Einstein's Mistakes

Einstein's Mistakes

Even the greatest scientist of the 20th century wasn’t always right. “Almost all of Einstein’s seminal works contain mistakes,” writes Hans Ohanian in Einstein’s Mistakes. In this highly original biography, Ohanian takes us through Einstein’s theories, identifying details that Einstein initially got wrong or misunderstood, as well as illuminating intellectual debts Einstein owed to precursors.

Einstein’s most famous “blunder” was his use of a cosmological constant, a force designed to counteract gravity and keep the cosmos from collapsing in on itself. When Einstein learned the cosmos was expanding and not static as he had thought, the constant was discarded. (It has since been revived in the guise of dark energy.) A second major error was Einstein’s reluctance to admit the reality of the quantum theory of Bohr and Heisenberg, ironic since Einstein had laid the groundwork for the quantum era.

There were other slip-ups. Einstein’s initial definition of simultaneity assumed the speed of light relative to Earth was the same in all directions; in reality, this requires careful experiment to confirm. His 1905 special relativity paper miscalculates the transverse relativistic mass, and in an attempted derivation of the law of entropy, he misunderstood the role of probability. Even his E = mc^₂ paper assumed without proof that rules applying to low-speed phenomena also held for high-speed phenomena, and his attempts at unified theories in later years were riddled with shortcomings.

Through it all, Einstein’s genius shines brightly. “Einstein was able to develop his theories despite his mistakes, and sometimes because of them,” writes Ohanian. “He used his mistakes as stepping stones to reach his grand discoveries.”

Einstein’s Mistakes offers a refreshing alternative to standard Einstein worship, analyzing the man’s triumphs while keeping his human lapses in view.

Hardcover: 400 pages

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. ( September 08, 2008 )

Item #: 41-9538

ISBN: 9780393062939

Product Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 x 0.0 inches

Product Weight: 26.0 ounces