HISTORY OF PHYSICS

Wolfgang Pauli (25 April 1900 – 15 Dec. 1958)

What a physicist! What a personality!

1/

2/

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:

3/

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."

4/

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".

5/

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.

6/

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:

7/

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!"

8/8

-- Happy Birthday, Pauli!
-- Pauli: "Nonsense!"