Match the Scientist with the Story Quiz - Comments

[fresh_42]

Greg Bernhardt submitted a new PF Insights post

Match the Scientist with the Story

Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.

 

[jedishrfu]

Great insight, I particularly like the barometer story. It reminds me of the final exam with the question "Is Hell Endothermic or Exothermic and explain why?"

https://www.pinetree.net/humor/thermodynamics.html

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

oh boy I got 4/10

 

[Ibix]

Two! I'd have got three but apparently selected a different answer to one than I thought I had. I actually only knew one (cosmetic physics), so obviously my guessing is sub-par.

 

[BillTre]

I looked at it but didn't even try it.
Way too obscure for me.
If I were lucky I might have gotten one right.

 

[256bits]

Last question was the one most interesting.
Human behavior at its finest; ( and its not so finest )
Koodos to the student who had thought of mind to analyze the problem from a number of angles.
Teachers take note!

 

[Duplex]

No. 10 made my day. The barometer. A wonderful example of the abounding creative talent many brilliant scientists have; to quickly produce a number of parallel solutions or interpretations of a problem.

It also illustrates what we lab rats sometimes call kindergarten solution: Ask yourself if there is a super easy solution and try it first. Everything does not have to be perfect from the outset. It is enough that it is "sufficiently good" to achieve the “boundary condition”. Whether it's a prototype or a pilot study.

It's not easy to guess who that brilliant student was, bored by the simple exam question. Einstein, Pauli, Fermi or Bohr? Four clever Nobel laureates in physics.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

It was not easy. I knew the last and the first one, and guessed a few others. Scored a 5/10.

 

[Fewmet]

A mere two out of ten.

I knew the Ramanujan story (than you, Douglas Hofstadter). I had heard the story in #10 without the claim that it was a famous person. I think I would have guessed correctly on #8 if I had connected that János Lajos Neumann von Margitta is John von Neuman.

 

[pinball1970]

Great insight, I particularly like the barometer story. It reminds me of the final exam with the question "Is Hell Endothermic or Exothermic and explain why?"

https://www.pinetree.net/humor/thermodynamics.html

Yes it would be nice if that one is true.

The heaven hell story is very funny and very clever but the barometer story has a lot more physics in it, I think the barometer wins.

 

[jedishrfu]

Snopes on the Heaven/Hell story:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hell-endothermic-exothermic/

and this one on the Barometer story:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-barometer-problem/

 

[Asymptotic]

I looked at it but didn't even try it.
Way too obscure for me.
If I were lucky I might have gotten one right.

You'd have one-upped my 0 in 10 then.

 

[Charles Link]

I knew the answer t the barometer story, but like @BillTre , I hadn't heard the others, which were all quite interesting, so it would have been a lot of multiple choice guessing for me as well. I did not submit any answers, because I really deserved a score of 1/10.

 

[epenguin]

I got 2. I am relieved. I sometimes think I spend too much time with science gossip instead of science, but glad to see not that much after all.

2 I did think maybe Beethoven, but I didn't know he had a brother, whereas Bernoulli was famous for having them. So were his brothers.
3 I had heard the story, so it was either Hardy or Littlewood. Either might have done this but Hardy was the type who might have written it up.
4 First time I had heard her called Elise, usually Lise. I didn't think 'cosmic physics' her thing so put one of those I had never heard of.
5 Put Barnard, could have been and only name I knew.
6 Didn't think any of them life and soul of parties, but Maxwell at least somewhat known for humour so put him.
7 Too old-fashioned sounding for Wiles, Hamilton never went to school, resembles another story about Gauss but I thought his teacher sadistic, would accept a right answer but not a cheeky one, put Kroneker
8 Got that right, Erdos and Perelman not public lecturing types, Neumann yes, know nothing of Hausdorff
9 Could have been either Klein or Poincaré, know nothing of other two
10 Toss-up Pauli and Bohr, both cussed types but Pauli more witty Bohr mar long drawn-out like this story so I should have put him.
11 That's enough gossip.

 

[e-pie]

oh boy I got 4/10

Me too on my first attempt which was incomplete due to an internet error and 5 on the next attempt where I left one.

This was all from memory and guessing.

Scores of science-gossip quizes are inversely proportional to the knowledge of "science" people where the constant is the age of the participants.
That only explains such low scores.

 

[fresh_42]

First time I had heard her called Elise

I used birth names as far as I could figure them out.

know nothing of Hausdorff

This has been a reminiscence to Hausdorff.
It is one thing to read or listen to history notes, but a complete different one, if events are related to a name, especially if it is a name of your standard vocabulary. And Hausdorff's vita gave me one of these shocks.