Mathematical Principles of Beauty

by Avis Hickman-Gibb

“Have you ever noticed how a face just grabs you from the start? Or not.” Electra asked, staring intently into the bathroom mirror while wiping away the day’s grime with the spatially co-ordinated gel, and searching her reflection for possible flaws and theoretical blemishes.

“The relative position of every like particle, every atom, either attracts or repels. It’s these fine differences between the rational and irrational which go to make up the whole,” she said, throwing her used tissues into the bin and prinking at her glowing reflection.

She squirted toothpaste onto her brush and began to scrub her teeth.

Her Muse rested elegantly against the Dirac framework, stropping his nails idly and cleaning his coat with his tongue.

“Am I saying that the state of any system is represented by a wave whose strength gives the probabilities of the different possible results of measurements?” she enquired of her Muse, with a quirk of her elegant brow.

Startled by her thought, she stopped scrubbing, rinsed — and focused on her cat.

“Eh?” Electra queried, pointing her toothbrush towards that silent feline, which just blinked a response.

“I’m not sure I’d go that far,” she continued, finishing her ablutions. ”After all, that sounds like a theory concordant with relativity... and I have a fair degree of uncertainty I would go that far.

“In all probability I think the question boils down to this: what is the right sort of equation to fully describe the charged constituents of ordinary matter? In effect, what is the equation that governs the dynamics of attraction, whilst satisfying my requirements... and so giving sensible physical predictions? If you could answer me that... then I reckon I would know what it was that attracts one entity to another.”

Her Muse purred, stretched; then yawned.

Electra smiled. “Maybe it just boils down to smell. The pheromones. You just say ‘I like the way you smell’!” She clicked the light off and padded towards the bedroom.

“Come on, Schrödinger, let’s go to bed.”