Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: WesternCulture
Anyhow, Einstein was very much of brilliant mathematician and theorist and didn't bother much about the concrete aspects of the physical world as long as they didn't interfere with his theories - like they do in the case of the behavior of subatomic particles.

On the contrary, Einstein was quite aware that experimental results of subatomic particles contradicted his theory of relativity. This distressed him greatly. That is why he spent the last 30 years of he life trying to reconcile relativity and quantum mechanics. They can't both be true. And perhaps they are both false. At any rate he failed to find the unified field theory he was looking for.

This contradiction between relativity and quantum mechanics still lies at the heart of physics. Whether string theory or some of the other related theories have resolved the contradiction is not yet clear. I guess we will have to wait and see if physicists have discovered the Theory of Everything.

34 posted on 08/23/2008 2:15:07 AM PDT by stripes1776 ("That if gold rust, what shall iron do?" --Chaucer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies ]


To: stripes1776
“Einstein was quite aware that experimental results of subatomic particles contradicted his theory of relativity. This distressed him greatly.”

- I apologize if I wasn't all that clear in my earlier remark. I meant he initially set sail for a “clinical” theory, disregarding the eventuality of certain particles not wishing to collaborate while he was there, on the job.

Perhaps I ought to take Einstein more seriously.
(Or maybe you haven't had a real drink yet this weekend, fellow freeper:D? - Just joking).

Actually, this, rather well known dilemma of Monsieur Einstein is exactly what I was aiming at in my comment.

My impression too is he was, at least somewhat, distressed by the problems he faced.

However, to genuine theorists like Einstein this problem could easily be done away with.

Like the surveyor's credo states;

“If the terrain doesn't fit the map, the terrain has to go.”

37 posted on 08/23/2008 2:52:58 AM PDT by WesternCulture
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson