the Myth of Einstein

[Pilote Tempête]

Einstein did very little that was original and may have been a plagiarist (Albert Einstein: Plagiarist of the Century, Richard Moody, Jr., Nexus Magazine; Albert Einstein: the Incorrigible Plagiarist, Christopher Jon Bjerknes).

The E=mc2, physics' most famous equation, was formulated by

S. Tolver Preston in Physics of the Ether in 1875 (S.Tolver Preston's Explosive Idea, C.J. Bjerknes, volta.allessandra.it),
Jules Henri Poincaré (1900; Poincaré, J.H. (1905, before Einstein), "The Principles of Mathematical Physics", The Monist, vol. XV, no. 1, January 1905; from an address delivered before the International Congress of Arts and Sciences, St Louis, September 1904, cited by G. Burniston Brown, 1967, "What is wrong with relativity?", Bull. Inst. Physics Physical Soc., pp. 71-77.),
Olinto De Pretto (Feb., 1904), "Ipotesi dell'etere nella vita dell'universo", Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, tomo LXIII, parte II, pp. 439-500).

Leibniz formulated an equation very similar to it. Since Einstein never correctly derived E=mc2 ( H.E. Ives (1952), "Derivation of the Mass-Energy Relation", J. Opt. Soc. Amer. 42:540-543), there appears nothing to connect the equation with anything original by Einstein, who published it in Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Korper in Annalen der Physik, IV. Folge. 17: 891-921, June, 1905 (scribd; English tranl. On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies at fourmilab.ch). He used the theories and equations of Poincaré, Lorentz, and Maxwell in nearly unaltered form and without citing any of them and without any references at all.

The conversion of matter into energy and energy into matter (mass-energy equivalence principle) was known to Isaac Newton ("Gross bodies and light are convertible into one another...", Opticks, 1704), 200 years before Einstein.

Space-time is a concept that was proposed by Immanuel Kant in the 1700s (Metaphysics, D.W. Hamlyn, p. 139, 1985, Canbridge U. Press), Riemann (Riemann space-time (1887), on which Einstein's GR is based), and Minkovsky (Minkovsky space-time (1907) on which Einstein's SR is based).

The principle of equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass was discovered by Galileo in his famous Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment, and further experiments of this kind were done by Simon Stevin in the 1850s (who discovered the law of vector addition of forces), and the most precise early comparisons of the 2 types of masses were done by Newton (Tipler, loc. cit.).

Relativity was postulated by Galileo and Newton, long before Einstein (College Physics, Paul Tipler, '87, Worth), and the early equations of SR were done by Fitzgerald, Lorentz, Poincaré, and Larmor.

Hendrik Lorentz was a Nobel Laureate who, along with Irish physicist George Fitzgerald, predicted a length contraction effect from an unexpected result of the Michelson-Morley Experiment. Fitzgerald was the first to suggest this effect in an article titled "The Ether and the Earth's Atmosphere" in 1889. In addition, Lorentz created "local time," so that time dilation was born in 1904. So Einstein's work was built on the errors of Lorentz, Poincaré, Fitzgerald, Larmor, and others, and Einstein even claimed an increase in mass for moving bodies.

So Einstein as a genius is a complete myth.

[Snoweagle]

Another super post Pilote T, thank you:-)

ref: Reqiem for Relativity thread, Avalon : http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?71343-Requiem-for-Relativity

Actually, whilst I agree Einstein was probably not the genius he has been made out to be, that pedestal of infamy was not one he climbed to but one he was placed upon, at a time of expanding science within commerce.

[Matt P]

Einstein not only got credit for the work of others, it sounds like he was a fairly nasty human being, not to mention a terrible husband who treated his wife like property and left her for his cousin. The question is, How did such a man achieve such a place in history? That is the more interesting story for it's relevance to today's so-called leaders.

Matt

[Cardillac]

@Pilote Tempete

a rather "tempestuous" posting on your part- I'm just kidding you as I speak/understand enough French (mais très mauvais- domage) to understand your Avalon name- :-)- (not that I'm all that smart...)-

but if my read other read sources are correct your posting confirms them- Einstein was an incredibly intelligent man who learned how to glean info from other previous sources and amalgamate them into his "own" ideas- but he had a manipulated 'political machine' behind him... they used him... the same manipulated 'machine' that was persecuted/USED by a global elite during the second world war and it continues to this day; if the manipulated "political machine" in the present day doesn't watch its step and realize it's yet another manipulated pawn to be sacrificed yet again I don't know what else to say...

anyway, Nikola Tesla was by far the greatest scientist/physicist that ever lived in our concept of "modern times"; we all know that already...

please be well all--

Larry

[Cardillac]

@snoweagle/mpennery

if my read sources are correct you are both right-

Larry

[Octavusprime]

Science is often built on other peoples work. If we think about it there is not much that we know or believe to know that is not built on past experiences and learnings.

I've never heard he was an evil man. Einstein was human like the rest of us and thus not perfect.

He may not be the greatest mind ever to live but he did influence physics for many decades. Even if those decades were spent proving him wrong.

No need to drag a dead man through the mud.

[Pilote Tempête]

Cardillac,

Einstein may have been a Theosophist.

[sigma6]

Science is often built on other peoples work. If we think about it there is not much that we know or believe to know that is not built on past experiences and learnings.
I've never heard he was an evil man. Einstein was human like the rest of us and thus not perfect.
He may not be the greatest mind ever to live but he did influence physics for many decades. Even if those decades were spent proving him wrong.
No need to drag a dead man through the mud.

It's an incontrovertible principle in science that you quote your references so the chain of research and reasoning can be traced. That's the bedrock and strength of science, just a birth certificate traces the mother and father, reference go back and trace the scientists who did the work. To not quote them is a crime. And he couldn't have done it by himself.

[araucaria]

Whatever you think of Einstein's science, he said a whole lot of things that make a whole lot of sense that not many other people were saying back then. Which of the following would anyone consider misleading I wonder?


[Note: This list of Einstein quotes was being forwarded around the Internet in e-mail, so I decided to put it on my web page. I'm afraid I can't vouch for its authenticity, tell you where it came from, who compiled the list, who Kevin Harris is, or anything like that. Still, the quotes are interesting and enlightening.]
Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein



"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"The only real valuable thing is intuition."
"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
"God is subtle but he is not malicious."
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
"In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."
"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
"Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
"No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
"...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgement)


http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/EinsteinQuotes.html

[giovonni]

i remember reading his bio many many years ago ...

he wasn't what many would call a nice man, but he appeared to be a great opportunist ... perhaps that was his genius ... :rolleyes:

[araucaria]

Eight more pages of quotes here: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/albert_einstein_8.html


Whatever his faults, he also had personal qualities, such as when he said:


We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

showing himself IMHO to be more of a scientist than the guy who said this (lifted from another thread):


Many of the simulated galaxies agree very well with the galaxies in the real universe. It tells us that the basic understanding of how the universe works must be correct and complete

[giovonni]

perhaps we should leave it at he was a great "thinker" ...

i will say those on Madison Avenue seemed to have loved his image ...

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m88peorrtN1r64u7to1_500.jpg

[araucaria]

Here is something that might be construed negatively I suppose. The art historian Aby Warburg enlisted Einstein’s help with a collage demonstrating ‘how humanity had progressed along a rising curve from superstition to scientific certitude’. Einstein wrote, ‘It was especially interesting for me to see how little expenditure it requires to lead credulous humanity around by the nose’. (Ron Chernow, The Warburgs, p.283) It all depends whether superstition and scientific certitude are to be seen as different in quality, or as just more of the same.

Warburg was from the banker family, and it was one of his brothers who told Einstein, ‘Everything is relative except relatives, and they, alas, are constant’. Does this mean that big finance is/was non-Einsteinian?

[Cardillac]

my last posting on this thread and also in regard to everyone's extremely insightful postings re: this topic:

Einstein was an absolute genius; we can't deny that; end of discussion-

but Tesla was the greater genius; problem is Tesla didn't have the right "political connections"- but both men were used as pawns in a game of much larger scope and their combined intellect(s) came to a head in the disasterous "Philadelphia Experiment"-

any wonder why Einstein's "career" due to his "political connections" managed to survive the disasterous "Philadelphia Experiment" but Nikola Tesla was shortly afterward stripped of his US citizenship and supposedly "died" a pauper (or was murdered- gosh- what a concept) shortly after the "Philadelphia Experiment"?- it seems the "Philadelphia Experiment" and its ramifications play(ed) a huge role in human history-

I just think we all need to take all of these facts into consideration-

please stay well all-

Larry

[Octavusprime]

Science is often built on other peoples work. If we think about it there is not much that we know or believe to know that is not built on past experiences and learnings.
I've never heard he was an evil man. Einstein was human like the rest of us and thus not perfect.
He may not be the greatest mind ever to live but he did influence physics for many decades. Even if those decades were spent proving him wrong.
No need to drag a dead man through the mud.

It's an incontrovertible principle in science that you quote your references so the chain of research and reasoning can be traced. That's the bedrock and strength of science, just a birth certificate traces the mother and father, reference go back and trace the scientists who did the work. To not quote them is a crime. And he couldn't have done it by himself.

I always hated referencing. Not that it isn't the right thing to do but when half your time on a research paper is spent digging up references for annotation it takes the fun out of research. Personally I'd rather use that time doing more research and spend more energy on reflection. As long as you aren't claiming that you came up with everything on your own I see no wrong in expanding on the current literature and scientific theory.

[Wind]

After reading this text I knew that Einstein was way ahead of his time as a scientist.

How Einstein Saw the World

“School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. What I hated most was the competitive system there, and especially sports. Because of this, I wasn’t worth anything, and several times they suggested I leave.

This was a Catholic School in Munich. I felt that my thirst for knowledge was being strangled by my teachers; grades were their only measurement. How can a teacher understand youth with such a system?

From the age of twelve I began to suspect authority and distrust teachers. I learned mostly at home, first from my uncle and then from a student who came to eat with us once a week. He would give me books on physics and astronomy.

The more I read, the more puzzled I was by the order of the universe and the disorder of the human mind, by the scientists who didn’t agree on the how, the when, or the why of creation.

Then one day this student brought me Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Reading Kant, I began to suspect everything I was taught. I no longer believed in the known God of the Bible, but rather in the mysterious God expressed in nature.

The basic laws of the universe are simple, but because our senses are limited, we can’t grasp them. There is a pattern in creation.

If we look at this tree outside whose roots search beneath the pavement for water, or a flower which sends its sweet smell to the pollinating bees, or even our own selves and the inner forces that drive us to act, we can see that we all dance to a mysterious tune, and the piper who plays this melody from an inscrutable distance—whatever name we give him—Creative Force, or God—escapes all book knowledge.

Science is never finished because the human mind only uses a small portion of its capacity, and man’s exploration of his world is also limited.

Creation may be spiritual in origin, but that doesn’t mean that everything created is spiritual. How can I explain such things to you? Let us accept the world is a mystery. Nature is neither solely material nor entirely spiritual.

Man, too, is more than flesh and blood; otherwise, no religions would have been possible. Behind each cause is still another cause; the end or the beginning of all causes has yet to be found.

Yet, only one thing must be remembered: there is no effect without a cause, and there is no lawlessness in creation.

If I hadn’t an absolute faith in the harmony of creation, I wouldn’t have tried for thirty years to express it in a mathematical formula. It is only man’s consciousness of what he does with his mind that elevates him above the animals, and enables him to become aware of himself and his relationship to the universe.

I believe that I have cosmic religious feelings. I never could grasp how one could satisfy these feelings by praying to limited objects. The tree outside is life, a statue is dead. The whole of nature is life, and life, as I observe it, rejects a God resembling man.

Man has infinite dimensions and finds God in his conscience. [A cosmic religion] has no dogma other than teaching man that the universe is rational and that his highest destiny is to ponder it and co-create with its laws.

I like to experience the universe as one harmonious whole. Every cell has life. Matter, too, has life; it is energy solidified. Our bodies are like prisons, and I look forward to be free, but I don’t speculate on what will happen to me.

I live here now, and my responsibility is in this world now. I deal with natural laws. This is my work here on earth.

The world needs new moral impulses which, I’m afraid, won’t come from the churches, heavily compromised as they have been throughout the centuries.

Perhaps those impulses must come from scientists in the tradition of Galileo, Kepler and Newton. In spite of failures and persecutions, these men devoted their lives to proving that the universe is a single entity, in which, I believe, a humanized God has no place.

The genuine scientist is not moved by praise or blame, nor does he preach. He unveils the universe and people come eagerly, without being pushed, to behold a new revelation: the order, the harmony, the magnificence of creation!

And as man becomes conscious of the stupendous laws that govern the universe in perfect harmony, he begins to realize how small he is. He sees the pettiness of human existence, with its ambitions and intrigues, its ‘I am better than thou’ creed.

This is the beginning of cosmic religion within him; fellowship and human service become his moral code. Without such moral foundations, we are hopelessly doomed.

If we want to improve the world we cannot do it with scientific knowledge but with ideals. Confucius, Buddha, Jesus and Gandhi have done more for humanity than science has done.

We must begin with the heart of man—with his conscience—and the values of conscience can only be manifested by selfless service to mankind.

Religion and science go together. As I’ve said before, science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind. They are interdependent and have a common goal—the search for truth.

Hence it is absurd for religion to proscribe Galileo or Darwin or other scientists. And it is equally absurd when scientists say that there is no God. The real scientist has faith, which does not mean that he must subscribe to a creed.

Without religion there is no charity. The soul given to each of us is moved by the same living spirit that moves the universe.

I am not a mystic. Trying to find out the laws of nature has nothing to do with mysticism, though in the face of creation I feel very humble. It is as if a spirit is manifest infinitely superior to man’s spirit. Through my pursuit in science I have known cosmic religious feelings. But I don’t care to be called a mystic.

I believe that we don’t need to worry about what happens after this life, as long as we do our duty here—to love and to serve.

I have faith in the universe, for it is rational. Law underlies each happening. And I have faith in my purpose here on earth. I have faith in my intuition, the language of my conscience, but I have no faith in speculation about Heaven and Hell. I’m concerned with this time—here and now.

Many people think that the progress of the human race is based on experiences of an empirical, critical nature, but I say that true knowledge is to be had only through a philosophy of deduction. For it is intuition that improves the world, not just following a trodden path of thought.

Intuition makes us look at unrelated facts and then think about them until they can all be brought under one law. To look for related facts means holding onto what one has instead of searching for new facts.

Intuition is the father of new knowledge, while empiricism is nothing but an accumulation of old knowledge. Intuition, not intellect, is the ‘open sesame’ of yourself.

Indeed, it is not intellect, but intuition which advances humanity. Intuition tells man his purpose in this life.

I do not need any promise of eternity to be happy. My eternity is now. I have only one interest: to fulfill my purpose here where I am.

This purpose is not given me by my parents or my surroundings. It is induced by some unknown factors. These factors make me a part of eternity.”

~Albert Einstein

Text Source: Einstein and the Poet: In Search of the Cosmic Man (1983). From a series of meetings William Hermanns had with Einstein in 1930, 1943, 1948, and 1954

http://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/how-einstein-saw-the-world/

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

"It is easier to climb the scaffold in a blindfold"

[Dorjezigzag]

I think one of the most relevant Einstein quotes for this thread is

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
Albert Einstein

[giovonni]

"It is easier to climb the scaffold in a blindfold"

Give Tesla some Love :luv: Advice Just Follow This Link (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?69067-Love-at-the-Post-Office-LOL--This-is-SO-Off-Topic--Blush)

like you need some advice ... http://www.skype-emoticons.com/images/emoticon-00136-giggle.gif

[conk]

"95% of people sit around waiting for the other 5% to tell them what to do".

[araucaria]

I think one of the most relevant Einstein quotes for this thread is

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
Albert Einstein
Doctor Why:


As with most pithy advice, it depends a lot on how you interpret it.

I am reminded of a saying sometimes attributed to Pablo Picasso: "Good artists borrow; great artists steal." If you ask yourself how that can be true, a way presents itself. A great artist can take an idea that was someone else's and make it so fully better and his own that the original idea looks like the cheap copy.

I think Einstein's quote may have been in the same light. He's saying that a great person isn't someone who has no sources - who derives everything himself - he's one who makes the sources unimportant. Certainly that was true for his own work... he performed no experiments nor invented new kinds of math. But he didn't need to credit those others because he took those existing ideas and used them in a way nobody had before. Pretty much the very definition of creativity.

That's my take, anyway, for what it's worth. Peace.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080404075730AARWZdx