[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Einstein

Thu May 26 12:32:10 PDT 2022

 Does it matter? It does fit with Einstein's sense of humor.
By the way, speaking of taking the stage as someone else, I had the experience last Tuesday evening of having to step in at a Zoom Meeting when the real leader of the group became ill at the last minute. The ruse lasted only until one of the regulars recognized that I was not the leader.
Some commented that I had been a better leader than the actual group leader. I told them I'm happy to keep my day job with LCTG. (As a non-leader.)  (This was an evening meeting, so the term day job could rightfully be used as a contrast.)

-- Bob Primak

    On Thursday, May 26, 2022, 03:12:22 PM EDT, john rudy <jjrudy1 at comcast.net> wrote:  

I have heard that story and always assumed it was a joke. Are you sure it is real?

John Rudy

781-861-0402

781-718-8334 (cell)

John.rudy at alum.mit.edu 

13 Hawthorne Lane

Bedford, MA  01730-1047

From: Ted Kochanski <tedpkphd at gmail.com> 
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2022 2:41 PM
To: john rudy <jjrudy1 at comcast.net>
Cc: Lex Computer Group <LCTG at lists.toku.us>
Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Einstein

All,

Not only was he a real person -- he even had a sense of humour

The following was told to me by John Wheeler who worked with Einstein at Princeton before he [Wheeler] migrated to the U of T.  When I was a young graduate student I took a couple of theoretical physics courses from Wheeler -- he told this joke while we were talking about Tensor General Relativity

Einstein had been on a tour giving lectures in many cities -- he and his driver [old Joe] an old Princeton retainer, were discussing the next few lectures in the midwest before they would finally be returning to Princeton
His driver offered that he had heard the lecture so many times that he [old Joe] could deliver the lecture.
Einstein thought this an amusing idea -- so they agreed in the next small college town to switch identities
Upon arrival Einstein met with the College faculty and described the plan -- all of them agreed to not disclose the ruse until the lecture was over
So Joe ascended the stage as Prof. Einstein while Einstein sat discreetly in the back of the auditorium
Joe delivered the talk on Relativity and Clocks and accepted the applause -- but before the ruse could be disclosed by the Head of the Department  -- Joe had accepted a question from a student
The question was not at all involved with the topic of the lecture -- it concerned the Photoelectric Effect [1905 -- along with Brownian Motion, the primary reason for Einstein's Nobel Prize]  
Joe -- didn't have clue as to the topic -- but he wasn't ready to admit defeat -- so old Joe puffed-up and told the student

"Why I'm surprised that you don't know that -- it's so obvious that my Driver could even answer"

Einstein stood up -- answered the student and then the masquerade scheme was revealed to all

Ted

On Thu, May 26, 2022 at 11:37 AM john rudy <jjrudy1 at comcast.net> wrote:

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