In the literature and the Internet, the story is popular about the witty solution of the physical problem, which the young Niels Bor allegedly proposed in the presence of another venerable scientist - Ernest Rutherford. We checked whether this case really happened to the Nobel laureates.
According to the plot of a popular science bike, once Rutherford was asked to help with the certification of a student who offered a somewhat curious solution to the usual examination problem. The classic answer to the question "How can you measure the height of the building using a barometer?" It consists in comparing the testimony of the device on the roof and on the ground, but the student suggested lowering it on the rope down, and then measure its length. Another option described by the examinema involved a drop in the barometer from the roof, measuring the fall time and calculating the height according to the appropriate formula. Both answers were formally true, but not one of them confirmed the student’s competence, so he received a low score. After that, the student gave several more non -trivial solutions of the same problem: on a sunny day, compare the length of the shadows of the barometer and building, use the barometer as a line on the wall of the building, as a pendulum to calculate gravity on the roof, as well as as a fee for the information from the manager. At the end of the story, it turns out that the student knew about the standard solution to the problem, but thus protested against the template thinking imposed by the education system. This student, claimed, was the future Nobel Physics Prize in Niels Bor.
This story can be found in many motivational books (for example, "Exiting","Tyrania of stupidity","Wisdom lessons. Parables"), Meetings of entertaining cases ("Bikes and stories") And in social networks. In particular, Facebook has publications of the same text with this story on 7200, 1700 And 1600 Reposts at the time of writing this analysis.
The early analytical abilities of Bor are not in doubt - it is still in childhood demonstrated interest in mechanics, and in high school Seriously carried away by mathematics. Being a student, Bor I was awarded Gold medal of the Copenhagen Royal Academy of Sciences for Work on Superficial Tension.
However, the fact of acquaintance Borford at that time looks very dubious. Dane I acted At Copenhagen University in 1903, he received the degree of a master of physics in 1909 and defended his doctoral dissertation in 1911. Rutherford, a native of New Zealand, in 1898-1907 Headed The Department of Physics in the Far Canadian Montreal, and since 1907 settled in English Manchester. Thus, he should not have participated in the student life of Bor in Denmark.
They met later. In September 1911 Arrived In Cambridge, to work under the leadership of Joseph Thompson in the Cavendish Laboratory. It was then, visiting his friends in Manchester, that the Dane personally met Rutherford. Mutual interest and respect led to the fact that Bor from March to July 1912 worked in the Manchester laboratory led by Rutherford, and later became a close friend to him. Such a development of events is in no way compatible with a common legend about the exam. On the official website Archive of Niels Boracontaining rich biographical material, no similar events from the life of the Danish physicist are not mentioned.
Where does the popular bike come from? Judging by the data of the Google Book service, Bor and Copenhagen University began to appear in it only in The end of the XX century, and before this or another, she went on for decades different publications Either as a near -scientific joke, then as an illustration of non -standard thinking. To a certain extent, the essays of the American scientist and teacher Alexander Kalandra became classic "Angels on the tip of the needle"(1959), in which the story was given in the first person, that is, the role of Rutherford was played by Kalandra himself. It was this option in the 20th century that he fell into many books in various disciplines and caused a serious academic discussion on the importance of the creative approach in science and education.
However, Kalandra was not the author of a popular plot. In the 1950s, the comic story was already Fine Known Thanks to the popular periodicals of those years. The oldest found publication of the bike on the barometer dates back to December 1941, when it appeared in an American magazine Power Plant Engineering. The note stated that a certain S. E. W. sent history to the editor, who heard the task and its unusual solution from his lecturer at the University of North Dakota. The article mentioned only one non -standard way (hanging a barometer on a rope), and instead of the building, the pipe of the local power plant appeared, but over time, the story was enriched with new solutions, and the place of action changed. It is not known for reliably who and when was the first to launch a joke about the barometer, but it definitely has nothing to do with the Danish physicist Nils Bor.
Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons
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