Re: Kelvin quote

[Uri Ganiel <uri.ganiel@WEIZMANN.AC.IL>]

> I'm looking for the quote by Kelvin that physics was done.  I may have
> found it here, but unsubstantiated, in the "Of Physics" section in
> <http://members.tripod.com/~zoam/kelvquote.html>; it says, "There is
> nothing new to be discovered in physics now, All that remains is more and
> more precise measurement."  But I'd like a more complete quote in context
> with citation and date.  Can anyone help?
>
> Thanks,
> Larry

I am familiar with the quote Larry asks about, but it was NOT by Kelvin (a Brit), it was Michelson(an American)...
Here is the quote:


The more important fundamental laws and facts
of physical science
have all been discovered,

and these laws are now
so firmly established
that the possibility of their
ever being supplanted
in consequence
of new discoveries is exceedingly remote . . .

Our future discoveries must be looked for in the
sixth place of decimals.

Albert Abraham Michelson, 1894
(First American to win the
Nobel prize in physics, 1907)
(A.A. Michaelson at the Ryerson Labs dedication in 1894. Quote found in "Physics, The Pioneer Science", Lord William Taylor (Oberlin College), Houghton Mifflin, 1941)

Best            -               Uri






Prof. Uri Ganiel
Head, Department of Science Teaching
The Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot 76100, ISRAEL

Phone: 972-8-9343894
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E-mail: uri.ganiel@weizmann.ac.il