How smart is Einstein? :: essays research papers

There is a parlor game natural philosophy students present 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 are two figures who are just off the charts. Isaac Newton is one. The other is Albert genius. If pressed, physicists give Newton pride of place, but it is a photo finish -- and no one else is in the race.Newtons claim is obvious. He created modern physics. His system described the behavior of the entire cosmos -- and while others before him had invented grand schemes, Newtons was different. His theories were mathematical, making specific predictions to be confirmed by experiments in the real world. Little wonder that those after Newton phoneed him lucky -- "for there is only one universe to discover, and he discovered it. " provided what of Einstein? Well, Einstein felt compelled to apo logize to Newton. "Newton, forgive me" Einstein wrote in his Autobiographical Notes. "You found the only way which, in your age, was just about possible for a gay of highest thought and creative power." Forgive 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, working on physics on his own. After hours, he creates the Special guess 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 dogmatic -- and the relativistic universe we inhabit is not the one Newton "discovered."Thats pretty good -- but one idea, however spectacular, does not make 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 tiny 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.