How did Fermi's approach blend theory and experiment?
My method was to treat theory and experiment as inseparable partners. I believed that a beautiful equation was only truly useful if it could be tested against reality, and that experimental puzzles often pointed towards new theoretical avenues. I enjoyed deriving practical predictions from fundamental principles and then designing experiments, or interpreting existing ones, to confirm or refute them. This constant interplay allowed for rapid progress and a deep understanding of the phenomena we investigated.
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