His willingness to be guided by this conviction, even if it meant destroying the foundations of Newtonian physics, led him, with a clarity of thought that others could not match, to his new description of space and time. Einstein was neither the first nor the last scientist to use these free, useful experiments, but he had unequaled ability to interpret them. A deep intuition into the essential elements of a problem. Great power of concentration, even in a crowd. Courtesy of the Archives, California Institute of Technology Even though the popular picture of the scientific method shows a scientist building a hypothesis based on data from physical, not thought, experiments, Holton says Einstein was nevertheless using classic scientific method.
Hypotheses come from all kinds of directions.
It depends very much on the particular skill of the person. Although Einstein seemed to have a unique ability to peer inside the universe, Holton says he was also a great example to other scientists since he wrote about his experiences, philosophy and techniques. Yet gravitation remains stubbornly outside the model, and that rankles physicists who think it must be concretely related to the other three forces. Nevertheless, Holton, reflecting once more the physicists' preference for order, uniformity and simplicity, is confident that it will happen. If you've come this far and still feel you don't quite understand Einstein's ideas, you have good company.