SG2 on Space Episode 173: Godel and Incompleteneness Theorem

In 1931, the Austrian logician Kurt Gödel published his incompleteness theorem, now one of the greatest intellectual achievements. The theorem states that in a mathematical system there will always be true statements that cannot be proved. The result was a huge shock to the mathematical community, where the prevailing view was optimism about the power and reach of math. It had been assumed that math was complete -- meaning that all mathematical statements are either provable or refutable. Gödel demonstrated this was incorrect by constructing a true statement that was not provable.

Today, we explore what this theory entails and how this affects physics as we understand it. A bit of math, physics and philosophy with some history thrown in here for another good episode of entertaining education brought to you by Shen and Leonard.

[ShenGe]

Apologies for the first few minutes missing.