Who is/are your favourite physicist(s) and why?

[Feynstein]

I thought it'd just be interesting to see who people's favourite physicists are. I think people often slander physicists for being too 'nerdy' and tunnel-visioned and they don't appreciate that like any other academic discipline, to be a top gun requires a great vigour of mind.

But anyway, back to the question, here's my answer:

My two favourites are Einstein and Feynman (hence my username. ) I love Einstein because he's an absolute genius but more importantly because of his philosophical views of science as a tool to progress society and religion. I love Feynman because he's a 'practical physicist' - although he's incredibly smart (you'd have to be to understand quantum electrodynamics), he can reduce the complex to simple and he's got the gift of being able to teach to the layman.

That's my two cents... now I'd like to hear yours.

 

[Azael]

Well I am going to agree with you on those two.

Einstein because, well because he was einstein :)

Feynman mostly because he seemed like a very cool character. Who doesn't love a guy that thinks best in a nudebar and smoked marijuana. He seems as far from the geek stereotype that's possible. Maby that was the secret to his intelligence

 

[xAxis]

My favourite is Isaac Newton because of the vast contribution that he made to science and to human thought generaly. Except explaining the universal gravitational law and giving the laws of motion, he also discovered the light spectra, and invented calculus. I don't think there will ever be a single person with such huge and diverse contribution.

 

[Bladibla]

John Bardeen; due to fact that even with his 2 nobel prizes, he is virtually nearly annoymous to the ordinary public. Also, his ideas and inventions (transistor) was highly pragmatic in industry. Also, His preference in teamwork and breaking problems down is also a reason why I like him.

 

[SpaceTiger]

Who is/are your favourite physicist(s) and why?

http://qonos.princeton.edu/nbond/smdef6.jpg

You guessed it, Frank Stallone.

It's the hair.

 

[Chi Meson]

Are we allowed to like Tesla and still be taken seriously? I tend to think of him as an engineer, but he was more af a physicist than Michaelson.

The Teslamaniacs have kind of marred the perception of the man.

 

[Cyrus]

Myself, because why not?

 

[franznietzsche]

Feynman, for philosophical reasons.

 

[fourier jr]

Are we allowed to like Tesla and still be taken seriously? I tend to think of him as an engineer, but he was more af a physicist than Michaelson.

The Teslamaniacs have kind of marred the perception of the man.

i like tesla for his comment on edison which went something like "edison would have saved himself 90% of his work by studying up a bit". i think of him more as an engineer though rather than a physicist.

my favourite physicist would have to be... fourier? for inventing the greenhouse effect among other things. i can't really decide who my favourite true physicist would be... Heisenberg, schroedinger, einstein... i have no idea.

 

[Kurdt]

Penrose for his depth of knowledge and still child like curiosity and enthusiasm and Einstein for his insight into nature beyond where other people could see.

 

[GeoMike]

Dr. Emmett Brown.

-GeoMike-

 

[JasonRox]

My favourite is Isaac Newton because of the vast contribution that he made to science and to human thought generaly. Except explaining the universal gravitational law and giving the laws of motion, he also discovered the light spectra, and invented calculus. I don't think there will ever be a single person with such huge and diverse contribution.

Um... Gauss.

 

[Rach3]

Zeno. When you're that smart, you don't need no stinkin' experiments. You use nothing but pure reason to derive an absolutely flawless proof that motion is impossible.

 

[selfAdjoint]

Demokritos. If the world had listened to him instead of Plato and Aristotle it would be a better place today. His late-blooming disciple Lucretius is also a winner.

 

[Gokul43201]

Demokritos.

Who but sA would use the Greek name?!

 

[xAxis]

Um... Gauss.

But Gauss was a mathematician only.

 

[JasonRox]

But Gauss was a mathematician only.

Are you certain?

He contributed plenty to Astronomy too. Among other things.

If you are talking strictly physics, you can't include Calculus. That's mathematics.

If you include Calculus, then you must include all the mathematics that Gauss formulated that you now use in physics. So, in this case, I would assume Gauss surpassed Newton in his contributions.

I personally don't like to pick and choose. Gauss was great, but so was Godel. I even consider mathematicians such as Halmos to be great too. Why? He brought good character to mathematics, which I appreciate.

 

[xAxis]

Now I have checked, I confused Gauss for Leibniz. Leibniz is the one who invented calculus (independently of Newton). So in that new light, I cannot see how can Gauss be compared to Newton. What is of so crucial importance that he has discovered?
I remember reading something about him trying to measure angles in huge triangle trying to see if the sum of the angles is bigger than 180 degrees, which shows ingeniosity, though.

 

[Andrew Mason]

I thought it'd just be interesting to see who people's favourite physicists are. I think people often slander physicists for being too 'nerdy' and tunnel-visioned and they don't appreciate that like any other academic discipline, to be a top gun requires a great vigour of mind.

But anyway, back to the question, here's my answer:

My two favourites are Einstein and Feynman (hence my username. ) I love Einstein because he's an absolute genius but more importantly because of his philosophical views of science as a tool to progress society and religion. I love Feynman because he's a 'practical physicist' - although he's incredibly smart (you'd have to be to understand quantum electrodynamics), he can reduce the complex to simple and he's got the gift of being able to teach to the layman.

That's my two cents... now I'd like to hear yours.

'Favourite' physicists as opposed to 'greatest' physicists is a nice twist. I am not sure what criteria go into choosing a 'favourite', but the significance of their contributions/discoveries is only one factor. I would factor in their humanity, likeability, their creativity, their efforts to communicate and teach, their humility, and the hurdles they had to overcome to make their achievements.

Using those criteria, I would include Galileo, Planck, Hawking, Bohr, Rutherford, Feynman, Einstein, Wheeler, Fermi and Gell-Mann.

I would exclude Aristotle, Newton, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Shockley.

AM

 

[Gelsamel Epsilon]

fourier? for inventing the greenhouse effect among other things.

:O

 

[fourier jr]

...humanity, likeability, their creativity, their efforts to communicate and teach, their humility, and the hurdles they had to overcome to make their achievements.

Using those criteria, I would include Galileo, Planck, Hawking, Bohr, Rutherford, Feynman, Einstein, Wheeler, Fermi and Gell-Mann.

i can't believe i forgot galileo! i'd say he's my favourite for "mathematicizing" science. he & descartes were really the first who decided that science was really just math in disguise, or that all science could be boiled down to math of some sort. maybe it's more of a philosophical thing rather than a physics/astronomy thing but i would say that it's still the most significant development in the history of science.

 

[Chi Meson]

I would exclude Aristotle, Newton, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Shockley.

Too bad about Werner. One little "oopsie" (like working on the bomb for the Nazis) and he's blackballed from the club. :extreme sarcasm smiley:

 

[Bladibla]

'Favourite' physicists as opposed to 'greatest' physicists is a nice twist. I am not sure what criteria go into choosing a 'favourite', but the significance of their contributions/discoveries is only one factor. I would factor in their humanity, likeability, their creativity, their efforts to communicate and teach, their humility, and the hurdles they had to overcome to make their achievements.

Using those criteria, I would include Galileo, Planck, Hawking, Bohr, Rutherford, Feynman, Einstein, Wheeler, Fermi and Gell-Mann.

I would exclude Aristotle, Newton, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Shockley.

AM

And a good reason for Shockley; His contirbution to the invention of the transistor is relatively considered minor compared to the work of bardeen and brittain (all of those 3 who shared the nobel prize).

And I'm wondering why Bardeen isn't up in you're top criteria; he was as likeable as anyone, and won 2 nobel prizes in physics, a feat yet to be equalled by anyone. And his massive contruibution to modern technology is undeniable.

 

[JasonRox]

Now I have checked, I confused Gauss for Leibniz. Leibniz is the one who invented calculus (independently of Newton). So in that new light, I cannot see how can Gauss be compared to Newton. What is of so crucial importance that he has discovered?
I remember reading something about him trying to measure angles in huge triangle trying to see if the sum of the angles is bigger than 180 degrees, which shows ingeniosity, though.

Did you do a search yet and read a little about him yet?

http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/biograph/biogauss.htm

http://math.about.com/cs/mathematicians/a/gauss.htm

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesdow/Tech/mathmen.htm

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/2977/gauss/commentary/161098.html

Personally, I think Gauss makes Newton look miniscule when it comes to mathematics and science. Newton was just a man standing on the shoulders of giants, but Gauss was a giant standing on the shoulders of giants!

I don't know of anyone that you could compare to Gauss, except maybe Euler.

 

[franznietzsche]

Now I have checked, I confused Gauss for Leibniz. Leibniz is the one who invented calculus (independently of Newton). So in that new light, I cannot see how can Gauss be compared to Newton. What is of so crucial importance that he has discovered?

What we REALLY need is a *boggle* smiley.


How about Gauss's Theorem for starters? Possibly the most important calculus theorem in physics. Technically, the only important vector calculus theorem (since it, green's and stokes's theorems are all special cases of the same theorem).

 

[Pythagorean]

Aristostle, because he was right, the universe revolves around me!

Seriously, Einstein is an obvious one.

And Kepler, because as well as being succesful, he was a mystic (he was infatuated with the Pythagoreans, like me)

Though, I have little interest in astonomy...

 

[TuviaDaCat]

ill go for feynman and einstein.
i know nothing of their theories(yet,still young), but feynman is just a funny smartass, i read that book "you must be joking mister feynman"...
and einstein has a lot of amazing qoutes, i like lots of his views on the world, though he is too much of a hippie...

to think that the man which started the path to nuclear energy was a nice old hippy...

 

[xAxis]

@ JasonRox

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/2977/gauss/gauss.jpg

Thank you for links
http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/biograph/biogauss.htm

Yes, he was definitely one of the great matematicians and scientists.

Still, I just couldn't regard Newton miniscule to anybody regarding anything, especialy considering significance of things he pondered and solved in such elegant way.
Univerzal law of gravitation, laws of motion, centripetal and centrifugal forces...
Most of other science was just built upon it.

http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/biograph/bionewto.htm

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night. God said "Let Newton be!" and all was light.
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean lay all undiscovered before me.
-Newton
-Alexander Pope

 

[JasonRox]

Still, I just couldn't regard Newton miniscule to anybody regarding anything, especialy considering significance of things he pondered and solved in such elegant way.

Try reading more and more about Physicists and Mathematicians.

You'll eventually learn that there is no favourite and there is no "best" one.

Want another good competitor against Newton? Try Bernhard Riemann. He did some engineering applications on top of his mathematics.

Or Evariste Galois, but it's all mathematics. He wrote his theory at the age of 19!

 

[JasonRox]

I would think that Aristotle's view of matter as potentiality in the Physics is not far off intuitively from the interpretation we are seeing today and Plato's mathematical structure of the nature of reality profounder than Demokritos' indestructible atoms. I wonder sometimes that we reject paradigms only to return to them again years later?

I didn't think there was anything wrong in accepting Aristotle's view.

My biggest problem was the culture the world had back then. The Christian Era... worst era ever. If some "aliens" visited us then, they would have thought we were so dumb and may eventually mistaken rocks as humans. Pretty bad.