Physics Society - Quotes Archive

Some Quotes from Physics Classes

Well...I almost wrote it. - Prof. Doug Beck
Mathematics often gives us spurious solutions. - Prof. Jon Thaler

Phycs 301: classical physics lab -Prof. Enrico Gratton

So Q is much less than a large number.
You have a normal magnet of, oh, about 2-3 Tesla.
The factor of 10 to the 5th makes a difference in how you do things.

Phycs 326: intermediate mechanics II -Prof. Robert Leigh

while doing a long example: You didn't have to know anything about physics, per se.
We're going to Taylor expand everything in sight.
This is called squirrelly F.
Notice that...(pause)...notice what?
Notice that this is a terrible integral, so we'll just look it up in the book.
Does anyone else want to bitch about the homework?
So let me begin at the beginning.
after being asked about the format of an exam: It's on paper and you use a pencil.
I put that in to strengthen your moral fiber.
This is a simple equation. It gives you something unreadable.
We will model the galaxy to be a spherical cow.
We have a linear function there. And maybe it's doing a little dance here.
We have a banana sitting there and we throw a bus at it.
It's more transparent of I do it this way.
I didn't tell you what direction theta was going so I can't be wrong.
Anybody have a clue what I just said?
I'm just inventing symbols here.

Phycs 335/336: electromagnetic fields and sources I&II -Prof. Naomi Makins
Due to the numerous things that made this class enjoyable, I was forced to give it it's own page. Click here to go to the new page.

Phycs 343: analog electronics -Prof. Dale Van Harlingen

I wanted to forget it, but I couldn't.
looking at 'Darlington Pair' on the board: 'pair'...that looks like 'pain'. I guess that's about right.
This is a ploy to make sure you totally don't understand.
while talking about Bessel functions... These are just like canned functions.
In this class, we have a lot of three letter acronyms...or TLA's.

Phycs 344: digital electronics -Prof. Ian Robinson

You might have problems with squirrels, cockroaches, or desperate graduate students from theory interfering with the signal.
When you hold on to something hot, your nerves send pulses to your brain telling you that your fingers are burning off.
Digital signals are immortal.
1+1=1
drawing a decoder on the board: Looks like a cow.
while talking about a Tri-State logic gate: The third state is an open state. There is fourth state called the fried state, which we try to avoid.
Bistable is a noun, which has nothing to do with horses.
You'll need extremely unusual eyes to see that [uv] light.
It is useful because you can turn on the TV without anyone noticing.
It's just about safe enough to touch without killing yourself.
They [the chips] might survive. But knowing the track record of some of you, they probably wouldn't.
You have to be careful writing the word "shift" because you can forget a letter or something.
The inductance depends on the 2 dimensions of the cow that matter...I mean the 2 dimensions of the wire that matter.
With our Wavtek, we can choose square waves, or sine waves, or Led Zepplin.
This problem has many names. Many are not printable.
If you drop one of these symbols, it's instant death to any proof you're doing.
I don't know how student's logic was fuzzier a few years ago.
Next week, you'll each get to talk for five minutes and try to explain what you're doing so we can all laugh.

Phycs 361: thermo & statmech -Prof. Russ Gianetta

You have to think logically and most people find that difficult.
We'll go back to the this ideal gas which I'll beat on forever.
If you don't want to follow this derivation, you can fall asleep and read about it in the book.
The ultra-violet catastrophe says that if you open your furnace or oven, you'll get your eyes burnt out with x-rays.
I'm just going to blindly do sums like a maniac.
You don't care how much you dump into your neighbor's yard. you only care how much it costs to do it.
In the arctic, you want to get heat right away. You don't want to wait a week for it.
That exhausts, to use and overused word, everything I know about steam engines.
I have to be careful not to make blanket statements. Last time I did, students wrote it down in chalk outside the building.
I can see why people hate this subject.
I don't know anyone who doesn't find this confusing.
That's the little parcel of truth you should walk away from...with.

Phycs 371: light -Prof. C. P. Flynn

There's a sign convention and it's a real pain in the tail.
Gird your loins and ask me questions.
We have to roll up our sleeves and prepare to do some algebra.
Good heavens, we got it right!
I'm sure you can trust me to get it wrong now.
There are minus signs everywhere, which would depress a person.
It's good to see that, hell, these people got it right.
I want to make sure that everyone understands...well, I want to make sure that everyone who wants to understand understands.
It's more than the total curliness it can have at its frequency.
A big signal becomes a ginormous current.
The intensity, sure as God made little apples, is E squared.
I'm not pulling some wild, wooly trick on you.
It's something that you could use if it was useful.
I should have been handing them [handouts] out while I was hitting my head on the wall.

Phycs 386/387: quantum mechanics and atomic physics I&II - Prof. Tony Liss
After 2 fun semesters with Professor Liss, I'm moved his list over here.

Tour of KTeV at Fermi National Accelerator Lab -Prof. Kevin Pitts

Now that is one big ass dipole magnet!
Here are the 2 most important pieces of equipment in the control room, the refrigerator and the coffee maker. More advanced experiments have an espresso machine.

Quotes submitted by other students...i.e. Scott Davis

What are stars? This is a case where the spherical cow works well. - Prof. Fred Lamb
...and here you see that this is equal to 7^2, which is close to 1 so we'll ignore it. - Prof. Fred Lamb
P2 over P1could be a million, but it's still 4. - Prof. Fred Lamb
It's like the electrons are at a dance, and they have forgotten who their date was and wander freely. - Prof. Fred Lamb
That's a hundred million degrees. you could fry an egg on that. - Prof. Fred Lamb
We won't talk about this. It's too humorous and scandalous to discuss. - Prof. Jon Thaler
Once can easily prove (one not being me)... - Prof. Jon Thaler

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