Master Shoemaker and Meistersinger: Two Great Physicists

Abstract

Analogy—a most powerful tool of human thinking. The happy realization of the resemblance of two objects, two processes or, yes, two ideas. If one of the two is known or understood, we have some hope to master the second one in a similar vein. The two items are not equivalent or interchangeable; their properties are usually of different nature and origin. But there are some common features which might point to a fruitful way of understanding by making use of the similarities even if they are distant and faint. Often we are taught at school through illuminating analogies: a radio wave is similar to a water wave. It is not—but the two are indeed analogous.