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HISTORY OF PHYSICS
Wolfgang Pauli (25 April 1900 – 15 Dec. 1958)
What a physicist! What a personality!
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Wolfgang Pauli (25 April 1900 – 15 Dec. 1958)
What a physicist! What a personality!
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Peierls:
Of course one should not publish a result until one is convinced of its validity and its meaning. Pauli put this very nicely (sic) in a famous remark:
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Of course one should not publish a result until one is convinced of its validity and its meaning. Pauli put this very nicely (sic) in a famous remark:
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When a colleague asked him, "I can't think as quickly as you", not to present his arguments as quickly, Pauli replied: "I don't mind if you go slowly think, Mr. So-and-so, but I have to protest if you publish faster than you think."
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The same Rudolf Peierls remembers:
The agreement of a rough theory with the experiment never impressed him very much. He liked to quote the "Law of the Preservation of Sloppiness".
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The agreement of a rough theory with the experiment never impressed him very much. He liked to quote the "Law of the Preservation of Sloppiness".
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This law roughly says that any first approximation is better than one should expect, and if one were to work out more approximations, the results would be much worse.
I have had many opportunities to apply this law.
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I have had many opportunities to apply this law.
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As remembered by Viki Weisskopf:
Pauli was a very big friend of Scherrer's, who was a typical experimental physicist and an excellent teacher who loved simple, clear explanations. Scherrer once came to Pauli when he was preparing his lecture and said:
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Pauli was a very big friend of Scherrer's, who was a typical experimental physicist and an excellent teacher who loved simple, clear explanations. Scherrer once came to Pauli when he was preparing his lecture and said:
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Scherrer: I'll show you something, it's so easy to explain. One spin is down and the other spin is up; and that's so nice and simple.
Pauli: "It's easy, but also wrong!"
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-- Happy Birthday, Pauli!
-- Pauli: "Nonsense!"
Pauli: "It's easy, but also wrong!"
8/8
-- Happy Birthday, Pauli!
-- Pauli: "Nonsense!"
