Do you know of any commonly mispronounced name or phrase in physics? I know of a few. Many of these are often names in another language, such as French. So many in the English-speaking world, especially here in the US, often tend to pronounce these words the way they are spelled, rather than the way they should be pronounce in their native tongue. Even the popular name of "Einstein" is commonly mispronounced when compared to what it should be in German.
Here is my list that I can think of off the top of my head:
1. Brillouin
2. Auger
3. Double Chooz.
I may come back later and add more to this list.
Zz.
14 comments:
I like "the Louisville theorem"
"Runge" integrators. Bloch is almost always mispronounced as "Block". Most of solid state physics German names...
My personal favorite is Poisson
De Broglie, which prononciation is unnatural even in french.
Iron
brehm strahlung and rest stralen band are always good for a laugh.
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes' name is probably only pronounced correctly by the dutch
My favorite is the Schwarz-child metric.
a classic is also the effect named after Lamb and Shift
Tycho Brahe
This isn't necessarily a physics name, but its a pet peeve of mine when people mispronounce kilometer. This may be not be as big of a problem in the US as it is in Canada.
How is "kilometer" pronounced in Canada?
Might be the same thing as many Americans mispronouncing "nuclear" as "nukiller". Or maybe they are doing it on purpose.
Zz.
There is no such physicist as Erwin Schrowdinger, only Schroedinger. Unfortunately, a lot of English speakers can't be bothered to learn how to make the sound
My favorite is Huyghens (something like "Oihruns" in Dutch)
The one you have to be really careful of when teaching. Is "Kuntz Tube".
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