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Re: Derivations



Jack Denker responded (I hope not too sarcastically):

At 03:19 PM 8/19/00 -0400, Hugh Haskell wrote:
we say that physics is no more a pile of facts than
a house is a pile of stones

Oooh, what a nice saying. I'd never heard it put that way before.

I'd like to be able to take credit for it, but it isn't mine. The
correct quote, which I paraphrased, and which is clearly much more
literate than my version, is,

"Science is built up with facts, as a house is built with stones.
But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones
is a house."

It is by Henri Poincare. And it is one of the main things I want my
students to come away from my class with. If they understand that
alone, they will be far ahead of almost everyone else.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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