3 ms·

I wonder if "proving Einstein right/wrong" will still be the #1 clickbait headline for physics articles 100 years from now.

intrasight 11y ago
That's a very loaded question in physics circles
tobinfricke 11y ago
Of course -- it would be much more exciting to prove Einstein wrong. Also, all the press about the detection of gravitational waves "proving Einstein right" is a bit funny in light of the fact that Einstein himself did not initially believe in the existence of gravitational waves.
venomsnake 11y ago
I never got the reasons for the whole idolization/obsession with Einstein. Seeing all the guys that were his contemporaries - discovering fundamental stuff about the universe was a favorite pastime back then. I guess he was probably the first to break out as a celebrity.
- deepnet 11y ago
  Einstein's modification of Classical Newtonian Physics is still unparalled today.
  - goldenkey 11y ago
    But this infallible picture of Einstein almost discounts all the work the man put in. Yes, he was extremely intelligent but he also worked hard as hell to learn the mathematics necessary for his work in physics. And it took him years before he dropped the stubborn idea of a static universe because Hubble was able to see the galaxies outside our local group getting further away, an expanding universe no doubt. [1] It does everyone a favor these days, to actually know that Einstein's accomplishments are in reach for many fields like number theory and physics. Intelligence and creativity, an intuition and desire to understand what makes ones' heart/brain/physical body tick. I hate the bastardization of the immense work that Einstein undertook, he didn't just genius out these ideas. He worked for them. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_constant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_constant
  - venomsnake 11y ago
    In his time we also had Planck, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger - whose contributions are as foundational and unparallel too. But nobody is the media is obsessed with proving Max Planck wrong. Or Schrodinger. "Will scientists finally prove XXX wrong", XXX is always Einstein.
    - Jenya_ 11y ago
      yes, the others, if Heisenberg (or other German scientists) would be a bit more smarter then WWII may have ended differently and in that new world no one would be praising Einstein, for obvious reasons: http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/8491/did-heisenberg-undermine-the-german-atomic-bomb-by-deliberately-hiding-his-exper http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/8491/did-heisenbe...

intrasight 11y ago

That's a very loaded question in physics circles

tobinfricke 11y ago

Of course -- it would be much more exciting to prove Einstein wrong. Also, all the press about the detection of gravitational waves "proving Einstein right" is a bit funny in light of the fact that Einstein himself did not initially believe in the existence of gravitational waves.

venomsnake 11y ago

I never got the reasons for the whole idolization/obsession with Einstein. Seeing all the guys that were his contemporaries - discovering fundamental stuff about the universe was a favorite pastime back then. I guess he was probably the first to break out as a celebrity.

deepnet 11y ago
Einstein's modification of Classical Newtonian Physics is still unparalled today.
- goldenkey 11y ago
  But this infallible picture of Einstein almost discounts all the work the man put in. Yes, he was extremely intelligent but he also worked hard as hell to learn the mathematics necessary for his work in physics. And it took him years before he dropped the stubborn idea of a static universe because Hubble was able to see the galaxies outside our local group getting further away, an expanding universe no doubt. [1] It does everyone a favor these days, to actually know that Einstein's accomplishments are in reach for many fields like number theory and physics. Intelligence and creativity, an intuition and desire to understand what makes ones' heart/brain/physical body tick. I hate the bastardization of the immense work that Einstein undertook, he didn't just genius out these ideas. He worked for them. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_constant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_constant
- venomsnake 11y ago
  In his time we also had Planck, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger - whose contributions are as foundational and unparallel too. But nobody is the media is obsessed with proving Max Planck wrong. Or Schrodinger. "Will scientists finally prove XXX wrong", XXX is always Einstein.
  - Jenya_ 11y ago
    yes, the others, if Heisenberg (or other German scientists) would be a bit more smarter then WWII may have ended differently and in that new world no one would be praising Einstein, for obvious reasons: http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/8491/did-heisenberg-undermine-the-german-atomic-bomb-by-deliberately-hiding-his-exper http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/8491/did-heisenbe...