How smart is Einstein? :: essays research papers

There is a sitting room game physics students play Who was the greater genius? Galileo or Kepler? (Galileo) maxwell or Bohr? (Maxwell, but its closer than you might think). Hawking or Heisenberg? (A no-brainer, whatever the best-seller lists might say. Its Heisenberg). But there atomic number 18 two figures who are precisely off the charts. Isaac atomic number 7 is one. The other is Albert mental capacity. If pressed, physicists give due north pride of place, but it is a photo finish -- and no one else is in the race.Newtons require is obvious. He created modern physics. His system described the behavior of the entire universe of discourse -- and while others before him had invented grand schemes, Newtons was different. His theories were mathematical, making specific predictions to be confirm by experiments in the real world. Little wonder that those after Newton called him lucky -- "for there is only one universe to discover, and he discover it. "But what of mav in? Well, Einstein felt compelled to apologize to Newton. "Newton, forgive me" Einstein wrote in his Autobiographical Notes. "You found the only way which, in your age, was exactly about possible for a man of highest thought and creative power." release him? For what? For replacing Newtons system with his own -- and, like Newton, for putting his mark on virtually every branch of physics.Thats the difference. Young physicists who play the "whos smarter" game are really asking, "how will I measure up?" Is there a shot to match -- if not Maxwell, then perhaps Lorentz? But Einstein? Dont go there. Match thisIn 1905, Einstein is 26, a patent examiner, workings on physics on his own. After hours, he creates the Special possibleness of Relativity, in which he demonstrates that measurements of time and distance vary systematically as anything moves relative to anything else. Which means that Newton was wrong. Space and time are not absolute -- and the rel ativistic universe we inhabit is not the one Newton "discovered."Thats pretty good -- but one imagination, however spectacular, does not declare a demi-god. But now add the rest of what Einstein did in 1905In March, Einstein creates the quantum theory of light, the idea that light exists as petite packets, or particles, that we now call photons. Alongside Max Plancks work on quanta of heat, and Niels Bohrs later work on quanta of matter, Einsteins work anchors the most shocking idea in twentieth century physics we live in a quantum universe, one built out of tiny, discrete chunks of energy and matter.