Tips, Laws, and Rules for Physicists

This is a collection of one-line gems of wisdom from physicist colleagues of mine.

from Brian Serot, on interpretation of experimental data --- "Never ask, 'what else could it be', because then someone will tell you."
from Antonio Pellegrino, on acquiring equipment --- "We will simply take it, and then pretend we didn't know any better."
also from Antonio Pellegrino, during a late-night discussion about a problem with equipment --- "May I please ask you to think before speaking?"
from Roger Byrd, on managing your time during an experiment (Byrd's Law) --- "You can't come back unless you go home."
from Joe Redish, on writing (i.e. actually finishing) articles for publication (Redish's Rule) --- "0.8 is not equal to 1. However, 0.96 is equal to 1."
from Gary Love, on using four-vectors to derive the relation for the energy of Compton-scattered photons: "That's like playing tennis with the net down."

Last modified: Thu Feb 13 22:50:11 EST