Enrico Fermi and Pooh

I read this recently and it made my day. I have since put up the article outside my office door at work.

If you think physics and Disney/children's stories do not mix, well then just open the current edition of Physics Today (Sept. 2006) and turn to page 49. It turns out that Enrico Fermi was fond of Winnie the Pooh (as do I!). This was thought to be just an urban legend, but we now have evidence!

In Fermi's own handwriting, there's a record of some sort of a calendar that labeled his graphite pile. He called them "Pos" and "Roos", which are charcters from Winnie the Pooh series. But even clearer are the names given to his various equipments in the inventory list. He had things like "Piglet's amplifier", "Piglet lead counter shield and counter", "Heffalump amplier", "Roo power supply", "Roo U stds", etc.

I cracked up! I love this!

Next time someone makes fun of me with my Disney stuff, I'm going to show them this article!

:)

Zz.