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Date:      Mon, 24 Feb 1997 21:43:36 -0500 (EST)
From:      Chuck Robey <chuckr@glue.umd.edu>
To:        "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb@freefall.freebsd.org>
Cc:        Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>, csubl@csv.warwick.ac.uk, chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: RMS's view on dynamic linking
Message-ID:  <Pine.OSF.3.95q.970224212845.12907B-100000@professor.eng.umd.edu>
In-Reply-To: <199702250203.SAA10150@freefall.freebsd.org>

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On Mon, 24 Feb 1997, Jonathan M. Bresler wrote:

> Terry Lambert wrote:
> > 
> > > >                                                     and the randomness
> > > > under h_bar/2 is only an apparent effect.
> > > 
> > > 	cool, so when will the next eistein equilvalent be born.
> > > 	be specific, please.
> > > 	show your work.
> > 
> > Define "Einstein equivalent"... hair color?  Shakes up our view of
> > physics?  Has equivalent social impact?  Clerks an equal number of
> > German patents?
> 
> 	produces three papers in one year, each worthy of a nobel prize
> 	in physics....and then gets a nobel for "the photo-electric
> 	effect??"  that was the greatest?? 

I've heard this particular comment so often, but it makes perfect sense to
me ... the special and general relativity were really new, but the
photo-electric effect thing isn't given it's proper background.  It had
nothing to do with way photo-cells work on a macro level (which a number
of people have brought up to me in misunderstanding) but instead was the
first application that really used the quantum effects to explain
something previously misunderstood, how photons really did have different
energy levels, and how quantum effects beautifully predicted things. 

Terry knows this better than I do, I just think that this particular
example, which everyone brings up, undervalues the "photoelectric effect".

I think many people think of "the photo-electric effect" as Einstein
getting an award for a solar cell.  Completely misses the point.

> jmb
> 

----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Chuck Robey                 | Interests include any kind of voice or data 
chuckr@eng.umd.edu          | communications topic, C programming, and Unix.
9120 Edmonston Ct #302      |
Greenbelt, MD 20770         | I run Journey2 and picnic, both FreeBSD
(301) 220-2114              | version 3.0 current -- and great FUN!
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