Saturday, January 14, 2017

Anecdotes about scientists


Share an anecdote about a famous scientist. Whose anecdote is the funniest or the most interesting?

5 comments:

  1. Once upone a time Einstein wrote to Charlie Chaplin:
    - People in all over the world can understand your film "The gold rush". And you will certanly become a great man.
    Then Chaplin replied:
    - I admire you more. No one in our world can understand your theory of relativity, but despite this fact you became a great man!

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  2. Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) New Zealand physicist One student in
    Rutherford's lab was very hard-working. Rutherford had noticed it and asked
    one evening:
    - Do you work in the mornings too?
    - Yes, - proudly answered the student sure he would be commended.
    - But when do you think? - amazed Rutherford.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The optimist sees the glass half full. The pessimist sees the glass half empty. The chemist sees the glass completely full, half with liquid and half with air.


    Q: Did you hear about the man who got cooled to absolute zero? A: He's 0K now.


    Q: Why can you never trust atoms? A: They make up everything!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How about the apocryphal story about the MIT student who cornered the
    famous John von Neumann in the hallway:

    Student: "Er, excuse me, Professor von Neumann, could you please
    help me with a calculus problem?"
    John: "Okay, sonny, if it's real quick -- I'm a busy man."
    Student: "I'm having trouble with this integral."
    John: "Let's have a look."
    (insert brief pause here)
    "Alright, sonny, the answer's two-pi over 5."
    Student: "I know that, sir, the answer's in the back -- I'm
    having trouble deriving it, though."
    John: "Okay, let me see it again."
    (another pause)
    "The answer's two-pi over 5."
    Student (frustrated): "Uh, sir, I _know_ the answer, I just don't see how
    to derive it."
    John: "Whaddya want, sonny, I worked the problem in two different ways!"

    ReplyDelete
  5. German mathematician David Gilbert once was asked about the fortune of his former student:
    Oh, this one... Yes, I remember him, -said Gilbert. - He became a poet because he didn't have enough imagination to be a mathematician.

    ReplyDelete

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