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http://www.amasci.com/freenrg/laughed.html
On Fri, 5 May 2000, Larry Smith wrote:
I'm looking for the quote by Kelvin that physics was done.
Ah, "Horganism": the belief that the end of science is at
hand. Here are
some similar quotes. Could it have been the Albert
Michaelson speech? I
wouldn't be suprised if Lord Kelvin said something similar. He was
infamous for declaring x-rays to be a hoax, and for pooh-poohing the
possibility that flying machines could be achived.
"The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical
science have
all been discovered, and these 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. A. Michelson,
speech at the dedication of Ryerson Physics Lab, U. of Chicago 1894
"When I began my physical studies [in Munich in 1874] and
sought advice
from my venerable teacher Philipp von Jolly... he portrayed to me
physics as a highly developed, almost fully matured
science... Possibly
in one or another nook there would perhaps be a dust
particle or a small
bubble to be examined and classified, but the system as a
whole stood
there fairly secured, and theoretical physics approached
visibly that
degree of perfection which, for example, geometry has had
already for
centuries."
- Max Planck (Sci. Am, Feb 1996 p.10)
"We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about
astronomy."
- Simon Newcomb, astronomer, 1894
"The whole procedure [of shooting rockets into space]...presents
difficulties of so fundamental a nature, that we are
forced to dismiss
the notion as essentially impracticable, in spite of the author's
insistent appeal to put aside prejudice and to recollect
the supposed
impossibility of heavier-than-air flight before it was actually
accomplished."
-Sir Richard van der Riet Wooley, British astronomer,
reviewing P.E.
Cleator's "Rockets in Space", Nature, March 14, 1936
"So many centuries after the Creation, it is unlikely that
anyone could
find hitherto unknown lands of any value."
- Spanish Royal Commission, rejecting Christopher
Columbus' proposal
to sail west.
Also see