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Iftheshoefits on March 8, 2015 | parent | context | favorite | on: On Secretly Terrible Engineers

I absolutely would expect a theoretical physicist to at least be able to competently contribute to the design of an experiment, especially as it pertains to his specialty.

The bridge analogy is spot on, in my opinion. It mirrors my above comment, and I couldn't agree more.

mng2 on March 9, 2015 [–]

The theoreticians usually figure out what exactly to look at. The experimentalists figure out how to do it, and then carry it out.

A common joke is that you don't let the theorists anywhere near the apparatus, because they'll break things.

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