This chap has an anecdote associated with him which is probably fictitious, but has become a legend in its own sense, and definitely portrays accurately his aptitude in his chosen field, and his spirit of free-thinking.
He was failed in a school exam for answering the routine question about "how to measure the height of a tall building with a barometer", as "hang the barometer from the roof with a piece of string and measure the length of the string". When he challenged the result, arguing his answer is not essentially wrong, he was asked to meet an arbitrator who said the answer does not show knowledge of science or physics and so he'll need to provide a better answer, preferably more scientific. The student's response was -
"You should drop the barometer from the roof of the building, and measure the time it takes to hit the ground. Then using s = u.t + 0.5att, calculate 's' which is the height of the building. But that's bad luck on the barometer, so you can stand the barometer vertically on a clear sunny day, measure its length and the length of its shadow, measure the length of the shadow of the building, and then using the proportion compute the height of the building". Towards the end he added - "and of course if you want the usual boring orthodox way of doing this, measure the air pressure on the ground and on the roof and that should give you the height of the building".
Of course the chap needs no anecdotes to introduce him. His is unarguably one of the most breathtaking contributions to the golden era of physics, including being one of the founders of the quantum revolution. Apart from proposing a revolutionary new atomic model (for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1922, a year after his good friend Albert Einstein), he was instrumental in mentoring a generation of young physicists like Heisenberg and Pauli and making valuable contributions to quantum mechanics. A vast amount of study and research has been done by a large number of illustrious physicists in the institute named after him in his home country. His epistemological debates with Einstein are still a subject of a good amount of study.
Happy 128th birthday Niels Bohr!
He was failed in a school exam for answering the routine question about "how to measure the height of a tall building with a barometer", as "hang the barometer from the roof with a piece of string and measure the length of the string". When he challenged the result, arguing his answer is not essentially wrong, he was asked to meet an arbitrator who said the answer does not show knowledge of science or physics and so he'll need to provide a better answer, preferably more scientific. The student's response was -
"You should drop the barometer from the roof of the building, and measure the time it takes to hit the ground. Then using s = u.t + 0.5att, calculate 's' which is the height of the building. But that's bad luck on the barometer, so you can stand the barometer vertically on a clear sunny day, measure its length and the length of its shadow, measure the length of the shadow of the building, and then using the proportion compute the height of the building". Towards the end he added - "and of course if you want the usual boring orthodox way of doing this, measure the air pressure on the ground and on the roof and that should give you the height of the building".
Of course the chap needs no anecdotes to introduce him. His is unarguably one of the most breathtaking contributions to the golden era of physics, including being one of the founders of the quantum revolution. Apart from proposing a revolutionary new atomic model (for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1922, a year after his good friend Albert Einstein), he was instrumental in mentoring a generation of young physicists like Heisenberg and Pauli and making valuable contributions to quantum mechanics. A vast amount of study and research has been done by a large number of illustrious physicists in the institute named after him in his home country. His epistemological debates with Einstein are still a subject of a good amount of study.
Happy 128th birthday Niels Bohr!
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