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Re: [Phys-L] How to become a good theoretical physicist?



Hi,

John D. wrote:

"We should consider the hypothesis that the world would be better off if schools made less of a distinction between theoretical physics, experimental physics,
applied physics, et cetera."

I agree! I suppose that a good theoretical physicist should (must?) have a good grasp on experimental physics (and nowadays also on computational physics as argued by John D.).
It reminds me of Enrico Fermi who probably was the last intellectual giant who did phenomenal work both in experimental and theoretical physics. Some years ago, I had a privilege to meet
a retired physics professor who had followed Fermi's lectures as a student. He highly recommended a book "Fermi remembered". I promised to read the book; I did and I didn't regret.

The book portrayed a physicist who was largely self-taught. He started studying university maths and physics as a young schoolboy on his own, in the manner envisioned by Hooft. When Fermi took his university entrance exams (still young,16 or so if I recall correctly), a professor did not believe that Fermi could had written his essay on propagation of sound in a medium. Fermi was asked to explain his answer. It turned out that Fermi really understood the phenomenon in terms of partial differential equations.

Cheers,

Antti






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