Emmy Noether's Theorem Discovered? A Beautiful Animated Short Explores the Legend

After her death in 1935, Einstein wrote that Emmy Noether (left) was "the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began." This delightful animated short tells the story of a train journey she took, usually told as a moment when she suddenly realised the connection between symmetries and conservation laws while travelling, but - alas - historians have found little contemporary evidence for the story. Like the tales of Newton and the apple or Archimedes and the bath, it may contain a some truth but has probably been embellished over time. Or perhaps not - maybe it really happened as we see in the animation below. Let’s just say that the story is not as firmly established as her actual mathematical achievements. What is definitely true is that her theorem had enormous consequences for modern physics.Emmy Noether discovered a hidden rule of the universe: whenever nature treats different situations as equivalent, something must be…