![]() Lacking a laser, the brightest available light source for my gravity laboratory was the Sun. Laboratory scene from the late 1950s (lab photo). It would be better to go home and think (I suspect he had in mind at least in part subconsciously while doing something else) about what one had done today and what one was going to do tomorrow. His words were, “If one hadn’t accomplished what one wished to by 6 o’clock, it was unlikely that one would do so thereafter. In this regard, Rutherford punctually closed the Cavendish Laboratory at six o’clock each evening. And “time off” from thinking about a specific problem I believe often helps the subconscious to provide a solution. Minds-apparently even Einstein’s-tend to “do science” subconsciously until, in the middle of something else, assorted bits of information coalesce into a solution for an existing problem or even a new idea. The caller says, “This is the professor.” (This is how Einstein introduced himself on the phone.)Įinstein: I’ve got it! (Eric had expected to hear the latest theory.) Suspenders! Some five weeks later at 11 o’ clock at night, the phone rings in Eric’s study where he is working on his lecture for the following day. It slips down from time-to-time requiring that I tug it back up, but that’s a small price to pay for the comfort it gives me. At his suggestion, I now wear a corset to help keep my back straight, and it really helps. I no longer have to lie down between lectures with the result that I can use this hour to get something useful done. ![]() The only problem this semester is that for the hour between my 9 o’clock and 11 o’clock (physics for poets and pre-meds) classes, I literally have to lie down on the floor behind the lecture bench as my back is giving me a really hard time.Įinstein: Oh, let me give you the phone number of a doctor friend of mine from the old country who now practices in New York and is very good with back problems.Ī few weeks later, a new conversation ensues across the same picket fence.Įinstein: Did you ever go and see my friend in New York? Some years ago, Einstein’s neighbor Professor Eric Rogers (author of Physics for the Inquiring Mind and one of the great teacher/scientists that I have known) recounted to me this conversation “across a picket fence” that occurred in Princeton on Mercer Street in the early 1950s: Particularly, during this special Einstein year, I find myself pondering what factors result in novel ideas … and if one isn’t an Einstein, whether one shouldn’t simply give up trying to come up with them.Īt this point, vis-à-vis the question of how do ideas come about, let me relate an Einstein story that may give some insight into the workings of his mind. In this article, I will also grapple with the fascinating question of “where do ideas come from?” Since I was a student, I have always wondered how ideas came about. When I enquired as to how these two areas “got lost,” I was told that there wasn’t room for them-despite the glaringly empty space following the last (important but rather arbitrary) entry, Education.Įmbellished Pastorale in F (Johann Sebastian Bach). As you can see, neither gravitational physics nor precision measurement made the list of “ALL” areas of physics. In March of 1999, when the American Physical Society had its centennial celebration, it provided a viewgraph (for the use of a group of centennial speakers-I was one) that was entitled “Throughout the Year we are Celebrating ALL (capitalization theirs) Areas of Physics” ( Fig. In spite of the importance of this field to scientific progress, precision measurement science is often overlooked. The reason is that this area of physics is not just a collection of accurate measurements rather it is an area of fundamental importance that involves measurement science applied to a broad range of related experiments and therefore no “s.” I also want to reflect on precision measurement-not, the reader needs to understand, precision measurements-by using these various measurements as examples of experiments of this type. ![]() The final measurement in this group of related experiments was a test of the inverse-square law of gravitation on the scale of meters to kilometers. The other equivalence test that I will mention was a result of the lunar laser-ranging experiment. ![]() ![]() One experiment that I will describe tested the equivalence of free fall for different masses in response to local attracting matter (the Earth) rather than to more distant matter (the Sun, which has been used in recent equivalence tests). Reprinted by permission of Universal Press Syndicate. ![]()
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