What Does Any of This Have to Do with Physics?

Re:What Does Any of This Have to Do with Physics? by BeetleB on Thursday December 29, 2016 @11:41AM (#13278272)

"Shut up and calculate" was indeed not coined by Feynman. It was, in fact, coined by David Mermin in an essay he had written once.

The amusing thing is that Mermin himself had forgotten that he had coined it and claimed Feynman to be the source. Eventually, he looked into it and found the earliest reference to the phrase was his own essay! (with no reference to Feynman)

His book, Boojums All The Way is one of the most entertaining books about his adventures as a physicist.

(For those who do not know him, he co-wrote the standard text book on Solid State Theory).

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Re:What Does Any of This Have to Do with Physics? by da-bacon on Thursday December 29, 2016 @12:11PM (#13278465)

Here is the essay he wrote about his realization that he coined the term: "Could Feynman have said this?" www.gnm.cl/emenendez/uploads/Cursos/callate-y-calcula.pdf

Also highly recommend his Boojums.

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Re:What Does Any of This Have to Do with Physics? by lisper on Thursday December 29, 2016 @11:36PM (#13282546)

Worth noting that Mermin intended the phrase to be derisive, a not-so-thinly-veiled criticism of the Copenhagen interpretation.

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Re:What Does Any of This Have to Do with Physics? by jayajay on Thursday December 29, 2016 @10:03PM (#13282195)

Mermin's special relativity book is fucking fantastic as well. His writing style is very motivated.

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