David Mermin

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(For the founder of the international youth circus Circus Smirkus, see Rob Mermin.)

David Mermin
N. David Mermin
Born	30 March 1935 New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Residence	USA
Fields	Physicist
Institutions	Cornell University University of California, San Diego University of Birmingham
Alma mater	Harvard University
Known for	Mermin–Wagner theorem Mermin–Ho relation Lindhard–Mermin dielectric function Coining the term 'boojum' Mermin–Peres magic square
Notable awards	Lilienfeld Prize (1989) National Academy of Sciences (1991) Klopsteg Memorial Award (1994) Majorana Prize (2010)

Nathaniel David Mermin is a solid-state physicist at Cornell University best known for the eponymous Mermin–Wagner theorem, his application of the term "Boojum" to superfluidity, and for the quote "Shut up and calculate!"

Together with Neil Ashcroft, Mermin has written an esteemed textbook, Solid State Physics,^[1] and numerous popularizations of physics and mathematics.

Mermin’s foot

Mermin has contributed to special relativity with two books and several articles. In It's About Time (2005) he suggests that the English foot be slightly modified:

Henceforth, by 1 foot we shall mean the distance light travels in a nanosecond. A foot, if you will, is a light nanosecond (and a nanosecond, even more nicely, can be viewed as a light foot). …If it offends you to redefine the foot … then you may define 0.299792458 meters to be 1 phoot, and think "phoot" (conveniently evocative of the Greek φωτος, "light") whenever you read "foot".^[2]

This adaptation of a physical unit is one of several ploys that Mermin uses to draw students into space-time geometry.

Notes

↑ Ashcroft, Mermin 1976.
↑ It's About Time, page 22

References

Ashcroft, Neil W.; Mermin, N. David (1976). Solid State Physics. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0-03-083993-9.
Mermin, N. David (2005). It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12201-4.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: David Mermin

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 61634879 LCCN: n88603883 ISNI: 0000 0001 0907 4581 GND: 122506839 SUDOC: 033206554 MGP: 124352 NDL: 00449799

Persondata
Name	Mermin, David
Alternative names
Short description	American physicist
Date of birth	30 March 1935
Place of birth	New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Date of death
Place of death

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