I have something of an aversion to the standard "me too" notices which are published on social media when a significant public figure dies; just a personal preference, but I shall break with my traditions and publish a very short note to commemorate the passing of Peter Higgs. Yes, THE Peter Higgs, the man after whom they named the Higgs boson.
I have a fondness for (popular) science, and have pretended to have some basic grasp of particle physics for some years now, but I am, at best, an imposter. A magazine reader.
Higgs was my first Mathematical Physics lecturer at Edinburgh University, long ago in another century. He was already deeply involved in his theoretical work on sub-atomic particles at that time, though no such topics ever came near us humble first-year students. I remember him as by far the best of the teaching staff in that department (which was swallowed by the Physics Dept some years later), but I have to say the competition was not great as far as imparting knowledge and enthusiasm were concerned. I also saw him often enough during my lunchtime visits to the Edinburgh Bookshop for the next 20 years or so of civilian life to be on what might be described as "nodding terms", though he had no idea who I was. I'm sure he was on nodding terms with most of the customers there, but I remember him as an affable, kindly old fellow.
My mention of Prof Higgs this evening is because he was one of the few distinguished academics that I might have recognised, and he remains one of the very few aspects of my involvement at the University that I view with anything approaching pride.
Please, if you are interested, have a look at the Wikipedia entry for him.
Adding in with your own personal recollection is no “me too” tagalong. I enjoyed your connection to Prof. Higgs very much. How did you make your way from classical physics into applied math?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon. Your question is a good one, and probably more interesting than the answer!
DeleteNeither my family nor (probably) my provincial grammar school was sophisticated enough to give me any idea of how little connection university maths would have with what I had done previously. My degree course was nominally Mathematical Physics, for which the standard line-up was Physics, Pure Maths and Math Phys itself. To my surprise, I rather enjoyed the classical physics classes, which involved stuff I understood, in reassuring contexts such as an actual laboratory. The pure maths was mostly pretty dry, but the real shock was Math Phys. This had very little to do with the calculus-based Dynamics and so on I read at school. I had a couple of skull-crushing semesters of what was described as Tensor Analysis – a very procedural discipline based on 3-dimensional matrix algebra, for which Edinburgh seems to have had its own notational standards!
Most of what I managed to learn on this particular topic came from American text books I obtained from the library, which I had to translate back into the approved house notation for the purpose of passing exams! The sub-heading “Infinitesimal Rotational Strains” comes echoing back from somewhere, inducing a faint shudder, and it kind of sums up the whole experience! The main impression gained from this introduction has a resonance in the self-congratulatory conceit cherished by quantum physicists, that anyone who thinks he understands this subject is, by definition, mistaken. I can assure you that any understanding or joy evaporated pretty quickly.
After two years I had had quite enough of that, so switched courses. I completed my degree in Pure Maths, padded out with extra classes in statistics and computer science, and signed up as an actuarial trainee in the finance industry. There is a sadistic law of Nature somewhere which ensures that those who hate exams should be sentenced to sitting more and more of them. No matter – the world moves on.
This is the difference a truly remarkable teacher/tutor/lecturer/mentor makes in the world.
ReplyDeleteWe remember them when their contemporaries are forgotten.
For me it is my maths teacher Mr Winstone at Southend High School for Boys circa 1982. He got me a B at O level.
A nod to all good educators. Famous or not.
I shall raise my second cup of tea to Mr Winstone - one of the world's unsing heroes! The Math Physics department at Edinburgh in those days had a reputation, even among its inhabitants, of regarding the teaching job as an inconvenient interruption in the work of theoretical research and the writing of learned papers. Higgs was a decent lecturer, but some of his colleagues were total moonbeams. I was certainly an undistinguished student, but there was one chap (named, I think, Dr Spinks), who presented nightmarish classes which were enlivened only by spontaneous applause and stamping each time he lost the thread of what he had been saying, while he stood, giggling nervously, hoping for some outside help. No raising of cups of tea for him. Moonbeam. [If he reads this, by the way, it's all about someone else - just a misunderstanding]
DeleteI saw earlier today that Higgs had passed away. Funnily enough I was listening to the In Our Time episode on Heisenberg the other day and nearly understood some of it. It must be something to have been taught by someone of that stature.
ReplyDeleteI guess it must be, but only by rather convoluted association, long after the event. To the extent that I understand it, particle physics seems very interesting to me now, but appears to have little or no connection with my personal experience of a department which certainly had some very gifted contributors to exactly this topic.
DeleteI must have a look to see what Brian Cox is saying about Prof Higgs this morning...
Well, Heisenberg is someone I have studied as I bet Tony has although our interpretation may not be possible to gauge simultaneously.
DeleteVery good. It is likely that my understanding of Heisenberg's Principle is so small that particle physics becomes relevant. I suspect that if a bright light were shone on my interpretation, it would change as you watched.
DeleteExcellent!
DeleteWe may be the only ones who think we are both funny and clever...
DeleteI'm sure you're right. Probably just as well that no-one is reading this stuff.
Delete