Bellz Theorem, 1: Murray Hill
A cut-paper rock opera about the Labs at Murray Hill, New Jersey, in 1947, where nobody agrees on anything. It opens on the real Bell's theorem in hi-fi (E = cos 2θ against the best answers written in advance, the line 1 − θ/45, so S = 2 against 2√2 ≈ 2.83; CHSH, 1969), then the wrong Bell, seventeen years early. On screen and true: Nyquist's 2B (1928: a channel B wide carries up to 2B pulses a second), the point-contact transistor of December 1947 (two gold contacts on germanium), and John Stewart Bell as a student in Belfast in 1947. Labelled liberties: Shannon's unicycle in this hallway, and the 1964 theorem letter arriving in 1947. The Supervisor, Dot, Gus and Mr. Pruitt are made up; the Labs carry no marks. Song: Murray Hill, made for the show (ACE-Step).
True story Every fact on screen was checked before release (2026-10-27). The dialogue is invented.
Cast
10
Spooky
ActionSources
- H. Nyquist, Certain Topics in Telegraph Transmission Theory (1928)
- PBS, Transistorized!: the miracle month, December 1947
- IEEE Spectrum: Claude Shannon, tinkerer, prankster
- J. S. Bell, On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen paradox, Physics 1, 195 (1964)
- Clauser, Horne, Shimony, Holt, PRL 23, 880 (1969)
- Burke and Percival, John Stewart Bell, 1928 to 1990, Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 45 (1999): at Queen's University Belfast from 1945, BSc 1948
