What's your Favorite Theoretical Physicist?

Battlehymn Republic · Post by **Battlehymn Republic** » 2005-06-20 12:31pm

I'm going to go mainstream and say... Michio Kaku.

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2005-06-20 12:35pm

I'll say this before anybody else gets the chance: Richard Feynman.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2005-06-20 01:57pm

Feynman, one of the most accessible lecturers ever, and a genius physicist.

Thinkmarble · Post by **Thinkmarble** » 2005-06-20 03:19pm

Emmy Noether.

NPComplete · Post by **NPComplete** » 2005-06-20 04:55pm

Put me down for Charles DeBroglie.

His PhD thesis is about 10% of the length of an average thesis, and it seems like he just threw something together at the last minute. He only got his PhD because Einstein read the thesis and wrote to the review board saying that he (DeBroglie) might have a point.

DeBroglie's thesis is essentially: "If light has a wavelength, but it's a particle, couldn't all particles have wavelengths? Here's an equation for them."

dworkin · Post by **dworkin** » 2005-06-20 05:13pm

'Nother vote for Mr Feynman

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2005-06-20 05:52pm

Feynman. Not only was he completely genius, but he was really funny as well.

I do like Michio Kaku though, because he's a huge science fiction geek.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2005-06-20 05:56pm

Overall-Einstein
Alive and Kicking Today-Hawking

Zor

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-06-20 09:22pm

Freeman. Er. I mean. Feynman.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2005-06-20 10:07pm

Zor wrote:Overall-Einstein
Alive and Kicking Today-Hawking

Zor

Hawking isn't exactly kicking.

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2005-06-20 10:17pm

Nephtys wrote:Freeman. Er. I mean. Feynman.

Dyson and Richard?

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2005-06-21 11:19am

By what measure do you define 'favorite'? Personality? Scientific contribution?

For the former, Einstein. Incredibly laid back and let his work speak for himself, and wasn't afraid to talk about things apart from science. However, despite his many contributions, I regard his refusal to accept the newer theories in quantum mechanics as unscientific. That blinded his eyes to the possibilities opened by the new fields.

Scientific contribution... Fermi. A great teacher and cross-disciplinarian who was equally comfortable as an experimentalist. The greatness of a theoretical physicist is measured by the 'physicist' bit, and Fermi was a physicist par excellence.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-06-21 11:40am

If we're including dead men like Einstein, then I pick Newton. The man was an asshole, but he was also a genius. And his theories are used every day, all around the world.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2005-06-21 11:51am

Mine would probably be Kip Thorne, almost inspired me to go into Physics, almost...

Il Saggiatore · Post by **Il Saggiatore** » 2005-06-21 12:00pm

Darth Wong wrote:If we're including dead men like Einstein, then I pick Newton. The man was an asshole, but he was also a genius. And his theories are used every day, all around the world.

Then I pick Maxwell.
His theory of electrodynamics is used as much as Newton's, and he was not an asshole (he used to teach for free in a sort of evening school for people who could not afford normal colleges).

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2005-06-21 12:02pm

sketerpot wrote:I'll say this before anybody else gets the chance: Richard Feynman.

Beat me to it...he's also the most quotable scientist I know of, he even beats out Einstein on that score. In terms of favorites, though, it's a toss-up for me between Feynman and Hawking...

(I mean, was Feynman ever on the Simpsons, or Futurama?)

Prozac the Robert · Post by **Prozac the Robert** » 2005-06-21 12:20pm

I'm not a big fan of Newton. He wasn't actually that scientific in a lot of ways, being a practitioner of alchemy. And he wasn't very nice. Even so, he was brilliant.

I like Einstein. A really great example of a classical physicist. He used his intuition, and ideas about beauty and simplicity to guide him to something really amazing. It's a bit of a shame though that the same qualities made it impossible for him to fully accept QM.

Feynam, I like for the same reasons as Einstein. He used intuition to get where he wanted to go.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2005-06-21 12:28pm

The good Sir Isaac. Had an idea, and then invented the math to describe it: he single-handedly developed calculus. Alone. What a fucking genius.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2005-06-21 01:03pm

Molyneux wrote:
sketerpot wrote:I'll say this before anybody else gets the chance: Richard Feynman.
Beat me to it...he's also the most quotable scientist I know of, he even beats out Einstein on that score. In terms of favorites, though, it's a toss-up for me between Feynman and Hawking...

(I mean, was Feynman ever on the Simpsons, or Futurama?)

But Hawking was also on Star Trek: The Next Generation, which kinda cancels out the coolness of him being on The Simpsons. Didn't know he was on Futurama, though. If that's true, it definitely puts him back onto the positive end of the scale.

Xero Cool Down · Post by **Xero Cool Down** » 2005-06-21 01:15pm

Jacobus Henricus Van't Hoff or Svante August Arrhenius

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2005-06-21 01:27pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:
Molyneux wrote:
sketerpot wrote:I'll say this before anybody else gets the chance: Richard Feynman.
Beat me to it...he's also the most quotable scientist I know of, he even beats out Einstein on that score. In terms of favorites, though, it's a toss-up for me between Feynman and Hawking...

(I mean, was Feynman ever on the Simpsons, or Futurama?)
But Hawking was also on Star Trek: The Next Generation, which kinda cancels out the coolness of him being on The Simpsons. Didn't know he was on Futurama, though. If that's true, it definitely puts him back onto the positive end of the scale.

He also had about 10 seconds in the episode of family guy called... Peter Peter Caviar eater, I think.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2005-06-21 01:55pm

If we're talking live guys, it's Lee Smolin.

TimothyC · Post by **TimothyC** » 2005-06-21 02:00pm

Live: Hawking (TNG and Dilbert)

Dead: Newton

Battlehymn Republic · Post by **Battlehymn Republic** » 2005-06-21 02:05pm

Surlethe wrote:The good Sir Isaac. Had an idea, and then invented the math to describe it: he single-handedly developed calculus. Alone. What a fucking genius.

Er, what about Leibniz?

What makes Newton an asshole? He was a weird alchemist-theologian-dilletantte-virgin all his life, but then again so was da Vinci.

A Big Flying Fish · Post by **A Big Flying Fish** » 2005-06-21 02:53pm

Battlehymn Republic wrote:What makes Newton an asshole? He was a weird alchemist-theologian-dilletantte-virgin all his life, but then again so was da Vinci.

He was a bit of a stubborn bastard, and a wanker to those with competing theories, in particular Hooke.

Despite this, I'd put him at the top of all time great theoretical physicists, as well as one of the best mathmaticians to ever live. As stated before, he essentially created calculus, roughly simultaneously with Leibniz. He really is in a league of his own.