Computer Intensive Physics Robert G. Fuller

Portugal Conference

March 6, 199811 University of Nebraska - Lincoln

I asked the students to search the database on "Hutchings", "Fuller" and "Einstein" (See Figure 19) and then write a paragraph about the impact of each these people on physics. It turns out Fuller is an English word that means "more than full." So if you searched the database any the time it says, for example, "the glass is fuller" with more water in it than less, you get a hit. So Fuller turns out to be a very popular word.

If you do this search for "Hutchings" you only get 14 hits. A few in articles and a few in the Calendar Cart. Fuller is not too bad, 638 hits, but first all of the adjectives "Fuller" are counted (See Figure 20). Also my father and my brother are physicists.

We wrote a textbook together in the 1970's called "Fuller Cubed." (Fuller, Fuller and Fuller, 1978), Every time the name "Fuller" appears it may appear three times, Father Fuller, older brother Fuller and Robert Fuller. So my count may be three times bigger than it ought to be because every time it counts Fuller it counts all the other Fullers also. Good students will discover this . When they look at this they say, " Oh, well it's a lot of hits." Then they see it's Harold, Richard and Robert as well as the adjectives. So "Fuller" gets an inflated count.

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