Sum Up Quotes (3 quotes)
If I were forced to sum up in one sentence what the Copenhagen interpretation says to me, it would be “Shut up and calculate!”
In column, 'Reference Frame: What’s Wrong with this Pillow', Physics Today (Apr 1989), 9. The Copenhagen interpretation refers to quantum mechanics. Mermin has since asked, 'Could Feynman Have Said This?', in Physics Today (May 2004), 10, if Richard Feynman may have used the “Shut up and calculate” retort first, since there were numerous examples giving that attribution on the web. To date (6 Jun 2015), no response supporting Feynman as a source has ever been received by Mermin. This was confirmed in an email to the Webmaster, which stated, “Nobody ever sent me any evidence that Feynman had said it. I’ve concluded that he didn’t, but it’s hard to prove a negative.” The reasonable conclusion is that this would almost certainly be a misattribution by the so-called Matthew effect to a more-famous person. Even seen attributed to Paul Dirac! In a Physics Forum web post (28 May 2014) The Austrian remembers being taught by a QM lecturer who liked using the quote, but added: “there is not much else to do in QM anyway.”
Such is the substance of my faith; and if I were to sum up my credo in a single word, it would be that proud motto of Fustel de Coulanges, Quaero, I seek to learn.
From Conclusion of Presidential Address (29 Dec 1950) read at the annual dinner of the American Historical Association, Chicago, 'Faith of a Historian', The American Historical Review (Jan 1951), 56, No. 2, 261-275.
Thus, we have three principles for increasing adequacy of data: if you must work with a single object, look for imperfections that record historical descent; if several objects are available, try to render them as stages of a single historical process; if processes can be directly observed, sum up their effects through time. One may discuss these principles directly or recognize the ‘little problems’ that Darwin used to exemplify them: orchids, coral reefs, and worms–the middle book, the first, and the last.
…...
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) --
Carl Sagan
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our
Science
and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists,
geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists,
pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.
Names index: |
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
F
|
G
|
H
|
I
|
J
|
K
|
L
|
M
|
N
|
O
|
P
|
Q
|
R
|
S
|
T
|
U
|
V
|
W
|
X
|
Y
|
Z |
Categories index: |
1
|
2
|
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
F
|
G
|
H
|
I
|
J
|
K
|
L
|
M
|
N
|
O
|
P
|
Q
|
R
|
S
|
T
|
U
|
V
|
W
|
X
|
Y
|
Z |