From: scerir (scerir@libero.it)
Date: Thu Aug 29 2002 - 17:05:41 MDT
Schmotons, hmmmm
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/photon/schmoton.htm
"Schm". Or "Shm". Not a word, but a prefatory
sound, that "pooh-pooh" the word they prefix.
To negate, or deride, the meaning of a word,
the word is repeated, but with "schm" prefixed
to the repetition. Holy-Schmoly! Virus-Schmirus.
Cancer-Schmancer. Mayhor-Schmayor.
Fancy-Schmancy.
Gosh!
"Gosh" numbers (after Fredrick Pohl ) are numbers
that represent more than one quantity. So that when
you perceive the coincidence you say: "Gosh!". Some
"gosh" numbers are trivial. Some are of transcendental
(wow!) importance. Some gosh numbers are: 0.5 degrees
is the angular diameter of both the sun and the moon as seen
from earth (gosh! is that true?); minus 40 degrees is the
temperature which is the same in both the Fahrenheit
and Celsius scales (I must check). Many more numbers
are reported to be "gosh" by Dirac here
http://www.fdavidpeat.com/interviews/dirac.htm
Dr. William Rickert, Professor and Coordinator
of Mathematics at Ocean County College (New. J.),
is the authority in the field.
Cutie-patootie!
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