Talk:Arthur Eddington

The Third Man

 * Ludwig Silberstein, a physicist who thought of himself as an expert on relativity, approached Eddington at the Royal Society's (6 November) 1919 meeting where he had defended Einstein's Relativity with his Brazil-Principe Solar Eclipse calculations with some degree of scepticism and ruefully charged Arthur as one who claimed to be one of three men who actually understood the theory (Silberstein, of course, was including himself and Einstein as the other two). When Eddington refrained from replying, he insisted Arthur not be "so shy", whereupon Eddington replied, "Oh, no! I was wondering who the third one might be!"

-- Arthur Eddington

The article cites: As related by Eddington to Chandrasekhar and quoted in Walter Isaacson "Einstein: His Life and Universe", page 262

Not sure how this should go in but it surely should, in some form. In some circles, these are his most celebrated words. Xiong (talk) 22:58, 8 October 2012 (UTC)

is this real?
"John Woods: 'Sir Arthur Eddington, who provided experimental tests of Einstein's theory of gravity, was interested in the philosophy of scientific method. He famously said: 'Do not trust a theory until it has been supported by experiment; and do not trust experimental results until they have been supported by theory.''"

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2013/01/not-off-topic-mathematics-vs-science.html

As Sir Arthur Eddington, who provided experimental tests of Einstein's theory of gravity, famously said:

"Do not trust a theory until it has been supported by experiment; and do not trust experimental results until they have been supported by theory"

http://paulorenato.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=109}}

The second half is from http://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/27/for-a-nobel-math-prize.html but I can't find a real reference for the first.