Don't you think that Einstein is the most OVERRATED physicist ever?

Question

His wife used to help with all the math,besides that he never really
did anything great after his divorce.

Answer 1

Einstein revolutionized physics. His incessant attacks on quantum theory made it one of the strongest theories ever. His theory of relativity is amazing, enough said. You'd be lucky to accomplish 1/50 of what he did if you live to be 300.

Answer 2

The role of Einstein's first wife Mileva Maric in history is up for grabs.

Maybe the easiest way to see that she can not have been ALL responsible for his insights is the fact that she did not publish without him, which she easily could have, had she been the actual source of ideas and math.

He, on the other hand published plenty without her. Your quip that he did no do great things after the divorce is utter nonsense. Please take a look at his later contributions like the EPR paradox paper of 1935. He had been divorced for some 15 years at that time. Why don't you try

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=einstein+author:a-einstein&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&client=firefox-a&as_ylo=1920&start=10&sa=N

and take a look at reality?

So what is Mileva's role in Einstein's life? She is most certainly Einstein's enabler. That is an extremely important role. Without Mileva, there most certainly would not have been an Einstein.

He might have privately given her more credit for that than you might think. In the public view this does not get registered because of the way the scientific publishing business works. That might suck for a lot of spouses of great scientists, but that is how life is.

Scientists get divorced a lot. If you had been in science, you would know about the "science marriage" thing that usually falls apart some time after the scientist makes professor. Why? Because the spouse keeps investing in their partners career and then discovers that the long hours at work, the talks etc. don't stop and all the honors go to the spouse and nothing trickles down to them.

Yes. Life sucks for enablers. But that does not make Mileva Maric a superhero of science. It does make here a tragic figure, though. And that one should acknowledge. Which I do. I also acknowledge that whatever Einstein produced, in whichever way, are some of the greatest contributions to physics. He might not have been able to do it without Mileva. But without him neither this work would exist in this form (someone else would have found all these things out sooner or later) nor would the world even care thinking about Mileva Maric for a split second.

Answer 3

no

There were many that were far more overrated than Einstein.

Einstein admitted quite early in his career that he was not good at doing calculations. His strength was in coming up with global principles that would unite many smaller theories into one bigger one.

His frequent mistakes (even in peer-reviewed papers) have led to delays in the acceptance of the ideas in the theories of Relativity (Special and General).

For example, he had transposed a sign in a solution to the comparative time flow for two observers moving relative to each other. Because of this, the solution to the twin paradox took far longer than it should have (decades!), with clans of physicists spending time fighting each other instead of doing proper physics.

At least, Einstein was not as bad at math as Picasso was (or is said to have been). Picasso apparently refused to use the number 7 because it looked like an upside down nose.

Einstein worked on the GUT (Great Unification Theory), to unite gravitation with the other three fundamental forces of nature (the three have been united, but not yet all four). He may not have succeeded but his work helped to separate solid theories from weaker ones (at least, that is a contribution).

He also worked on other stuff in chemistry and physics.

Answer 4

Absolutely NOT. Einstein wrote papers in which he said you could do such and such experiment, and then you will get a certain result. Other scientists read this, went and did the experiment, and discovered Einstein was correct. And those other guys won Nobel Prizes for doing so.

Einstein is the ONLY person ever to receive a Nobel Prize for his "services to Theoretical Physics." And not one specific achievement, because he had so many.

Most recently in 2001, three people won the Nobel Prize for confirming something else that Einstein had predicted, the Bose-Einstein condensate. Note that Bose's name is on there, Einstein shared credit where credit was due.

Answer 5

Maybe. I do think it's a shame that his wife didn't get more credit for her collaboration. On the other hand, famous people's fame tends to take on a life of it's own. And that has some value to inspire others.
There certainly have been other physicists who've made important contributions. Just not as celebrated as the German with the wild hair.

Answer 6

Richard Feynman was the funniest physicist ever...I saw him on a Nova special about his trip to TUVA in the USSR....his books are funny too...

Answer 7

I think creating the theory of relativity was a little beyond most physicist ability... so no.

Answer 8

whoa whoa whoa,
go dig up a book on relativity n quantum mechanics, digest it, and judge.
it was as if the ground was pulled beneath me - einstein (when he realized quantization of light, photons)
ditto

Answer 9

I wasn't aware that you could over rate a physicist.

Answer 10

.. uhhh, no


Einstein was not overrated as a physicist in my opinion