3 ms·
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6972/full/427297a.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6972/full/427297a... How one intuitive physicist re
by mad44 17y ago
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6972/full/427297a.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6972/full/427297a...
How one intuitive physicist rescued a team from fruitless research.
Quote from Freeman Dyson:
In desperation I asked Fermi whether he was not impressed by the agreement between our calculated numbers and his measured numbers. He replied, “How many arbitrary parameters did you use for your calculations?” I thought for a moment about our cut-off procedures and said, “Four.” He said, “I remember my friend Johnny von Neumann used to say, with four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk.
- smanek 17y agoThat anecdote was worth it just for 'Johnny von Neumann' ;-) I've generally heard that most scientists of the day considered von Neumann the smartest man in science (he'd have to be - he single handedly revolutionized several branches of CS, Physics, Math, Economics, etc. Somehow hearing him called 'Johnny' makes him much less intimidating though ...
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- halo 17y agoNon-paywall mirror: http://cmm.cit.nih.gov/~hassan/dyson.pdf http://cmm.cit.nih.gov/~hassan/dyson.pdf