[RUME] Street-Fighting Mathematics - ADDENDUM

[Richard Hake]

In my previous post I forgot to include this Philip Morrison quote:

"There is a kind of power over the theoretical and experimental 
studies in which [the prospective physics graduate student] is 
engaged which is difficult to define, but whose presence is perhaps 
more important than the knowledge which is more formal and complete. 
There is one test of such power which is at the same time a 
remarkably apt method for its development.  The method was the common 
and frequently amusing practice of Enrico Fermi, perhaps the most 
widely creative physicist of our times. Fermi delighted to think up 
and a once to discuss and answer questions which drew upon everyday 
experience, and upon the ability to make rough approximations, 
inspired guesses, and statistical estimates from very little data.  A 
few samples are indispensable: How much does a watch gain or lose 
when carried up a mountain? How many piano tuners are there in the 
city of Chicago?"
       Philip Morrison (1963)


REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy <http://tinyurl.com/create.php>.]
Morrison, P. 1963. "Fermi Questions," Am. J. Phys. 31(8): 626- 627; 
online to subscribers at 
<http://scitation.aip.org/dbt/dbt.jsp?KEY=AJPIAS&Volume=31&Issue=8>.
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