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| Dirac (left) and Eliezer (center). The person on the right is unidentified (It's not me). |
English physicist and Cambridge University professor Paul Dirac was an avid mountain climber and occasionally ascended such well-known peaks as Mount Elbruz in the Caucasus. In preparation for such excursions, Dirac would often climb trees in the hills just outside Cambridge—wearing the same black suit in which he was invariably seen around the university campus.This story can be found repeated on the web, and it is supported by the fact that the Russian physicist, Igor Tamm, taught Dirac the basics of mountain climbing using trees to practice on. In return, Dirac taught Tamm how to drive a car [2, p. 190]. So, it may have been pure coincidence that Dirac displayed such energetic interest in the gum tree.