Socialized Health Care in the USA

[--Pete]

Hi,

I however feel immersion in a topic is needed.

Yes, and for some people and some topics, 'immersion' means a weekend of study.

. . . (as a nit let me point out these 3 people, along with Doppler and Hertz are all referenced in his paper) . . .

I don't have my books unpacked and couldn't find translations of the 1905 papers online, so I don't know if he *refereed* to these people in his papers -- I don't remember any mention of these people (except, possibly Mach), but I read those papers almost half a century ago. I do know that he did not *reference* any of those people (i.e., give an official citation to any specific work) in his 1905 special relativity papers.

Of course since I think we're in agreement on this point I see no reason to elaborate more here.

Agreed.

If I'm not mistaken, he also tried to get this accepted as part of his Ph.D. thesis but it wasn't accepted for some reason or other.

That would have been strange, since traditionally a dissertation is on a single topic. Since his dissertation was on A new determination of molecular dimensions, anything having to do with electrodynamics or the photoelectric effect would not have fit. His work on Brownian motion might have, but I've never heard of it being submitted as part of the thesis.

. . . Weber . . . Kleiner . . .

Yes. They both are run of the mill physics professors. They did some good work, nothing earthshaking. I suspect they could understand his concepts well enough.

For the record a 30 year old B.S. degree doesn't count in my book.

Agreed. A lot depends on what one does in that 30 year interval. In any field, there are people with no official credentials who are experts and others, with impeccable credentials, who are mediocre (at best).

You haven't shown that it's very weak just that it's not sufficient.

Which is all I wanted to show -- that the case is over-stated.

And besides I think weak is a compliment:).

:)

Awesome story. Never read about it before. The moral of the story is . . .

The moral of the story is that scientists are just as likely as anyone to find what they are looking for, even if it isn't there. And especially if it impacts their funding -- though that's not part of the N-ray story.

--Pete