Einstein or Newton, the better man?

immel

I had just by chance mentioned something about Albert Einstein today to my colleague when a heated debate began at the office. We were talking as usual when he threw out that although Einstein was an accomplished physicist, Isaac Newton was the greater of the two because of his work in mechanics, optics, calculus, gravity, and because he was knighted. I support that Einstein was a more accomplished physicist for more practical discoveries in relativity, electricity, space/time, and various other field theories. To me, Einstein is obviously the greater mind of the two and I know many other people believe so as well.

So that I have some support when I see my friend tomorrow, does anybody have a say on who was a better man?

Gokul43201

You might not like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Landau#Landau.27s_list

immel

Thanks for the link Gokul43201, at least Einstein is only a tick below Newton. Anybody else have an opinion?

DavidSnider

If there were no Newton there would be no Einstein.

russ_watters

Einstein had a lot of support that Newton didn't have.

immel

Do you call home-made equations support? Because Newton did that too. Both used educated assumptions to support their theories.

MeJennifer

I find those arguments about if X is better than Y completely absurd and a waste of time. Both were great scientists, I leave it at that.

Crosson

If you look at the polished presentation that goes on in today's classroom, the material having to do with Einstein is more abstract than Newton's theories, and it uses a more advanced kind of mathematics.

If you look at the historical development, you will see that Newton's accomplishments were much greater than Einstein's, and his genius was immensely greater.

First of all, the great mathematician Hilbert had this to say about Einstein:

"Every schoolboy in Gottingen knows more about higher dimensional geometry than Einstein, but chalk is cheaper than gray matter."

In other words, Einstein's genius was not so great as his will to persevere with his work. Einstein himself said:

"Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, for I can assure you that mine are far greater."

While some people who think Einstein is a genius might interpret this as modesty to the point of irony, I rather think it is an honest admission of his own shortcomings.

Isaac Newton, however, was one of the preeminent mathematicians of his generation (along with Gottfried Leibniz). Newton used a method that is basically identical to calculus and differential equations to (among other things) solve problems related to the motion of the planets in order to prove that a force that varied as the inverse square of the distance would imply Kepler's laws. But he presented it in terms of classic synthetic geometry, with proofs that are at a level of complexity and power unmatched before or since.

A 20th century author said:

"Newton was a giant, and his tools are too heavy for anyone else to lift."

The great Mathematician P.S. Laplace said of Newton:

"There is only one universe, and it has only one set of laws, and there will only ever be one man who discovered those laws."

In T.S. Bell's classic book Men of Mathematics, he mentions that the three greatest mathematicians of all time are Gauss, Newton, and Archimedes, in that order.

So before you continue to argue in favor of Einstein, I suggest you consider that Einstein's fame is at least in part to do sensationalism in early 20th century newspapers, whereas Newton's contribution was the centerpiece of all western intellectualism for a century after his death.

robertm

Not sure if it matters or if it should really, but newton was most certainly the higher genius. The raw abilities of each mind is different, but newtons was staggeringly powerful. Can you ever imagine inventing calculus?!?!? However, it is pointless to argue who is 'greater' because it is simply arbitrary unless you apply specific areas to measure greatness.

Personally I consider both to be my very close and two of my very best friends.

DaveC426913

My vote would be for Newton. He made what I would argue is the single greatest scientific leap in human history when he unified the force that moves all in the heavens and the force that moves all on the Earth. In doing so, he brought, for the first time, the whole universe out of the realm of the Gods and put it under the eye of science, once and for all time banishing the superstition of the eternal and unchanging heavens.

Everything after that is gravy.

M Grandin

To me Hendrik Lorentz deserves the fame devoted to Einstein. He derived the "Lorentz transformations" upon which special relativity is resting. Einstein didn't master mathematics
himself and let his "girl friend" make the math necessary for him. The concept of time as a dimension was already mentioned in "Time machine" by H.G. Wells before Einstein.

But the greatest theoretician of them all to me is Maxwell.

Cvan

Concerning which is actually the better man, should you read into some history books on the life and personality of Newton, however, I think you will easily be convinced that Einstein was, in general the better 'man'.

immel

I am not trying to define who was the best man of all time, I just wanted to fuel the heated yet friendly discussion I was having with an associate. I am starting to realize that Newton took much more difficult subjects upon himself, and yet are still applicable today. However I believe most of Einstein's work to be theoretical and has no practical use thus far. I am starting to make the turn...

humanino

Is not the mere question presumptuous and moot ?

It is clear that this person has no clue what we are talking about for instance. He does not even mention Hilbert and/or Poincare to back up his claims. Anti-semitism was very fashionable at that time. Taking into account the additional fact that many scientists at first did not really understand Einstein's work, you could find quite a lot of material along those lines.

In the end, what is the point ? Science is a mountain to which some people bring grains of salt, some people bring massive rocks. How can you know which one was "better" ? Are you, yourself, better than both of them to judge them ? The most ironical is that in principle, you could argue so that you are "better" than both of them together, because you could now sit on a higher mountain than they were both sitting at their times and see further horizons. That is precisely what makes the argument moot.

Those discussions have no point and are insulting to the memory of those great scientists.

Danger

I don't know much about the history of either man, and nothing of the math, so I tend to agree that Newton's original contributions were far greater.
In reference to the argument mentioned in the OP, Newton's knighthood is irrelevant to the matter. I'm pretty sure that Einstein would also have been knighted, had he been a citizen of the British Empire. He just wasn't eligible.

MeJennifer

Well written!

I completely agree!

M Grandin

You need not be a good player yourself to "favorize" a certain football team. And this comparison of scientists should not be taken so seriously.

Of course I know Poincare - just forgot mention him. Among several other bright theoreticians.