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How Einstein Lost His Bearings, and With Them, General Relativity (quantamagazine.org)
Kevin Hartnett, writing for Quanta magazine: Albert Einstein released his general theory of relativity at the end of 1915. He should have finished it two years earlier. When scholars look at his notebooks from the period, they see the completed equations, minus just a detail or two. "That really should have been the final theory," said John Norton, an Einstein expert and a historian of science at the University of Pittsburgh. But Einstein made a critical last-second error that set him on an odyssey of doubt and discovery -- one that nearly cost him his greatest scientific achievement. The consequences of his decision continue to reverberate in math and physics today.
Here's the error. General relativity was meant to supplant Newtonian gravity. This meant it had to explain all the same physical phenomena Newton's equations could, plus other phenomena that Newton's equations couldn't. Yet in mid-1913, Einstein convinced himself, incorrectly, that his new theory couldn't account for scenarios where the force of gravity was weak -- scenarios that Newtonian gravity handled well. "In retrospect, this is just a bizarre mistake," said Norton. To correct this perceived flaw, Einstein thought he had to abandon what had been one of the central features of his emerging theory. Einstein's field equations -- the equations of general relativity -- describe how the shape of space-time evolves in response to the presence of matter and energy. To describe that evolution, you need to impose on space-time a coordinate system -- like lines of latitude and longitude -- that tells you which points are where. Another interesting read on Quanta: Why Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Puzzle Keeps Puzzling.
Here's the error. General relativity was meant to supplant Newtonian gravity. This meant it had to explain all the same physical phenomena Newton's equations could, plus other phenomena that Newton's equations couldn't. Yet in mid-1913, Einstein convinced himself, incorrectly, that his new theory couldn't account for scenarios where the force of gravity was weak -- scenarios that Newtonian gravity handled well. "In retrospect, this is just a bizarre mistake," said Norton. To correct this perceived flaw, Einstein thought he had to abandon what had been one of the central features of his emerging theory. Einstein's field equations -- the equations of general relativity -- describe how the shape of space-time evolves in response to the presence of matter and energy. To describe that evolution, you need to impose on space-time a coordinate system -- like lines of latitude and longitude -- that tells you which points are where. Another interesting read on Quanta: Why Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Puzzle Keeps Puzzling.
Hmmmm
In this era of computers and CPU's and constant distraction, he wouldn't have managed to get to even first realization. The Theory of Relativity was a triumph of abstract thought; this is something that doesn't really happen anymore.
"The Christians, they were right!"
Whoa! Interesting nerdy stuff! no politics! no psuedo science!
Hot damn!!
This is very interesting, thanks very much.
What actually happens when matter turns to energy and back?
What's the difference between energy that is electromagnetic and energy that is motion?
Why the difference?
Can you turn motion energy into photon energy?
Why not?
Where does the value of C come from?
Why is there a limit at all?
Why is that limit exceeded by observation?
How come there are so many forces?
Why is gravity only an attraction force and others not?
What is time?
Why does inertia and momentum require time?
Why don't things happen instantaneuosly?
What if they do? How would we perceive that?
What would motion look like in a world where everything happens instantaneously?
What would that be perceived as to beings whose brains are built on the motion of electons?
I'm curious, perhaps someone can explain.
Gravity exists in the real word, independent of any coordinate system and it behaves consistently. There's no reason why it shouldn't be able to be described as such; we just don't know what that description is.
Saying that "oh noez Einstein ur on a wild goose chase!" is pretty darn silly.
Who fucking cares
Yes, just one detail
Einstein is completely wrong. The problem is you don't realize it until you can accurately calculate about 15 decimal places. It's not something that could be confirmed in the 20th century. Einstein couldn't prove it, and Galileo certainly couldn't prove it with his ramp, but it was all the tools available at the time. Even now we are just barely at that level and still can't measure it accurately.
Einstein's theory had flaws. Paradoxes and anomalies are a indicator that you don't have something right. His recognizing that was the most important thing he ever did. When you figure things out correctly, the paradoxes and anomalies resolve.
In short, Tesla was right and Einstein was wrong. In the last few years a man named Ken Wheeler, who has spent over half of his life studying gravity and magnetism and he has published his work called "Uncovering the secrets of Magnetism" which is a free download.
You can also follow his work on his Youtube channel where it's mostly about photography, but he does have well over 100 videos on magnetism.
In the next few years I expect more proof will emerge as many of us are working hard on it in the math and experimentally. All we can do with current 21st century technology is to consistently show that Einstein was wrong, at least where gravity is concerned.
Here is video 102 on his youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q29KjrV9FOI
It's hard to keep your bearings when you don't understand the work you're plagiarizing
It's okay to lose your bearings.
As long as you still have your marbles.
the monumental effort to reconcile general relativity with quantum theory flounders in part because of the difficulty of developing a theory of quantum gravity that has the same general covariance Einstein achieved with his field equations. “In some sense you could argue the reason we don’t have an adequate quantum theory of gravity is we don’t know how to express the solutions to Einstein’s equations in a way that completely removes any kind of coordinate dependence,” said Weatherall.
It sounds like he recognized that there was something he couldn't explain, so he backed off a bit and looked for the explanation rather than charge forward and risk looking foolish.
"lost his bearings" and "greatest physicist of all time"
Don't do either of these, whoever writes about it.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
That even on their best day bright, intelligent people can have a bad day? Maybe he didn't get laid or maybe he did and thought of a different angle. You'll never know the exact answer unless you were there so stop speculating.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Einstein did not "lose" general relativity, he just delayed publishing because he had doubts and was investigating them. The summary even says so on first paragraph.
... back.
WTF is this?
Hawking passes and we get Slashdot Esquire magazine?
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
To gain tremendous scientific integrity. It takes a truly great scientist to question his own theory and risk not "being the first". In the end though, this is better for the scientific community as a whole. Science is about asking questions, observation, and hypothesizing outcomes and it shouldn't stop just to "be the first". Just look at the ego centric origins of the theory of evolution and you will see a "me first" cock measuring contest (or finch measuring contest but I'm sure they are both birds and related). Hint you might find it wasn't Charles Darwin even though his name is stamped all over it.
In this era of computers and CPU's and constant distraction, he wouldn't have managed to get to even first realization.
some people use these fora for personal aggrandizement, much to their eternal shame.
There's a whole slew of videos explaining this stuff on youtube now, like these two (also look at Don Kennedy and Nick Lucid). I particularly like the photon box as an explanation of inertial mass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSKzgpt4HBU
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHRqibyNMpw
In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice they're different. (Yogi Berra & A. Einstein)
Eww - videos. How about explaining it in writing?
Eww - videos. How about explaining it in writing?
With a car analogy.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
Yeah, everything is obvious in retrospect. When you are being spoon-fed the answers from the answer key.
Einstein figured out something amazing about the universe. He received a Nobel Prize for it.
Often these educational presentations are meant to be engaging and a bit provocative. It helps a lot if the Great Man can be shown to be human, making errors, and committing "bizarre mistakes". However this can get tedious when an over-enthusiastic education specialist winds up, even inadvertently, portraying their target as less smart, less wise than themselves and their audience. "Oh look, the Great Man was a bumbling idiot! He had the answer and then he dropped it in his soup."
Everyone is a genius in retrospect. That's why such genius is instead called, "easy pickings" and not genius. You get no Nobel Prizes for retrospective genius.