How Was Einstein Really As a Student?

[bhobba]

Hi All

To the general public there are all these myths that Einstein failed math, was a poor student, and all sorts of other misconceptions. Most people on this forum know it is poppycock and I, and I have no doubt other posters, have had to explain its just a myth a number of times. Well just so people can refer to it instead of writing out another answer here is a video that gives his student history in all its gory detail by a nice well spoken young lady that many people like me would like to see more of in physics:


It's very interesting if you only have heard the myths to hear the actual truth.

Thanks
Bill

 

[fresh_42]

To the general public there are all these myths that Einstein failed math, was a poor student, and all sorts of other misconceptions.

This is due to a translation (better: transcription) error. While (if I'm correctly informed) the US measures grades by Latin letters (A,B,C,...), Germany by numbers (1,2,..,5,6), Switzerland uses the inverse order (6,5,...,2,1). Hence an A+ is likewise a 1 or a 6 elsewhere. People who told those stories made the typical mistake to extrapolate their cultural background to other's. And Einstein changed from the German to the Swiss system at the age of 16.

 

[bhobba]

Here in Aus it's 1-7 scale - 1-3 - fail - but for some purposes a 3 will be accepted as a pass conceded. I was a lazy sod at HS and with no work at all got 4's and 5's in all my subjects except English where I got a 3. So I failed HS.

But when I went to uni since I was doing math and virtually nobody did math degrees back then they had tons of places. Our class sizes were ridiculously low - usually something like 4-5 students - many had only 3 and one had just one student - me.

Because of that they accepted my 3 as a pass conceded and I got in. However the uni did not use 1-7, they had a fail, pass, credit, honor system. I got virtually all honors and so got the maximum entrance score for entry to graduate degrees, or another undergraduate degree if I wanted to do one.

They then changed the scoring from 1-7. My honors were only counted as a 6 so I no longer had the maximum possible and there are a few degrees like medicine I no longer had automatic entrance into. But I never wanted to do those courses anyway so no great loss.

Recently I thought about doing a graduate certificate as during the pandemic the government was offering dirt cheap courses, and enquired about entrance. I wanted to to one in the foundations of physics - but no graduate certificates were available in that - although there was a undergrad degree available with that as an emphasis. Didn't feel like doing a whole undergrad degree again so gave it a miss. But even my now really old marks was still good enough for admission.

Thanks
Bill

 

[Janus]

Another misconception is that Einstein was "bad" at math. While he did skip math classes while at Zurich Polytechnic quite a bit, it wasn't due to any lack of ability, it was just that, in his opinion, it was waste of his time. At the time, he didn't think that higher math was needed to do physics. Later in life he said that he regretted not applying himself to his math studies.

 

[fresh_42]

Here in Aus it's 1-7 scale - 1-3 - fail - but for some purposes a 3 will be accepted as a pass conceded. I was a lazy sod at HS and with no work at all got 4's and 5's in all my subjects except English where I got a 3.

When I finished school, we had 1 (worst) to 15 (best) instead of 1 (best) to 6 (worst) in the final years.

 

[johnscitech]

Hi , it's very interesting to know the truth beyond the myth. Thanks for the share

 

[Cav]

Hi All

To the general public there are all these myths that Einstein failed math, was a poor student, and all sorts of other misconceptions. Most people on this forum know it is poppycock and I, and I have no doubt other posters, have had to explain its just a myth a number of times. Well just so people can refer to it instead of writing out another answer here is a video that gives his student history in all its gory detail by a nice well spoken
It's very interesting if you only have heard the myths to hear the actual truth.

Thanks
Bill

The young women who walks us through the heart of the matter (Einstein's school performance) does so in the way historians do: Through the research of primary sources (Einstein's actual records) and guides us to form better conclusion. That is the way one should respond to these sort of questions. Kudos for sharing this!

 

[bhobba]

Another misconception is that Einstein was "bad" at math. While he did skip math classes while at Zurich Polytechnic quite a bit, it wasn't due to any lack of ability, it was just that, in his opinion, it was waste of his time. At the time, he didn't think that higher math was needed to do physics. Later in life he said that he regretted not applying himself to his math studies.

Indeed he was a competent mathematician, just not up there with some of his friends like Hilbert and Von-Neumann. Then again few are. Especially Von-Newman who has stories that are literally scary - even to other great mathematicians.

Thanks
Bill

 

[pinball1970]

I have heard this, “Einstein was no good at maths.”
Wiki is pretty good.
“Einstein excelled at math and physics from a young age, reaching a mathematical level years ahead of his peers.

The 12-year-old Einstein taught himself algebra and Euclidean geometry over a single summer.[28]

Einstein also independently discovered his own original proof of the Pythagorean theorem aged 12.[29]

A family tutor Max Talmud says that only a short time after he had given the 12-year-old Einstein a geometry textbook, "[Einstein] had worked through the whole book.

He thereupon devoted himself to higher mathematics ... Soon the flight of his mathematical genius was so high I could not follow."[30]
Minkowski was his maths tutor at University, called him “A lazy dog,” probably helped with the story.

 

[BWV]

Hi All

To the general public there are all these myths that Einstein failed math, was a poor student, and all sorts of other misconceptions.

He was a good student, but no Einstein