Clifford Truesdell Quotes

• There is nothing that can be said by mathematical symbols and relations which cannot also be said by words. The converse, however, is false. Much that can be and is said by words cannot successfully be put into equations, because it is nonsense.

  Clifford Truesdell

  Funny, Fear, Science

  Clifford Truesdell (1966). “Six lectures on modern natural philosophy”, Springer

  46 Copy quote

• This paper gives wrong solutions to trivial problems. The basic error,however, is not new.

  Clifford Truesdell

  Math, Errors, Giving

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• How did Biot arrive at the partial differential equation? [the heat conduction equation] . . . Perhaps Laplace gave Biot the equation and left him to sink or swim for a few years in trying to derive it. That would have been merely an instance of the way great mathematicians since the very beginnings of mathematical research have effortlessly maintained their superiority over ordinary mortals.

  Clifford Truesdell

  Science, Years, Swim

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