[Ads-l] Quote: An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Excellent, Jim. Thank you very much for investigating and sharing what
you have found. I was planning to create a separate article about
statements using the comprehension of the "man in the street" as a
benchmark for clarity in the domains of science and mathematics. One
of the most well-known instances was employed in 1900 by mathematician
David Hilbert who also specified a French attribution.

Date: 1902 July
Periodical: Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
Volume: 8
Article: Mathematical Problems: Lecture Delivered Before the
International Congress of Mathematicians at Paris 1900
Author: Professor David Hilbert
Descriptive Note: Translated for the Bulletin with the author's
permission, by Dr. Mary Winston Newson. The original appeared in the
Göttinger Nachrichten, 1900, pp. 253-297, and in the Archiv der
Mathematik und Physik, 3d ser., vol. 1 (1901), pp. 44-63 and 213-237
Start Page 437, Quote Page 438
Publisher: The Macmillan Company, New York

https://books.google.com/books?id=PaU-AQAAIAAJ&q="first+man"#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
An old French mathematician said: "A mathematical theory is not to be
considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can
explain it to the first man whom you meet on the street." This
clearness and ease of comprehension, here insisted on for a
mathematical theory, I should still more demand for a mathematical
problem if it is to be perfect; for what is clear and easily
comprehended attracts, the complicated repels us.
[End excerpt]

Regarding your other citation: The dates for "Nature" snippets in
Google Books are often inaccurate, so 1869 is suspicious. Luckily, the
volume numbers for "Nature" are usually ok. If you search for --
Nature, Volume 308 -- you are led to the following page which
specifies the year 1984.

https://www.nature.com/nature/volumes/308

If you search for 1984 within the target volume the resulting snippets
indicate that 1984 is probably correct.
Garson

On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 5:31 PM James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 20 Oct 2019 04:11:11 Zone - 0400 ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> >The QI website now has an article about the saying in the subject line.
> >https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/10/19/barmaid/
> >
> >The Yale Book of Quotations has a somewhat recent citation. Wikiquote
> >has a 1973 citation. Nigel Rees (in his October 2019 newsletter) says
> >the saying was attributed to Ernest Rutherford by 1965. The QI article
> >gives a 1955 citation.
> >
> >[ref] 1955 November, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal
> >Society, Volume 1, Albert Einstein 1879-1955 by Edmund Whittaker,
> >Start Page 37, Quote Page 54, Published by Royal Society, United
> >Kingdom. (JSTOR) link [/ref]
> >
> >https://www.jstor.org/stable/769242
> >
> >[Begin excerpt]
> >Some of it may have been due to the popular principle attributed to
> >Rutherford, that an alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless
> >it can be explained to a barmaid.
> >[End excerpt]
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=EXkYAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA336&dq=number+theory%2Bcan+be+explained+to&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQloqRnK7lAhVhUt8KHbRKDvUQ6AEwAHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q=number%20theory%2Bcan%20be%20explained%20to&f=false
>
> The Telegrapic Journal August 15, 1878 page 336 column 1 top paragraph
> from "Address of William Spottiswoode, Esq."
> "Considering, however, our limitations of time, and the varied nature of our audience, it would seem not inappropriate to suspend, mentally if not materially, over the doors of our section rooms, the Frenchman's dictum, that so scientific theory "can be considered complete until it is so clear that it can be explained to the first man you meet in the street."
>
> somewhat similar
> https://books.google.com/books?id=M0pVAAAAMAAJ&q=theory%2B%22man+in+the+street%22&dq=theory%2B%22man+in+the+street%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0ucmkoK7lAhVsc98KHSrNCXMQ6AEwAnoECAAQAg
>
> _Nature_ Volume 308
> snippet view only, Google Books claims 1869 and author is Sir Norman Lockyet
> page 801
> "if some of the subject matter of biology lends itself to elegant mathematical treatment, then why should not the numerate man in the street be given the pleasure of enjoying it?"
>
> These are the two earliest usages of "main in the street" to mean "a randomly selected person" that Google Books has.  The 1869 cite is the earliest usage of "numerate man" (presumably coined to complement "literate man") in Google Books.
>
> I do not know who the "Frenchman" was.  I have a suspicion it was the French mathematician Henri Poincare.
>
> - Jim Landau
>
>
>
>
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