RIP Edwin F Taylor (1931-2025)

[robphy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_F._Taylor

https://physics.mit.edu/news/obituary-for-edwin-f-taylor/

Edwin F. Taylor
June 22nd, 1931 – April 22nd, 2025
TAYLOR, Edwin Floriman, of Arlington, MA, renowned physicist educator/author and loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, passed away on April 22, 2025, at the age of 93. Born on June 22, 1931, in Oberlin, Ohio, to Lloyd William Taylor, chairman of the Oberlin College physics department, and Esther Bliss Taylor, an active community leader, Edwin dedicated his life to physics education and making complex concepts accessible to students worldwide.

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https://www.eftaylor.com/

Our family is sad to announce the passing of Edwin F. Taylor, who died on April 22, 2025, at the age of 93. You can find his obituary online here.

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• I met Ed back in 2000 when he accepted our department's invitation to visit our campus
  to talk about physics and relativity.
  (We were pleasantly surprised he accepted because our campus was in rural Missouri, three hours from a major airport.)
  His presentation was titled: "The Universe: Questions You Were Afraid to Ask".
  I don't remember the details... but it might have been like this video:
  • 2. The Universe: Questions You Were Afraid to Ask | MIT 8.224 Exploring Black Holes
    
    
    (He left us with a draft of Exploring Black Holes.)
    

• ---

  Taylor & Wheeler's Spacetime Physics
  
  

  Relativity Thread 'Spacetime Physics by Edwin F. Taylor and John Archibald Wheeler'

  Jan 19, 2013

  • Author: Edwin F. Taylor (Author), John Archibald Wheeler (Author)
  • Title: Spacetime Physics
  • Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0716723271/?tag=pfamazon01-20
  • Prerequisities:
  • Contents:

  • Greg Bernhardt
  • Physics Spacetime Taylor Wheeler
  • Replies: 10
  • Forum: Science and Math Textbooks
  
  ( (1966) Spacetime Physics maroon edition, with the worked solutions [269 pages, 071670336X] ; see https://www.eftaylor.com/download.html for parts )
  had always been a major influence in the way I approach relativity--in particular, because of the use of rapidity
  and the analogy between Minkowski and Euclidean space (as featured in the "Parable of the Surveyors" ).
  
  [I recall playing around with old PC software on a floppy disk.
  Below, however, describes software running on a Mac.
  Space‐time software: Computer graphics utilities in special relativity by Edwin F. Taylor
  Am. J. Phys. 57, 508–514 (1989) https://doi.org/10.1119/1.15985
  or
  RelLab https://web.archive.org/web/20041217080140/http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/wbarowy/cip/CIP.html
  ‘‘Relativity readiness’’ using the RelLab program, The Physics Teacher, 1994, Vol 32, Issue 2, p81, https://doi.org/10.1119/1.2343911
  ... update:
  "Spacetime" (review by J.E.Gastineau) Comput. Phys. 5, 443–445 (1991) https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4823006
  https://pubs.aip.org/aip/cip/article/5/4/443/136915/Spacetime
  ]
  
  But when the second edition of Spacetime Physics (1992) came out, I noticed that "rapidity" has been dropped from it.
  So, I asked him about it. He told me that many people (teachers of intro classes) didn't use it.
  
  Over the years, I was able to chat with him at various AAPT Meetings and Gordon Research Conferences (Physics Research and Education).
  
  At the 2006 AAPT Topical Workshop: Teaching General Relativity to Undergraduates ( https://www.aapt.org/doorway/TGRU/ ),
  I raised the question about rapidity again [in the presence of others], and
  we politely protested and suggested that he put it back in a future edition.
  
  At that meeting, I shared my extension of his Parable of the Surveyors ("Trilogy of the Surveyors") to include the Galilean spacetime.
  He took notice... but we didn't get to discuss it in any detail.
  
  As I was developing my relativity on rotated graph paper approach, I exchanged emails with him about his use of
  William Shurcliff's "handle" notation for energy-momentum ( Spacetime Physics Ch 7 Momenergy, see p. 198 ).
  He shared with me Shurcliff's unpublished "Special Relativity: The Central Ideas" [which is now available at archive.org].
  (My "mass diamonds" effectively visualizes these "handles".)
  
  
  

• ---

  As an undergraduate, we used French & Taylor's (1978) An Introduction to Quantum Physics (part of the MIT series).
  I recall learning how to sketch wavefunctions.
  (See also Qualitative Plots of Bound State Wave Functions by A. P. French; Edwin F. Taylor.
  Am. J. Phys. 39, 961–962 (1971) https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1986336
  
  At the various meetings and conferences, I recall further approaches to teaching Quantum Physics that Taylor pursued:
  (see https://www.eftaylor.com/quantum.html
  and https://www.eftaylor.com/download.html)
  • "Teaching Feynman's Sum Over Paths Quantum Theory,"
    Edwin F. Taylor, Stamatis Vokos, John M. O'Meara, and Nora S. Thornber, Computers in Physics 12, 190-199 (Mar/Apr 1998)
    https://doi.org/10.1063/1.168652 [pdf available]
  • Principle of Least Action ( assorted articles at https://www.eftaylor.com/leastaction.html )
  • "Rescuing Quantum Mechanics from Atomic Physics" ( https://www.eftaylor.com/pub/RescuingQM.pdf ) - I like this title!
  • Demystifying Quantum Mechanics (Student Workbook) ( https://www.eftaylor.com/download.html#quantum )

• ---

  I'm not familiar with Introductory Mechanics (1963) by Edwin F. Taylor ( 978-0471848912 )
  
  
  

• ---

  Other works of possible interest:
  • https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=author:"Edwin F. Taylor"
    
    
    
  • "Anatomy of Collaboration" - An account of the first collaboration, in the 1960s, of EFT and John Archibald Wheeler, on their special relativity textbook Space Time Physics. From the book Magic Without Magic: John Archibald Wheeler, edited by John R. Klauder, W.H. Freeman and Company, 1972 ( pdf ; html - from https://www.eftaylor.com/download.html )
    
    
  • Completing John Wheeler's Vision: Undergraduate General Relativity (P.J. Safarik University, Kosice, Slovakia, June 27, 2013)
    
    
    
  • Mind and Hand at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (video of keynote lecture for "Hands-On Science", Kosice, Slovak Republic, July 1-10, 2013)
    
    
  • “The Boundaries of Nature: Special & General Relativity and
    Quantum Mechanics, A Second Course in Physics” (from Taylor's website)
    Edwin F. Taylor's acceptance speech for the 1998 Oersted medal presented by the
    American Association of Physics Teachers, 6 January 1998
    [ Am. J. Phys. 66, 369–376 (1998) https://doi.org/10.1119/1.18875 ] - see also https://doi.org/10.1119/1.18884
    
    
  • A Call for Give and Take (The Scientist, Mar 17, 1996)
    

    As former editor of a physics education journal and coauthor of two relativity texts, I have had a lot of contact with what your article [B. Goodman, The Scientist, May 15, 1995, page 3] calls "dissident" scientists, many of whom attack special relativity. In my experience, most are extremely intelligent and inventive. Their arguments are ingenious, and any errors are often difficult to find. Still, there are two characteristics that I have found in many dissidents with whom I have communicated.

 

[berkeman]

Thanks for the great post, @robphy

2. The Universe: Questions You Were Afraid to Ask | MIT 8.224 Exploring Black Holes

I enjoyed Professor Taylor's comments about the question "What's inside a Black Hole" (around 27:30-30:00 in the video). I didn't realize that there are gravitational waves that reverberate inside the BH after it is formed, and especially after it merges with another BH. Fascinating.

 

[robphy]

Update:
https://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/Edwin-F-Taylor.cfm

 

[Hornbein]

I'd think that was Donald Pleasence.