More processing! Today I thought I would share an excerpt from one of the songs in the “School Songs” file. It appears to be a parody of the “Major-General’s Song” from the 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. Platt gives us a glimpse of his sense of humor, while making fun of what it means to be an expert in physics.
I am the very model physics doctor of philosophy.
I don’t know much of X-rays, electronics or spectroscopy.
Though I’ve recently developed a lamentable proclivity
For positions and deuterons and radioactivity.
I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations if they’re simple, not quadratical.
I can solve a wave equation but I realize my need is
For understanding simple laws like that of Archimedes.
I can rattle out Beethoven on a freshman lab sonometer,
But I always burn the coils of a d’Arsonval galvanometer.
In short, outside of X-rays, electronics or spectroscopy,
I am the very model physics doctor of philosophy.
Well, we know Platt was indeed a very intelligent physicist, contrary to the satirical lyrics. This serves as a reminder to not take life too seriously.
More next week!
Nicole