Re: What is understanding?

[Ludwik Kowalski <KowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

Cliff Parker wrote:

> I believe that one of my favorite quotes relates well to the
subject of "understanding".  It has been attributed to Niels Bohr.
> Never express yourself more clearly than you can think.

Here what  Pierre Radvanyi (my thesis adviser) and Monique
Bordry wrote about Niels Bohr whose logic was not always
easy to follow in a debate, even by qualified physicists. (I am
translating from page 109 of their book "Histoires d'Atome",
Edition Belin, Paris, 1988. It is, by the way, a very good
popular history of physics.)

One day his brother, Harald, who was a great mathematician,
was asked, how come that you Harald, speak so well while
your bother is so difficult to follow. He answered: "That is
because I speak only about those things which were already
explained before, while Niels, usually, speaks about things
which he plans to explain later".