The Closest We’ve Come to a Theory of Everything

this is a video about a single simple rule that underpins all of physics every principle from classical mechanics to electromagnetism from quantum theory to general relativity right down to the ultimate constituents of matter the fundamental particles all of it can be replaced by this single rule feels like we're approaching spooky territory we're approaching spooky territory I hear you and I agree it may in fact explain the behavior of life itself I think I'm stuck in some classical mindset where to me the local picture the differential equation way of thinking about the universe that that's really what's going on but I fear that I have it exactly backwards and it all starts with a simple problem if you want to slide a mass from point A to point B what shape of ramp will get it there the fastest this is known as the problem of fastest descent you know Common Sense you might say take the shortest path straight line from A to B but if you bend the ramp down a bit at the beginning well the mass accelerates to a higher speed earlier so even though it travels slightly farther it travels faster and beats the straight ramp so the question is what shape provides the perfect balance of acceleration and path length to minimize travel time according to Galileo it was the ark of a circle he showed that this is faster than any polygon but is it the fastest nearly 60 years later in June of 1696 Johan bruli set this problem as a challenge to the best mathematicians in the world mainly because he's a big showof and he wants to show that he's better than all of them he gave everyone six months to come up with Solutions but none were submitted so gotfried libnet a friend of beri persuaded him to extend the deadline to give foreigners a chance and I think Newton was probably the intended target because everybody thought of him as the best and so Yan would have wanted to show that he was better than Newton he was um no longer really active mathematician or physicist he was working as the warden of the mint like a big high government position and on the 29th of January 1697 Newton returned home after a long day at work to find Boli's challenge in the mail ...