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Re: Listening to Leonids

At 17:14 -0800 11/27/01, William Beaty wrote:

Was it Bohr who said that he never trusted any experiment until it had
been verified by theory?

No, that was Eddington. The entire quotation is "It is also a good
rule not to put overmuch confidence in observational results that are
put forward until they are confirmed by theory." I rather suspect
that he had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek when he said it.
McKay's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations cites the source as an
article by H. Judson, in the Hew Yorker of 4 December 1978, p. 132. I
suspect that is a secondary source since it postdates Eddington's
death by 34 years.

Hugh
--

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

(919) 467-7610

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