• Question: Who is your favourite scientist and why?

    Asked by monika97 to Arttu, Ceri, James_M, Monica, Philip on 16 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by catherineeqi, reen2k111, 22nebula21.
    • Photo: James M Monk

      James M Monk answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Many of the 20th century physicists were extremely interesting people (I guess earlier ones were also interesting, but I know less about them since they are not in living memory). Feynman, Dirac and Bohr spring to mind as obvious examples. For the moment I am going to say Feynman, not only because he was super-smart (they all were), but he seemed to keep a sense of fun and perspective about life.

    • Photo: Arttu Rajantie

      Arttu Rajantie answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I have to agree with James and say Richard Feynman. He had a great intuition, so he could see beyond the equations, and the way we actually think about the fundamental laws of nature today is largely due to him.

    • Photo: Philip Dolan

      Philip Dolan answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I like Dirac. He was pretty eccentric, in a quiet sort of way. Also super smart. I like the anecdote that all the smartest theorists used to play a game:

      Using only mathematical symbols and exactly four ‘2’s how many other numbers can you make (for example 8 is pretty easy 2+2+2+2 = 8)?

      Dirac thought about it for a while and wrote down:

      n = – log2 [ log2 (2√(√ … √2))]

      (see http://www.settledistrictu3a.org.uk/STRSUBS/dh/U3A/Maths/Dirac.html for the actual formula)

      where if you do ‘n’ (i.e. any number you want) square roots where the ellipses is (the ‘…’) you will get ‘n’ as your answer. So he made every whole number that exists with his formula!
      All the other theorist were upset cause he ruined their game tho.

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