Interesting anecdotes in the history of physics?

[sbrothy]

A famous one.

(Rudolf Peierls documents)

“A friend showed Pauli the paper of a young physicist which he suspected was not of great value but on which he wanted Pauli's views. Pauli remarked sadly, 'It is not even wrong'



Peter Woit used the phrase for one of his books.

Sorry for a little noise (it is a linguistics forum after all though).

I've always loved this story. Apochryphal or not. As Wolfgang Pauli was Austrian, one would assume he expressed it as "nicht einmal falsch".

If you want something said "succint, verbose for terse" German is a good language. They still love their abbreviations (I guess old habits die hard.) They still say "OrPo" and "KriPo" when meaning OrdnungsPolizei and KriminalPolizei, LKV / PKW for LastKraftWagen (truck) and PersonKraftWagen for car (although "auto" may have taken over in daily speech).

They are excused though as they have some extremely long words. :)

More scary though, a lot of political parties still go by weird acronyms with omnious overtones.

Incidentally, I think we Danes are the only people who use the "bil" ([bi:l]) of "automobil(e)" in daily speak, as opposed to all other countries who use "auto". Thanks to some obscure vote in a paper or something. I couldn't find the reason in English.

I'll see if I can dig it up...

EDIT: Found this one, if nothing else:

List of German Abbreviations


EDIT2: Heh, "Stabi": Staatsbibliothek. (State Library) :P

 

[pinball1970]

Sorry for a little noise (it is a linguistics forums afterall though).

I've always loved this story. Apochryphal or not. As Wolfgang Pauli was Austrian, one would assume he expressed it as "nich enmail falsch".

If you want something said "succint, verbose for terse" German is a good language. They still love their abbreviations (I guess old habits die hard.) They still say "OrPo" and "KriPo" when meaning OrdnungsPolizei and KriminalPolizei, LKV / PKW for LastKraftWagen (truck) and PersonKraftWagen for car (although "auto" may have taken over in daily speech).

They are excused though as they have some extremely long words. :)

More scary though, a lot of political parties still go by weird acronyms with omnious overtones.

Incidentally, I think we Danes are the only people who use the "bil" ([bi:l]) of "automobil(e)" in daily speak, as opposed to all other countries who use "auto". Thanks to some obscure vote in a paper or something. I couldn't find the reason in English.

I'll see if I can dig it up...

There are different versions of the Pauli story, in another he was at a conference.

In English we say car, short for motor car. More formally in the police and military they say vehicle, I think in America also.

 

[Hornbein]

That should be nicht einmal falsch.

 

[sbrothy]

That should be nicht einmal falsch.

EDIT: As I admit below: you're completely correct. Typo on my part. Don't know why it was so hard to see! :)

Still, there a some differences between Austrian and German, not to mention Luxembürgich(?)

Hah, "Luxembürgish" alone is a googlewhack!

 

[Hornbein]

No wait... I don't see what I did wrong.....? Though I realize there a some differences between Austrian and German (not to mention Luxembürich(?)) Wasn't that exactly what I wrote?

Hah, "Luxembürgish" alone is almost a googlewhack!

I know basic German and "nich enmail falsch" is not correct. I dunno about Austria.

 

[sbrothy]

I know basic German and "nich enmail falsch" is not correct. I dunno about Austria.

EDIT: So yes, this must have come off as obnoxiously arrogant and incredibly bezzerwisserisch. Again, I apologize.

I think the whole point of the anecdote is about creative use of language. I wouldn't be surprised if some boundaries were pressed.

And yeah, I'm from Denmark. We had 4 German channels and one Danish. Guess where I learned my German. :) I was, in fact, 21 before it dawned upon me that "Sesam Straβe" wasn't German at all but in fact English and called "Sesamy Street". In my defense we didn't have many channels those days.

 

[sbrothy]

That should be nicht einmal falsch.

Oh, sorry! Now is saw what I did wrong! My apologies. I'll correct it immediately!

EDIT: All the way up. *sigh*.

EDIT2: Alright, that was a lot of noise for not very much information. I vote we leave this, if for nothing else my verbose, heartfelt and beautiful apologizes to @Hornbein

Sorry man.

 

[pines-demon]

Very short : Upon losing the use of his right eye, Leonhard Euler said

Now I will have less distraction.

_{I know I have said to avoid anecdotes of mathematicians but Euler did too much for physics to be excluded.}

 

[pines-demon]

Now I will have less distraction.

More context:

Highly respected at the Academy and adored at Catherine [the Great]’s court, Euler now held a position of great prestige and influence that had been denied him in Berlin for so long. He in fact was the spiritual if not the appointed leader of the Academy.

Unfortunately, however, there were setbacks on a personal level. A cataract in his left (good) eye, which already began to bother him in Berlin, now became increasingly worse, so that in 1771 Euler decided to undergo an operation. The operation, though successful, led to the formation of an abscess, which soon destroyed Euler’s vision almost entirely. Later in the same year, his wooden house burned down during the great fire of St. Petersburg, and the almost blind Euler escaped from being burnt alive only by a heroic rescue by Peter Grimm, a workman from Basel. To ease the misfortune, the Empress granted funds to build a new house (the one shown in Figure [from another source] with the top floor having been added later). Another heavy blow hit Euler in 1773 when his wife Katharina Gsell died. Euler remarried three years later so as not to be dependent on his children.

In spite of all these fateful events, Euler remained mathematically as active as ever, if not more so. Indeed, about half of his scientific output was published, or originated, during this second St. Petersburg period, among which his two “bestsellers,” Letters to a German Princess and Algebra.

The joke payed, he improved his productivity.

From: W. Gautschi, "Leonhard Euler: His Life, the Man, and His Works", SIAM Review, 50 (2008), doi: 10.1137/070702710

 

[pines-demon]

PARENTAL PROHIBITIONS

Curiosity driven geometry

Étienne Pascal was a French tax officer and father of the famous mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal. He decided that he will teach his son himself. He wanted Blaise to learn many languages first so Étienne decided to hide all his mathematics books from the house until Blaise reached adulthood (15). This prohibition sparked in Blaise so much curiosity in math, that by the age of twelve he was already proving theorems of geometry by himself. Étienne realizing that his son was good at it, relented a gave Blaise a copy of Euclid's Elements.

Law studies leads to major law

John Powell Hubble was an American insurance executive, father of the famous astronomer Edwin Hubble. He promoted his son to excel in many domains, Edwin quickly became a great athlete (winning track and field competition and leading the University of Chicago basketball team), good with languages and good with math and sciences. After Edwin earned a bachalor of sciences from University of Chigago, John was very sick and made his son promise to not waste time and go into law school. Edwin wanted to go into astronomy, but did not want to challenge his father and went into Oxford to study jurisprudence. During his studies, Edwin had to return to take care of his family while his father was sick. After John's death, Edwin decided to go to work at University of Chicago's observatory and pursue his studies in astronomy. Edwin's law making eventually made it into Hubble's law.

From plumber to Einstein

Leonard Susskind was born into a poor family in Bronx, NY. His father was a plumber, so he had to work as a plumber too. His father wanted him to become a technician so that they could also offer heating services. Susskind had very bad grades, except in math. He took a contest and was accepted into City College of New York as an engineer. While studying he still had to work with his father. However during this time, teachers discovered how good he was in theoretical sciences and encouraged him to go into physics. At some point he had to tell his father that he was going to be a physicist, his father replied

Hell, no, you ain’t going to work in a drugstore.

Susskind replied,

No, not a pharmacist, a physicist.

His father asked

What’s a physicist?

Susskind replied

Like Einstein.

Susskind mother started to worry and said

We’re going to be broke.

His husband looked at her with a plumbing pipe in his hand and said,

Shut up—he’s going to be Einstein.

No more questions asked after that.