So, there's a concept in physics called Cherenkov radiation, and that happens when some particle with charge is moving faster in a medium than light can. There was a Russian guy back in the day named Askaryan who came up with a clever argument that while this normally gives you blue light to detect, you can have situations that also emit significant amounts of radiation. I was trying to understand this for a class a few years ago so I read the original paper....
It was three pages long and didn't actually bother to lay out the math that proved their argument. Had to find a much later, much longer paper of people actually showing all the details.
Haha yeah, that's just classic, really. Chances are good that a similar thing would happen to me if I ever did manage to find Andreev's paper. Maddening.
Oh! I just remembered another fun one! I once ran across a theorem which according to the paper I found it in was proven in this other paper. So I go to the other paper, and they say "your proof is in another castle (paper)", so I find that one, and it's in german, shittily typed on a typewriter, with the most arcane notation I've ever seen. So what do I do? You guessed it! I just cite the first paper where I found the theorem, which isn't great, because now anyone who reads my dissertation gets to go down exactly the same rabbit hole! Neat!
So, there's a concept in physics called Cherenkov radiation, and that happens when some particle with charge is moving faster in a medium than light can. There was a Russian guy back in the day named Askaryan who came up with a clever argument that while this normally gives you blue light to detect, you can have situations that also emit significant amounts of radiation. I was trying to understand this for a class a few years ago so I read the original paper....
It was three pages long and didn't actually bother to lay out the math that proved their argument. Had to find a much later, much longer paper of people actually showing all the details.
Haha yeah, that's just classic, really. Chances are good that a similar thing would happen to me if I ever did manage to find Andreev's paper. Maddening.
Oh! I just remembered another fun one! I once ran across a theorem which according to the paper I found it in was proven in this other paper. So I go to the other paper, and they say "your proof is in another castle (paper)", so I find that one, and it's in german, shittily typed on a typewriter, with the most arcane notation I've ever seen. So what do I do? You guessed it! I just cite the first paper where I found the theorem, which isn't great, because now anyone who reads my dissertation gets to go down exactly the same rabbit hole! Neat!
Why isn't "schollarly rewriter" a job:(