What big problem has been solved by an intoxicated sophomore?

September 10, 2015 9:26 AM

A professor of mine recently suggested that no significant problem has been solved by a drunk sophomore. Surely given the large number of drunken sophomores throughout history, one of them has accomplished something interesting. Do you know of any instances?
posted by andythebean to Grab Bag (14 answers total)

Reminded me of this story... not sure he was a sophomore, though.
posted by Huck500 at 9:49 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

The key to every debate is to define the terms in such a way that it suits your argument.

Define "significant."
posted by GuyZero at 9:55 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

One year late, but Enrico Fermi published some pretty important papers expanding on Einstein's Theory of Relativity in his third year of college. I'm not sure if you could call him a drunk, but he is known to have been an appreciator of wine.
posted by 256 at 10:16 AM on September 10, 2015

When I was a sophomore, I determined my rate of maximum beer consumption by graphing my beer consumption over time for each drinking session. This allowed me to find the sweet spot of well and truly buzzed without hangover.

I assure you that this is indeed significant.
posted by plinth at 10:16 AM on September 10, 2015 [17 favorites]

Here's perhaps a better one: Évariste Galois made some major discoveries in the theory of polynomial equations (see Galois Theory) in his second year of university. It is safe to say that, as a 19th century Frenchman, he drank rather a lot. Specifically, he is on record as having, in a letter to a friend, blamed overindulging on wine for one of his several encounters with the law.
posted by 256 at 10:26 AM on September 10, 2015 [16 favorites]

Complex just reported a story of an engineering student coming home wasted and designing a plane... Not sure if he was a sophomore.
Also Hot Box cookies is a cookie restaurant that delivers until 3am. It was started by a 20 year old at the University of Missouri. He got the idea while visiting the University of Indiana campus, most likely while drunk. I got this info from a classmate who did a presentation on the business (and interviewed him personally) but here is some related context: http://www.revention.com/customers/interviews/Hot-Box-Cookies-Corey-Rimmel
posted by rubster at 10:45 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

Student designs 'entire aeroplane' while drunk - and can't remember a thing about it

i was hoping for more, but my google-fu is failing me.
posted by andrewcooke at 11:44 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Aside from what constitutes a problem or solving it, Facebook and its precursors were created by a Harvard Sophmore. The Social Network depicts him as being drunk while coding various things.
posted by tremspeed at 12:14 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well, he wasn't drunk, but...
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:38 PM on September 10, 2015

I present to you the Smoot, a specific unit of measurement. The Smoot markings have often been used by police to calculate speed, etc. of traffic accidents on the bridge. Now Smoot and companions were freshman and sober at the time of the original smooting; but as sophomores they decreed the tradition would be maintained. Was this decision made while drunk? I do not know. Further research is necessary, but it could be a fruitful path.
posted by Hypatia at 2:02 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well, this is a big tangential, but here's a line from Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard, in which the speaker is saying that art is as important as science and he makes the point that Byron wrote one of his best loved poems about some floozy after a drunken bacchanal, I means not in so many words but read between the lines:

If knowledge isn't self-knowledge it isn't doing much, mate. Is the universe expanding? Is it contracting? Is it standing on one leg and singing "When Father Painted the Parlour"? Leave me out. I can expand my universe without you. "She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies, and all that's best of dark and bright meet in her aspect and her eyes." There you are, he wrote it after coming home from a party.
posted by janey47 at 2:21 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Folks, the OP is not looking for witty retorts or snark about drinking. Stick to the question, please. Thanks.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 5:29 PM on September 10, 2015

A junior at Princeton (the "A-Bomb Kid") designed a nuclear weapon and constructed a mockup. Princeton is not a particularly dry place, so it's plausible he was drunk during some of it.
posted by glass origami robot at 8:09 PM on September 10, 2015

A stretch, but LT John Ekelund was a junior officer, which is kind of like sophomore-status (in that they haven't learned they don't know everything yet.) No evidence he was drunken, but he was a sailor, so it's implied.

I was just considering a MetaFilter post about target motion analysis and ranging techniques. It's pretty fascinating.
posted by ctmf at 10:04 PM on September 10, 2015