## Metadata - Author: [[Amanda Gefter]] - Full Title: Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn - Category: #books ## Highlights - There’s no conceivable experiment that can measure both a particle’s position and momentum to perfect accuracy. If you want to accurately measure position, you need a rigidly fixed measuring device that won’t move when the particle hits it; otherwise its movement will smear out the position measurement. But if you want to accurately measure momentum, your device had better move easily when hit, so that its recoil can register the amount of momentum imparted by the particle. ([Location 732](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00E2RYTJA&location=732)) - Smolin’s slogan that “the first principle of cosmology must be ‘There is nothing outside the universe.’ ” No clocks, no observers. No God’s-eye point of view. ([Location 823](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00E2RYTJA&location=823)) - “I’ve never been to such an open-minded meeting,” she said. “People just stood up and said what they really thought. That basically never happens. And it was all because of Johnny Wheeler. Not only did he stick to the big issues, the important problems, he also must have been very accepting of people. Oftentimes we’re not so good at encouraging people to go out on a limb. The culture is to always say that something looks wrong. This is science—it’s a bunch of immature boys who want to look smart.” ([Location 863](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00E2RYTJA&location=863)) - The best way to find the geometry of a space is to draw a big triangle on it and add up its angles. If they sum to more than 180 degrees, you’ll know the space is positively curved; if they sum to less, the curvature is negative. ([Location 1056](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00E2RYTJA&location=1056))