how important was einstein, really?

bennyska

<showing ignorance> what's the hilbert/einstein issue? <still showing ignorance>

my_wan

The main theoretical constructs associated with Einstein was only a part of his contribution. There was the photoelectric effect, brownian motion, which was responsible for finally convincing physicist of the reality of atoms, etc. He was at the forefront in the development of QM right up until QM was declared complete. This began the famous objections that continue in some forms to this day.

Even without the theory of relativity, his contributions would remain significant. That got him the public recognition, but recognition among physicist would have remained regardless. Even if anti-semites could, which they can't, take away these main publicly attributed contributions that received public recognition, his contributions and recognition among scientist would remain.

That said, I'm not so sure even special relativity would have come about in any reasonable period of time, as often presumed. In hindsight it's easy to presume it would, but consider the OP mentioning a teachers contention of how close Archimedes was to calculus. The contributions of others, such as Minkowski, Hilbert, Poincare, etc., etc. are at least as important physically as anything Einstein did. Yet these contributions were not done in absence of what came before either. Certain parts of Einstein's contributions are in some ways overinflated in public perception, while at the same time his actual contributions and those of others is under appreciated. It happens.

Salman2

All the topics discussed in this thread are addressed in a very nice book title "Einstein, his Life and Universe", by Walter Isaacson, 2007, Simon & Schuster, NY.

edit: OK, I see this book is already mentioned by another.

lenfromkits

BTW, Paul Gerber came up with the formula to explain the advance of the perihelion of Mercury about 15 years before Einstein did and then tried to sue Einstein for plagiarism. That was after Einstein's formulas failed to predict this and he went back to the drawing board for a couple more years to get it right. Makes you wonder if he just took Gerber's formula and worked backwards.

Ich

From which crank site did you get this nonsense? Gerber was long dead when Einstein published his result.
Sources?
Makes me wonder if you actually know something about these things.

yogi

Quote from Roger Penrose at p 406 - Road to Reality "In my opinion, the theory of special relativity was not complete despite the wonderful physical insights of Einstein and the profound contributions of Lorentz and Poincare, until Minkowski provided the fundamental and revolutionary viewpoint "spacetime"

TCS

Physicists work with complex math and theroteical constructs every day. However, a patent clerk has to look at state of the art technology and determine if it is new. Which means that a patent clerk needs to read many of the latest scientific papers and apply the latest scientific concepts to real world structures. Accordingly, patent clerks develop a much more practical problem solving approach that helped lead Einstein to his discoveries.

He had to very very smart smart to be able to work a full time job, keeep his wife somewhat happy, and still find time to solve dificult scientific problems and mathematically proove many new theories.

Phrak

Einstein was a "technical expert third class" and "second class". He earned his PhD from Zurich during this time as a result of papers published as a lowly bachelotte.

stevmg

It is said that Einstein, in his technical job at the patent office, was able to, in effect, "daydream" as he worked and came up with many of his theories or proofs. He would have had a much harder time doing this had he been a construction worker using a jack-hammer.

Flustered

Is it true that Einstein was not that great at mathematics?

ghwellsjr

Only those who are great at mathematics can tell. Those who are not will never know.

neyzenyelda

I dont undertstand why he refused uncertainty.

ghwellsjr

Do you understand uncertainty?

Adel Makram

Do any one understand why c is constant without mention, that is the way nature works?

julian

I have wondered just how clever E was. Other people have broken down wall after wall after wall. E (only!) did it 4 times. However the wall breaking E required a mind unlike any other!!...

... The hole agument...E and Hilbert's their own verions...both were in a furious battle to arrive at the resolve it...not just deriving the field equations.

Eisnsten called the resolution of the hole "beyond my wildest expectations" - E had a deeper impact on 'our' understanding of spacetime than most people know.

B'jesus I was a a top condensed matter place in the u.k. and non of the staff had ever heard of Einstien's hole argument.

ghwellsjr

I don't understand your grammatically incorrect English sentence.

ghwellsjr

Are you talking about a black hole?