““The quarks were originally introduced as mathematical symbols-the carriers of certain properties that would facilitate mathematical understanding of elementary particles. This very role was assigned by Plato to his infinitely thin triangles. But there is a difference: Plato's composite "elementary particles," the polyhedra that we discussed, are models of thought, not physical entities. To Plato it made no difference whether their existence was ideal or real. Triangles and the structures built out of them, to him, served only to show that nature could be described in terms of such mathematical entities.””
![“[M]odern physics has definitely decided for Plato. For the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense of the word: they are forms, structures, or – in Plato’s sense – Ideas, which can be unambiguously spoken of only in the language of mathematics.” quote by Rupert Sheldrake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/219/rupert-sheldrake-11866_physics_m-odern-physics-has-definitely-decided-f_2733720.jpg)
