Physics Quote of the Day (March 22 - March 28)

"Young people should be given good support and freedom in their research. They are the greatest source of scientific creativity because they are not as committed to existing scientific orthodoxy, and they have the energy and enthusiasm to push new ideas." Jerome Friedman, born 28 March 1930.

"I did not think; I investigated." Wilhelm Röntgen, born 27 March 1845.

"The people who do make big discoveries are the ones who somehow manage to free themselves from conventional ways of thinking and to see the subject from a new perspective." Anthony Leggett, born 26 March 1938.

"The next revolution in scientific discovery will depend on scientific interdependence." Robert J. Birgeneau, born 25 March 1942.

"Mathematical physics is in the first place physics and it could not exist without experimental investigations." Peter Debye, born 24 March 1884.

"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation." Wernher von Braun, born 23 March 1912.

"Science walks forward on two feet, namely theory and experiment." Robert Millikan, born 22 March 1868.

Physics Quote of the Day (March 15 - March 21)

"The principles of the theory are derived [...] from a very small number of primary facts." Joseph Fourier, born 21 March 1768.

"To have a good memory the first thing you must do is to trust your memory." Paul S. Epstein, born 20 March 1883.

"It is because I know all that science can bring to the world that I shall continue my efforts to ensure that it contributes to the happiness of all men, whether they be white, black, or yellow, and not to their annihilation in the name of some divine mission or other." Frédéric Joliot-Curie, born 19 March 1900.

"If you do so and so, then such and such will happen." Walter Shewhart, born 18 March 1891.

"Experimenters are taught in an explicit way, often, how to write up reports of their experiments. But the tradition here is like sports reporting. Only the results of the experiment are reported in any serious detail. The procedures are not." Patrick Suppes, born 17 March 1922.

"[The] aim [of this paper] is attained if by means of it the variety of facts be presented as unity to the mind." Georg Ohm, born 16 March 1789.

"An experiment is a question which we ask of Nature, who is always ready to give a correct answer, provided we ask properly, that is, provided we arrange a proper experiment." Charles V. Boys, born 15 March 1855.

Physics Quote of the Day (March 8 - March 14)

"A truly rational theory would allow us to deduce the elementary particles (electron,etc.) and not be forced to state them a priori." Albert Einstein, born 14 March 1879.

"... one can still say that quantum mechanics is the key to understanding magnetism. When one enters the first room with this key there are unexpected rooms beyond, but it is always the master key that unlocks each door." John_Van Vleck, born 13 March 1899.

"Look here, I have succeeded at last in fetching some gold from the sun." Gustav Kirchhoff, born 12 March 1824.

"Increased knowledge clearly implies increased responsibility." Nicolaas Bloembergen, born 11 March 1920.

"But mainly I learned, in approaching the measurement of new phenomena, not just to consider using existing apparatus but to allow the mind to wander freely and invent new ways of doing the job." Val Fitch, born 10 March 1923.

"Paris somehow lends itself to conceptual new ideas. I don't know why it is. There is a certain magic to that city." Walter Kohn, born 9 March 1923.

"Usually, a discovery is not made in the easiest but on a complicated way; the simple cases show up only later." Otto Hahn, born 8 March 1879.

Follow the Physics quotes of the Day on my Twitter timeline. You may also find them by the appropriate hashtag #pqotd Twitter search. All these quotes are also on Wikiquote.

Physics Quote of the Day (March 1 - March 7)

These (sometimes abridged) quotes are published daily on my Twitter timeline. You may also find them by the appropriate hashtag #pqotd Twitter search.

"Modern physics often advances only by sacrificing some of our traditional philosophical convictions." Fritz London, born 7 March 1900.

"The number of different optical phenomena has become in our time so great that caution must be taken so as to avoid being deceived, and also to refer the phenomena to the simple laws." Joseph von Fraunhofer, born 6 March 1787.

"What is familiar to professional scientists highly needs to be placed in the public domain." Jacques Babinet, born 5 March  1794.

"I feel that matter has properties which physics tells you." George Gamow, born 4 March 1904.

"Science is too important not to be a part of popular culture." Brian Cox, born 3 March 1968.

"If physics is too difficult for the physicists, the nonphysicist may wonder whether he should try at all to grasp its complexities and ambiguities. It is undeniably an effort, but probably one worth making, for the basic questions are important and the new experimental results are often fascinating. And if the layman runs into serious perplexities, he can be consoled with the thought that the points which baffle him are more than likely the ones for which the professionals have not found satisfactory answers." Edward Condon, born 2 March 1902.

"One of the best ways to keep a secret is to shout it." Edwin Land, died 1 March 1991.

Physics Quote of the Day (Feb 22 - Feb 28)

Here are the Physics Quotes of the Day for last week. These (sometimes abridged) quotes are published daily on my Twitter timeline. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @materion. You may also find them by the appropriate hashtag #pqotd Twitter search. All these quotes are also on Wikiquote.

"The only sane policy for the world is that of abolishing war." Linus Pauling, born 28 February 1901.

"The new and the old methods complete one another on numerous points, and their simultaneous use will increase our knowledge of the outer atmosphere of the Sun much more rapidly." Bernard Lyot, born 27 February 1897.

"I have discovered, in fact, that a man, whatever may have been his origin, his education, and his habits, is governed, under certain circumstances, much more by his stomach than by his intelligence and his heart." François Arago, born 26 February 1786.

"A time will come when men will stretch out their eyes. They should see planets like our Earth." Christopher Wren, died 25 February 1723.

"Young people must break machines to learn how to use them; get another made!" Henry Cavendish, died 24 February 1810.

"There is also hope that even in these days of increasing specialization there is a unity in the human experience." Allan McLeod Cormack, born 23 February 1924.

"If we wish to lend more color to the theory, there is nothing to prevent us from supplementing all this and aiding our powers of imagination by concrete representations of the various conceptions as to the nature of electric polarisation, the electric current, etc." Heinrich Hertz, born 22 February 1857.