FW: Pauli

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:49 AM -0500 1/28/11, Seán Fitzpatrick wrote:
>My father, who was a student of George Gamov at George Washington
>University, told me of a time a student answered a query from Gamov in
>class.  When Gamov looked at him silently, he added anxiously “
Isn’t that
>right?”.  To which Gamov replied “Right!?!?  That isn’t even wrong.”  This
>would have been in the late ‘40s or early ‘50s.
>
>

Is that George Gamow of "googol" fame?  At least
I recall first encountering "googol" and
"googolplex" in Gamow's _One, Two, Three,
Infinity_, where I recall he credited his young
nephew for the term.  That was a while ago,
though, so I may well be misremembering.

LH

>
>It is perhaps relevant that though my father was a very honest man, one of
>his favorite quips had to do with “never letting a slavish devotion to the
>truth stand in the way of a good story”.
>
>
>
>Seán Fitzpatrick
>Roses are #FF0000.  Violets are #0000FF.
>
>All of my base are belong to you.
>
>www.logomachon.blogspot.com
>
>  -----Original Message-----
>From: Victor Steinbok [mailto:aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM]
>Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 4:52 PM
>Subject: Pauli
>
>
>
>Wolfgang Pauli usually gets credit for the quit, "That's not right--it's
>
>not even wrong!" (or something similar, depending on source). The common
>
>reference for this is from Rudolph Peierls's 1960 recollections (I can't
>
>really call it an obituary):
>
>
>
>Rudolph Peierls, "Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, 1900-1958." (Royal Society, GB)
>
>Biographical memoirs of fellows of the Royal Society 5:174-192 (1960)
>
>
>
>Wiki not only highlights the whole episode in the article on Pauli:
>
>
>
>>  Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch! "Not only
>
>>  is it not right, it's not even wrong!"
>
>
>
>but even has a separate entry for "not even wrong":
>
>
>
>>  An argument that appears to be scientific is said to be not even wrong
>
>>  if it cannot be falsified (i.e., tested) by experiment or cannot be
>
>>  used to make predictions about the natural world. The phrase was
>
>>  coined by theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who was known for his
>
>>  colorful objections to incorrect or sloppy thinking. Rudolf Peierls
>
>>  writes that "a friend showed [Pauli] the paper of a young physicist
>
>>  which he suspected was not of great value but on which he wanted
>
>>  Pauli's views. Pauli remarked sadly, 'It is not even wrong.' "
>
>
>
>It may be impossible to either verify or reject the origin of the
>
>phrase--Pauli died in 1958, leaving a large number of anecdotes about
>
>his life, but not a lot of biographical material, and the quip was
>
>originally supposed to be in German. However, recognizing Pauli's sense
>
>of humor, it is possible that he might have been mocking a religious
>
>argument that relied on a strawman statement that needed a rebuttal, e.g.,
>
>
>
>http://goo.gl/2yadK
>
>Principles of the faith in relation to sin. By Orby Shipley. 1879
>
>>  Take three strict rules for guidance, in regard to devout jealousy
>
>>  against falling into little sins.
>
>>
>
>>  i. Never to allow self-indulgence in any known fault, however small.
>
>>
>
>>  People, in relation to this rule, may be heard to say, " Yes ; it is
>
>>  not right ; it is even wrong ; but, still, I do allow myself in such
>
>>  and such a liberty."
>
>
>
>My brief search revealed little useful information and the statement may
>
>well be original with Pauli. I thought I would throw it out into the
>
>ether and see if anyone has the stomach to check it out deeper (and
>
>perhaps check it out in German as well).
>
>
>
>      VS-)
>
>
>
>PS: I was wondering about the origin because Pauli's other famous quip,
>
>also cited in Wiki has an alternative origin.
>
>
>
>>  "Well, I'd say that also our friend Dirac has got a religion and the
>
>>  first commandment of this religion is 'God does not exist and Paul
>
>>  Dirac is his prophet'".
>
>
>
>As Wiki suggests, a similar statement was made much earlier about Robert
>
>Green Ingersoll. Although it's impossible to judge whether Pauli was
>
>familiar with the previous quip, the likelihood of coincidence seems
>
>rather small.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org