Monday, June 30, 2008

Probabilities

From Hendrik B. G. Casimir's contribution to Niels Bohr: His life and work as seen by his friends and colleagues, ed. S. Rozental:
Sometimes we could entice Bohr to come with us to see a Western or a gangster film we had selected. His comments were always remarkable because he used to introduce some of his ideas on observations and measurements into his criticism. Once, after a thoroughly stupid Tom Mix film, his verdict went about as follows: "I did not like that picture, it was too improbable. That the scoundrel runs off with the beautiful girl is logical, it always happens. That the bridge collapses under their carriage is unlikely but I am willing to accept it. That the heroine remains suspended in mid-air over a precipice is even more unlikely , but again I accept it, I am even willing to accept that at that very moment Tom Mix is coming by on his horse. But that at that very moment there should be a fellow with a motion picture camera to film the whole business that is more than I am willing to believe."

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