googol
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jan 28 17:40:43 UTC 2011
Thank you.
But I didn't say it was easy.
JL
On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Re: googol
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Those who read both _One, Two, Three, Infinity_
> and _Mathematics and the Imagination_ (where one
> should find the square root of minus one) at the age of 12 may be excused.
>
> Joel
>
> At 1/28/2011 10:51 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >At 10:40 AM -0500 1/28/11, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>I read the same book when I was twelve. And I remember the "googol"
> thing.
> >>But he didn't attribute it to his nephew.
> >>
> >>BTW, acc. to Google Books the passage doesn't exist. Like the square
> root
> >>of -1.
> >>
> >>JL
> >
> >
> > From the OED, which I just realized might elucidate the matter, s.v.
> GOOGOL:
> >
> >1940 KASNER & NEWMAN Math. & Imagination i. 23
> >The name 'googol' was invented by a child (Dr.
> >Kasner's nine-year-old nephew) who was asked to
> >think up a name for a very big number, namely, 1
> >with a hundred zeros after it.
> >
> >I knew there was a young nephew involved, I just forgot whose.
> >
> >LH
> >
> >>
> >>On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 10:29 AM, Laurence Horn
> >><laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
> >>
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>> -----------------------
> >>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >>> Subject: Re: FW: Pauli
> >>>
> >>>
>
> >>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> 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.
> >>> >
> >>> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>--
> >>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >>
> >>------------------------------------------------------------
> >>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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