Dr. Pauling was my most memorable teacher. During my chemistry course, he was using
our class to proof his new chemistry text book. One day he started his lecture by lighting
a Bunsen burner under a beaker containing clear liquid. He then directed us to page 147
of his book. Very quickly he turned his back to the class and wrote the equation from page
147 on the blackboard. Finishing his famous scribble, he faced the class and told us that
he had dreamt about this formula last night. He told us to please put a square root of 2
in front of this formula. In his typical humorous manner he announced that the square root
of 2 was the best “fudge factor” that he knew about and since we lived in an imperfect
world, he felt it was necessary to modify this formula. With great flourish, Dr. Pauling
scratched the square root of 2 on the blackboard, turned toward us, reached into his
jacket pocket and with his wonderful mischievous smile, removed a tea bag and dunked
it into the now boiling water in the beaker. My perfect black and white world was forever
modified!
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