5 ms·
That's not actually hard to do. I would be completely unsurprised were I to learn that Einstein would be unable to get consistent answers were he to repeatedly
by MichaelCrawford 11y ago
That's not actually hard to do. I would be completely unsurprised were I to learn that Einstein would be unable to get consistent answers were he to repeatedly count on his own toes.
There is a great deal of difference between symbolic mathematics - calculus and the like - and arithmetic.
While not as bad as Einstein, I'm very poor at arithmetic as well.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- dalke 11y agoThe article characterizes crackpots who claim there are serious problems with the underpinnings of science that can be rectified with college level or even high-school level math. It doesn't actually find a calculation flaw in Einstein's work.
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoI wasn't criticizing Einstein's theories, I was criticizing Einstein's arithmetic. In a letter to Mt. Wilson observatory, he requested that they point their telescope just off the edge of the sun in full daylight - NOT during an eclipse - to determine whether the stars whose light passed through the sun's gravity would be out of place with respect to the positions of those stars when the sun was not nearby. He was apparently unaware that to point an observatory scope that close to the sun - I don't recall whether it was the 100" or the 60" - would melt the glass photographic plate. His calculations of where the stars would be, was wildly inaccurate. Someone - a Mt. Wilson astronomer I expect but don't really know - had to point out to Einstein that he required an eclipse. I expect someone else had to do the arithmetic for the African eclipse expedition. In my original post I clearly distinguished symbolic mathematics from arithmetic. I've studied some tensor calculus, while straightforward in principle it is conceptually quite difficult to follow. Einstein had his tensors right what he did not have correct was "2 + 2". I mean like he'd try that computation then come up with "5".
- dalke 11y agoBut what does that have to do with the linked-to article?
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoI haven't read the article. What I've been repeatedly pointing out is that Einstein was appallingly poor at arithmetic. I am also repeatedly pointing out that his theories are flawless, as far as we can tell through experiment. When Einstein attempted to predict the experimental results of his theory, while the theory was correct, his predictions were wildly inaccurate, because he was really, really bad at arithmetic. I'm not just making this up - I learned it in physics class at Caltech, from the president of the Institute. Caltech is in pasadena, Mt. Wilson overlooks pasadena, the Mt. Wilson Observatory office is in pasadena. Mt. Wilson and Caltech are different organizations but work very closely together.
- dalke 11y agoGrr! Then at least start your first comment with "I haven't read the article, but based on keyword matching in the title I want to say .." or something like that. There's no reason to repeatedly point out that Einstein's theories are flawless. The article specifically says "To most physicists, such discussions are largely irrelevant, as these classic experiments were only the first ones in a long series of tests that showed the complete agreement between observations and predictions from special relativity." See also http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1632 http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1632 .
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoHave you considered the possibility that your instructor is not infallible and may have been in error.
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoHe was the president of the institute, and a tenured physics professor.
- maaaats 11y agoPlease read the article, not just comment on the headline.
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoI've studied special relativity through graduate school at UCSC. While I haven't exactly studied general relativity in a formal way I've attended quite a few talks on it by cosmologists and the like. I was an astronomy major at Caltech, but switched to Physics when I realized I prefer to build telescopes rather than look through them. Astronomers don't build telescopes; Opticians do that. However Physicists commonly build their own experimental apparatus.
- seanhandley 11y agoNot sure how I'd feel if my optician prescribed me a telescope.
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoopticians make telescopes. Optometrists write prescriptions for eyeglasses. Optometric opticians make eyeglass lenses. Opthalmologists diagnose and treat disease of the eyes. An optometrist can perform an opthalmological exam but cannot prescribe medicine nor practice eyeball surgery.
- seanhandley 11y agoI'd better tell my optician to change the sign outside the shop then...
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoPardon me while I drop by the chemist's shop to pick up some fuming nitric acid, sulfuric acid and glycerin.
- seanhandley 11y agoGoogle Define: optician ɒpˈtɪʃ(ə)n/Submit nounBRITISH a person qualified to prescribe and dispense glasses and contact lenses, and to detect eye diseases ( ophthalmic optician ) or to make and supply glasses and contact lenses ( dispensing optician ). US a dispensing optician.
- EliRivers 11y agoEinstein excelled at mathematics throughout his schooling. There's no evidence that he was a dunce with arithmetic. http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/12/albert-einstein-did-not-fail-at-mathematics-in-school/ http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/12/albert-einst...
- zamalek 11y ago+1 Einstein was, in fact, so good at math that at 15 he passed that portion of a university entrance examination (although he failed every other subject). A very real example of a super-intelligent human, which normal people regard as "learning disabilities" due to their own inability to comprehend or cope that intelligence - as has been demonstrated in the comments section of this post.
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoMy best subject in Physics was electricity and magnetism, which depends heavily on special relativity. I aced the junior year E&M final without ever having shown up to class nor attempted any of the problem sets. I don't recall sitting for a midterm exam, maybe I spaced it. I also successfully petitioned for credit for UCSC's optics class. In my written narrative evaluation, Dr. Scherr said that while I got the correct answers, my derivations were quite different from those of the other students.
- zamalek 11y agoAll of which have nothing to do with Einstein.
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoMy point being that I know quite a lot about relativity. Not just that I know about it but have quite a deep understanding of it. I know quite a lot about Einstein as a person.