Google Doodle -- Hedwig Kohn

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Today’s (April 5 2019) Google Doodle features Hedwig Kohn, a spectroscopist who died in 1964. I’d never heard of her, despite studying spectroscopy, but that’s not surprising – judging from her Wikipedia page most things by and about her were written in German. On top of which, as a female scientist, she was undoubtedly woefully underrepresented in the past. This is just the kind of thing the Google Doodles are best at – drawing attention to the overlooked.

My one complaint is that they’ve got the rays being bent by the prism completely wrong. I’m prepared to cut them some slack on this. after all, they’re trying to convey the idea of her being a spectroscopist in a single image AND trying to make it spell out “Google” at the same time. But this is an incredibly common error, and it would take much to get it right.

https://stock.adobe.com/ro/images/prism-bending-and-refracting-white-light/12044025

https://stock.adobe.com/images/prism-bending-and-refracting-white-light/12044025

Heck, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon got it right:

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Good point. It would not have taken much to get the progression of colors in the right direction. Apparently the coders at Google don’t remember much from their physics classes.

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Correction-- that should read “wouldn’t take much to get it right”

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This is why I love the Dope!