Newton more important than Einstein: poll

PhysOrg.com ^ | 23 November 2005 | Staff

[kajingawd]

Come on now...this is sooooo obvious...if it weren't for Newton, we wouldnt know that we were hanging upside down , feet planted...or would we?

[longshadow]

I just noticed. This is the 400th thread I've posted on this website.

I'm sure the Grand Master of Darwin Central™ will arrange a suitable award for your accomplishment....

[RightWingAtheist]

We can still view "naive physics" or "folk physics" as being as necessary to the emergence and evolution of actual science, as genes are to the evolution of life. I've recommended the book The Cognitive Basis of Science here before as an excellent introduction to such ideas, and I'm recommending it again.

[RightWingAtheist]

"If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew."--A. Einstein

[PatrickHenry]

I'm sure the Grand Master of Darwin Central™ will arrange a suitable award for your accomplishment....

I'll be allowed to affix a fourth condor feather to my tri-cornered hat.

[RightWhale]

Einstein did not invent the A-bomb. He did devise Relativity, which is even more illusory than Newtonian mechanics.

[longshadow]

I've read that while special relativity was "in the air," so that someone else would have come up with it,....

IIRC that Hilbert had independently developed many of the same insights when Einstein published his Theory of Special Relativity. The may have even been some collaboration between the two before SR was published.

[RightWhale]

Newton and Gallileo worked by themselves and without significant competition.

Pressures were just as intense in Newton's day, and more personal. It was cutthroat competition, literally.

[longshadow]

I'll be allowed to affix a fourth condor feather to my tri-cornered hat.

Given the achievement and the Holiday, a turkey feather would be more apropos....

;-)

[jveritas]

Pascal came up with Pressure equation P= F/A and the universal unit for pressure is Pascal. He is one of the greatest physicists of all times.

[Democratshavenobrains]

What about Mr. Wizard?

[RightWhale]

Mersenne should not be overlooked.

[RightWhale]

Mr Wizard was important. Science education lacks a Mr Wizard these days, and the popularity of science suffers as a result.

[longshadow]

ooops; that was the General Theory, not SR, that Hilbert had independently derived the field equations for gravitation.

[Sam Hill]

" Pressures were just as intense in Newton's day, and more personal. It was cutthroat competition, literally."

Heck, he might have been jailed for his work in alchemy alone. (Though alchemy became legal again in his lifetime.)

[RightWhale]

Those were tough times in Jolly Old England. The King was beheaded and all his cronies were in danger. It was nearly every man for himself. Newton was tough and used every available tool to keep his position, rode roughshod over competitors.

[AndyJackson]

The Newtonian laws of Physics have vastly more profound impact on science and engineering and vastly more applications than Einstein theories. Newton is the greatest scientist of all times period. Einstein should not be even in the top 5.

You obviously are not a physicist. This is a silly poll and even a sillier comment. If there are two peers that tower over all others in the world of physics it is these two. Relative importance given the separation in epochs and intervening development is impossible to establish. Einstein's ability to reason from prosaic observation to extremely profound truth is unmatched in science, and his contributions have been every bit as significant to the modern world as Newton. Of course you have to have read some of Einstein's papers to understand the true subtlety and profundity of his reasoning.

[InterceptPoint]

Gibbs is probably the greatest American-born scientist of all time.

Better than Feynman?

[AndyJackson]

Newton later published his version of calculus which turned out to be more useful in physics, engineering, etc.Actually it is Leibnitz's notation that we use for the most part in practical applications to this day.

[RightWingAtheist]

I won't argue that Pascal was a great scientist, certainly in the top ten or even five greatest mathematicians of all time. But his direct contributions to physics were limited to the study of atmospheric pressure, and his most important contribution to physics, his enunciation of the laws of probability, was indirect, a consequence of his work in pure mathematics.