will be different than the amount of energy invested in the same process at a later time. However, we’ve learned from many other diverse observations that the laws of physics are not changing through time over time scales almost equal to the age of the universe. Thus, the result of any particular physics experiment that we do tomorrow, or yesterday, or ten seconds ago, or ten billion years, or a thousand billion years in the future will produce the same results. The laws of physics, and thus all the correct equations in physics, are the same at any time in the history of the universe. This is an experimental fact. The laws of physics appear to be steadfast and eternal.
We have just glimpsed one of the most important relationships in nature: Energy conservation is associated with the fact that the laws of physics do not change in time!
(Quoted from page 90 of Beyond the God Particle, by Leon Lederman and Christopher Hill. Prometheus Books, 2013.)
For a brief biography of Leon M. Lederman, click here. For images of or relating to Leon M. Lederman, click here.
For a brief biography of Christopher T. Hill, click here. For images of or relating to Christopher T. Hill, click here.
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