RIP Kenneth Nordtvedt

[Jonathan Scott]

I just saw that physicist Kenneth Nordtvedt died on October 9th, according to his Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Nordtvedt
He had a fluent grasp of relativistic gravity theories, and is particularly known for using the Lunar Laser Ranging to check the equivalence principle in a way which is now known as the Nordtvedt effect, eliminating some alternative theories to General Relativity. I also appreciated his paper on varieties of frame-dragging, both rotational and linear.

He was later known as a genetic genealogist.

I'm surprised that the only news about it or obituary I can find is in a local paper for his Bozeman address which requires a subscription.

A few years ago I asked him a question about the effect of unbalanced pressure as a gravitational source in a spherically symmetrical system (for example a star which is oscillating between different sizes) and how this could be consistent with Birkhoff's theorem, and he both gave me a very helpful quick summary in terms I could understand and pointed me to a relevant paper he wrote in 1968. And the only reason I discovered his death is that I was thinking of asking him another GR question, then saw the Wikipedia entry. I will certainly miss him.

 

[jedishrfu]

Thats happened to me when i went to visit some teachers i had.

In one case, we made a pact to meet for lunch and I had gotten him a gyroscope as a remembrance of a story we shared when I was a sixth grader.

Sadly, he paased away suddenly while in a family trip just days before we were to have lunch at a local Jewish deli with fantastic sandwiches.

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While on a field trip to NYC to see the UN and the Hayden Planetarium, the school buses pulled over at a reststop with a gift shop. I saw a gyroscope for sale and bought it. My dad had one and we used to do tricks with it.

—-

Anyway, years later, i went back to see him and he retold the story. Each time the dollar amount got bigger and bigger as in they saw you coming. He gave me a nickname of Gyroscope Jimmy.

He was very influential in my pursuit of a physics education with his encouragement. At the end of the school year, he told my parents I was definitely college material.

As part of the reading assignment cleanup, he sent me home with the last book I needed to read to complete sixth grade over the weekend with the instructions to come back and tell him I read it wink-wink.

He must have known I was already reading at an eighth grade level. I didn't until i was tested in middle school.

These are the people we miss most and should strive to be more like.