A friendship beyond QM

This is an excerpt from the book,"The Breakthrough" by G.Venkataraman :

'...arguments on matters concerning physics never came in the way of friendship between Bohr and Einstein. They were both truly great, rising above differences in their scientific viewpoints. Bohr came to India around 1960, and i vividly recall a lecture he gave to a crowded audience in the TIFR, Bombay. Bohr was then over seventy, and he spoke about his longstanding debate with Einstein. He presented slide after slide of experimental apparatus visualized by Einstein and also himself in their various gedanken experiments. Bohr then went on to patiently explain how Einstein was in error. The sound system wasn't good and Bohr's accent wasn't easy to follow. Frankly, i did not understand one word of what Bohr said! And yet i sat there spellbound because Bohr had lectured as if the audience did not exist and as if there was Einstein sitting in front of him. In fact, when Bohr came to the end ,he did not exult in joy (since his arguments upheld quantum mechanics). Instead, he was in tears, unhappy perhaps about having won an argument against his dearest friend.'

Another one, by Abraham Pais:

'I began to grasp not only the thread of Bohr's arguments but also their purpose. Just as in many sports a player goes through warming up exercises before entering the arena, so Bohr would relive the struggles which it took before the content of quantum mechanics was understood and accepted. I can say that in Bohr's mind this struggle started all over every single day...Einstein appeared forever his leading spiritual partner- even after the latter's death he would argue with him as if Einstein were still alive.'

jokes jokes jokes!

1) Why are topologists unhappy at Alexander?
Simple,he cut the guardian's knot!

2) A topologist wanted to buy a doughnut, but since it was not available, he brought a coffee cup!

3) What did Cantor order when he visited Saravana Bhavan?
Set dosai!

4) This is more of poetry than a joke:
The conjugate pair commute to another dimension, and in a field, exchange rings! The simple groups watch the operator perform the complex analysis, as the pair causally kiss and kill... of course,all this is a lie!!

Senti-mental me!

A few days back,i finished an excellent book named,"A Tour of the Calculus" by David Berlinski. I really liked the last paragraph of acknowledgments section, and i thought i could share it with all here:

"When we both were young, Daniel Gallin and I collaborated on a number of mathematical projects. We rented a sunny studio in San Francisco and talked away the golden afternoons. It was those conversations that revealed to me not what mathematics was-that i thought i knew-but how it should be done. I will always treasure the memory of the days we spent together, when we thought that time would never end."

These beautiful lines reminded me of the days i spent with my friends' circle in hostel,"talking away the golden afternoons", and golden evenings too, gobbling down cups of coffee at chota canteen, or chips from ambani's shop! This post is dedicated to all those friends of mine!:)

Who says numbers cant get romantic?

For those who think that numbers cant get romantic, or for that matter express any feelings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kissing_number_problem

Oh yeah, other weird names you might like to check:

Happy ending problem- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Ending_problem
No hair theorem- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_hair_theorem

and lets end this with a romantic mnemonic taught to help remember the spectral classification of stars:
O,B,A,F,G,K,M can be remembered by,"oh be a fine girl,kiss me!"