Talk:Albert Einstein/Archive 2

message: Did Einstein speak in English or German or both languages ? How fluent was his English ? Jay 17:33, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Languages he spoke?

message: "This popularity has also lead to a widespread use of Einstein in advertisement and merchandising, eventually including the registration of Albert Einstein™ as a trademark."
Is that accurate? Could we have some more information on that? --Tothebarricades.tk 05:17, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Already provided. Brutannica 06:01, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah, I didn't notice that section. I'm so dumb sometimes... :P --Tothebarricades.tk 06:23, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Albert Einstein as a trademark 

message: The main image :Image:Albert Einstein.jpg has no copyright info, :Image:Einstein patentoffice.jpg is under fairuse, :Image:Einstein2.jpg is in the public domain and :Image:Einstongue.jpg is presumably fairuse as well though detailed info is provided.
Only one of them specifies a source, this needs to be fixed. --  Ævar Arnfjörð [ Bjarmason]   09:55, 2004 Aug 29 (UTC)
:Here's an idea: contact CalTech and see if they will approve of using some of their Einstein images under Fair Use. Out of all places I bet they'd be the most receptive to this idea (more so than a private company). They have a ton of GREAT Einstein pictures: http://archives.caltech.edu/photoNet.html  --Fastfission 02:40, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, :Image:Einstein patentoffice.jpg is actually in the public domain. I've asked the uploader of :Image:Albert Einstein.jpg to supply the source and licensing info; alternatively, this could be replaced by either :Image:Karsh Einstein.jpg or the larger version of the same, :Image:Albert Einstein by Yousuf Karsh.jpg, which is in the public domain, too. remains the "tongue" picture. Lupo 09:52, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh, and :Image:Einstein2.jpg was not PD, it was a copyrighted Magnum photo which I have just deleted for that reason (and also because we do have PD replacements for it). Lupo 12:52, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Copyright status of the images in this article 

message: It seems an obvious choice, but apparently this article has not been nominated as a Featured article candidate. Would someone like to do the honors? - dcljr 04:58, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Mmm... I dunno. I always thought it could use more on Einstein's personality and political views (although those sections might have been fleshed out by now), and some of the science stuff might be a little too complicated. Brutannica 07:52, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Time for featured-article status? 

message: In the section Albert Einstein#General_relativity, it says:
:...when it was tested by measuring how much the sun's rays were bent by gravity during a solar eclipse, ...
That doesn't make sense. If I recall that experiment correctly, it was measured by how much the light emanating from a star "behind" the sun was bent by the sun's gravity. The experiment was made during a solar eclipse because a star behind or very close (in line-of-sight) to the sun would otherwise not be visible at all. The findings from that experiment matched the predictions made by the theory. Somebody can explain "behind" better than me, I'm sure. Lupo 10:51, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: My apologies... I can't recall my source. Brutannica 02:01, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

text: The best I found was gravitational lens... I've corrected the article. Lupo 11:16, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Light bent by gravity 

message: Am I mistaken, or was Einstein not posted to Prague at some point before Berlin?
User:sca 18:37, October 5, 2004 (UTC)
: (William M. Connolley 21:06, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
replies: text:  Also the article says: "Einstein settled in Berlin as professor at the local university." There are 4 universities in Berlin so the phrasing is vague, if not inacurrate. I feel some details should be added on the Prague-Berlin period. --128.12.193.8 09:09, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Posted to Prague?

message: (William M. Connolley 21:06, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Disliking "Time mags person of the century" 

message: I have removed the following additions:
:The name "Einstein" evokes images of genius, but some critics have claimed that he was a plagiarist, who allegedly infringed on previous theories of Lorentz, Poincare, Gerber, and Hilbert. One critic, Christopher Jon Bjerknes, documented what he saw as plagiarism in the work titled "Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible Plagiarist". Bjerknes see some of Einstein's work as not properly acknowledging his contemporaries, in addition to providing formal logical argument demonstrating that Einstein could not have drawn the conclusions he claimed to have drawn without prior knowlege of the works he referenced, but did not cite nor credit. Numerous quotations from Einstein's contemporaries are also included to support the notion that Einstein's infringements had indeed been noticed. Others disagree with Bjerknes. 
: Christopher J. Bjerknes (2002). Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible Plagiarist. 
The reasons I have removed them are 1) this book is not taken seriously by ANY mainstream historians of science or physicists and in the few respectable places it has actually been reviewed it has been denounced as pure rubbish ; 2) from my looking at selections of it online, I think it is pure rubbish and not worthy of a paragraph on the Wikipedia article -- the author obviously has no idea about the history of Einstein's relativity nor the historiography of priority disputes, much less the differences between Einstein and Poincaré and Lorentz, which are significant, and cites criticisms from members of the Nazi Deutsche Physik movement as evidence against Einstein which is either very sloppy or horribly offensive; 3) the book in question was published by a vanity press and has not received enough mainstream attention to make it or its claims encyclopedic. The section is incredibly POV, of course ("Others disagree" and "some critics" makes it sound like this is actually a widely supported view, which it is not), but that could be changed. In trying to make it NPOV, I had the feeling that it really oughtn't even bother being part of this article in the first place. If someone wants to disagree with my decision, though, I'm open to talking about it, of course. --Fastfission 04:18, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I concur.  Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a site dedicated to cataloguing, promoting, or debunking fringe theories.  There is someone out there with a fringe theory on virtually anything, and Wikipedia's usefulness would diminish if we tried to acknowledge all of them. Isomorphic 16:20, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Criticism and allegations of plagiarism

message: An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Albert_Einstein article:
* Can link popular culture: ...ame exceeded that of any other scientist in history, and in popular culture, Einstein has become synonymous with someone of very hi...
* Can link elementary school: ... was Jewish (and non-observant); Albert attended a Catholic elementary school and, at the insistence of his mother, was given violin ... (link to section)
* Can link slow learner: ...]]s and mechanical devices for fun, he was considered a slow learner, possibly due to dyslexia, simple shyness, or the stron... (link to section)
* Can link liberal arts: ...f and then joined his family in Pavia.)  His failure of the liberal arts portion of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule... (link to section)
* Can link secondary school: ... sent by his family to Aarau, Switzerland to finish secondary school, and received his diploma in 1896.  Einstein subsequent... (link to section)
* Can link modern physics: ...ear, he wrote four articles that provided the foundation of modern physics, without much scientific literature to refer to or many... (link to section)
* Can link Nobel prizes: ...hotoelectric effect]], and special relativity) deserved Nobel prizes. Only the photoelectric effect would win. This is something... (link to section)
* Can link The International: ...bilis Papers]]" (from Latin: Extraordinary Year). The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) has planned t... (link to section)
* Can link empirical evidence: ...ory explanation decades after being observed—provided empirical evidence for the reality of atoms. It also lent credence to stat... (link to section)
* Can link physical systems: ...y, the assumption of infinite divisibility of energy in physical systems. Even after experiments showed that Einstein's equations fo... (link to section)
* Can link Einstein's equations: ...rgy in physical systems. Even after experiments showed that Einstein's equations for the photoelectric effect were accurate, his explanation... (link to section)
* Can link light waves: ...e the Michelson-Morley experiment, which had shown that light waves could not be travelling through any [[luminiferous aether|m... (link to section)
* Can link atomic nuclei: ...uch phenomenal amounts of energy.  By measuring the mass of atomic nuclei and dividing them by their atomic number, both of which are... (link to section)
* Can link atomic number: ...suring the mass of atomic nuclei and dividing them by their atomic number, both of which are easily measured, one can calculate the b... (link to section)
* Can link binding energy: ...r, both of which are easily measured, one can calculate the binding energy which is trapped in different atomic nuclei.  This allows o... (link to section)
* Can link Berne, Switzerland: ...xaminer second class. In 1908, Einstein was licensed in Berne, Switzerland, as a teacher and lecturer (known as a Privatdozent), w... (link to section)
* Can link nervous breakdown: ...nd had nursed him to health after he had suffered a partial nervous breakdown combined with a severe stomach ailment. There were no child... (link to section)
* Can link Kaiser Wilhelm Institute: ...eories.  From 1914 to 1933 he served as director of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin, and it was during this time he recei... (link to section)
* Can link Academy of Sciences: ...Einstein presented a series of lectures before the Prussian Academy of Sciences in which he described his theory of general relativity.... (link to section)
* Can link Newton's law: ...climaxed with his introduction of an equation that replaced Newton's law of gravity. This theory considered all observers to be equi... (link to section)
* Can link skepticism: ... with experimentation or observation, leading scientists to skepticism. But his equations enabled predictions and tests to be made... (link to section)
* Can link scientific community: ...There were, however, many who were still unconvinced in the scientific community. Their reasons varied, ranging from those who disagreed wit... (link to section)
* Can link absolute frame of reference: ...xperiments to those who simply thought that life without an absolute frame of reference was intolerable. In Einstein's view, many of them simply co... (link to section)
* Can link the real thing: ...rtainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any cl... (link to section)
* Can link refrigeration cycle: ...instein and Leó Szilárd. The patent covered a thermodynamic refrigeration cycle providing cooling with no moving parts, at a constant [[pre... (link to section)
* Can link space-time continuum: ...anics.   Einstein assumed a structure of a four-dimensional space-time continuum expressed in axioms represented by five component vectors. ... (link to section)
* Can link subatomic particles: ... the energy density are particularly high. Einstein treated subatomic particles in this research as objects embedded in the unified field, ... (link to section)
* Can link unified field: ...tomic particles in this research as objects embedded in the unified field, influencing it and existing as an essential constituent of... (link to section)
* Can link variational principle: ...rched a way to delineate the equations to be derived from a variational principle.... (link to section)
* Can link forms of government: ...khoels]] and Einstein in 1943]] Einstein opposed tyrannical forms of government, and for this reason (and his Jewish background), he oppose... (link to section)
* Can link nationalism: ...o which Einstein bequeathed his papers.  However he opposed nationalism and expressed skepticism about whether a Jewish nation-stat... (link to section)
* Can link nation-state: ...nationalism and expressed skepticism about whether a Jewish nation-state was the best solution.  He may have originally imagined Jew... (link to section)
* Can link nuclear tests: ...Albert Schweitzer]] and Bertrand Russell fought against nuclear tests and bombs.  With the [[Pugwash Conferences on Science and W... (link to section)
* Can link Australian film: ...ientist displaying a moment of humor. Yahoo Serious, an Australian film maker, used the photo as an inspiration for the intentional... (link to section)
Additionally, there are some other articles which may be able to linked to this one (also known as "backlinks"):
* In Conscription, can backlink Albert Einstein: ... is just one more proof of its debilitating influence" by Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, H.G. Wells, Bertrand Russell and Thomas Man...
* In Dylan Thomas, can backlink Albert Einstein: ....   He appears along with Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Albert Einstein all on probably the best known of all record sleeves, the B...
* In Avogadro's number, can backlink Albert Einstein: ...d to the equivalence of matter and energy discovered by Albert Einstein as part of the theory of special relativity.  When an a...
* In Einstein on socialism, can backlink Albert Einstein: ...http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einst.htm Why socialism?] - Albert Einstein, Monthly review, 1949-05 ([http://www.amnh.org/exhibiti...
* In Jacqueline du Pré, can backlink Albert Einstein: ... interpretations.  Let us not forget the words of the great Albert Einstein, "Great spirits have always been met with violent oppositio...
* In Diffuse sky radiation, can backlink Albert Einstein: ...ficult to observe because of the glare of the sun.  In 1911 Albert Einstein published an article in which he showed that the real expla...
* In National Air and Space Museum, can backlink Albert Einstein: ... and other artifacts, there  is an IMAX theater and the Albert Einstein Planetarium....
* In Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara, can backlink Albert Einstein: ...ew Jersey. Previous postdoctoral positions were held at the Albert Einstein Institute, Imperial College London, and Penn State Universi...
* In List of hospitals in Pennsylvania, can backlink Albert Einstein: ... Hospital  * Philadelphia ** Albert Einstein Healthcare ...
* In Prolixity, can backlink Albert Einstein: ...ing upon context.  == Concise language == By some accounts, Albert Einstein once said: "Make everything as simple as possible, but not ...
* In Raymond U. Lemieux, can backlink Albert Einstein: ...Canadian) (1990) * NSERC Gold Medal in Science (1991) * Albert Einstein World Award in Science (1992)...
* In The Majestic Documents, can backlink Albert Einstein: ...ident said on the issue. Various important people's such as Albert Einstein and Ronald Regan's signatures have been found on these docu...
* In Last Son of Krypton, can backlink Albert Einstein: ...Luthor]] must join forces to retrieve a document written by Albert Einstein and stop the alien ruler. The story is considered a classic...
Notes: The article text has not been changed in any way; Some of these suggestions may be wrong, some may be right.
Feedback: I like it, I hate it, Please don't link to — LinkBot 11:35, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggest 34 possible wiki links and 13 possible backlinks for [[Albert Einstein]]. 

message: I think the claim '...the greatest scientist of the 20th Century...' is hyperbole.  My own view is that he can't have been this because (1) he was a theoretician and (2) how original a theoretician he was is very contentious, (see contributions from others on priority for many parts of the work claimed by him or attributed to him).  All science is cumulative but for what it's worth my suggestion for a stand-out-figure on the basis of intellectual brilliance and practical achievement is Nikola Tesla.  The progressive development of our material circumstances and welfare at such a marked rate in the last 100 years has its technological cause in the creation of devices which effectively generate, transmit and use energy and I'm not aware of any other single individual whose theoretical and practical achievements in this area even approach let alone exceed Tesla's. He also had some choice things to say about the work of others, including Einstein, on relativity, '...[a] magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying  errors.  The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king...., its exponents are brilliant men but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists...', (New York Times, July 11, 1935, p23, c.8), and 'I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties. It might as well be said that God has properties. He has not, but only attributes and these are of our own making. Of properties we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in the presence of large bodies space becomes curved is equivalent to stating that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such a view.', (New York Hearald Tribune, September 11, 1932) and '...the relativity theory, by the way, is much older than its present proponents.  It was advanced over 200 years ago by my illustrious countryman Boskovic, the great philospher, who not withstanding other and multifold obligations wrote a thousand volumes of excellent literature on a vast variety of subjects.  Boskovic dealt with relativity, including the so-called time-space continuum...', (1936 unpublished interview, quoted in Anderson, L, ed. Nikola Tesla: Lecture Before the New York Academy of Sciences:  The Streams of Lenard and Roentgen and Novel Apparatus for Their Production, April 6, 1897, reconstructed 1994).--Smark33021 00:56, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Whether Tesla was great or not doesn't really matter here, the line in question is "who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century." Which is generally accurate -- he is widely regarded as such -- whether or not you (or I) agree with such an opinion. In the popular mind, and indeed in the mind of many scientists, he is portrayed as the exemplar figure for "scientist" even if in reality one could make several arguments to the contrary.--Fastfission 20:04, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Greatest Scientist of the 20th Century 

message: Could we please leave Einstein in the Category physicists? The fact that is is a subcategory of some other category is - to me - less important then the fact that the category of physicists will be imcomplete without him (and without the other Nobel prize winners). If someone is browsing through the physicists category, they might not think (or want) to look for and check out related categories. If we drop out all of the physicists who appear in other sub-categories, there will not be much left in the physicists category, which will make it far less useful. Michael L. Kaufman 02:12, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC)
:I totally agree. I was looking for him in the list of physicists, and I couldn't understand why there was not one of the most know physicists in the world! Nova77 06:47, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: he was also (as sorry as I am to say this:) not Swiss but German (native of Ulm). The categorization should be changed accordingly. dab (ᛏ) 10:16, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

text: Well, but he did renounce his German citizenship and kept his Swiss citzenship. Is "German" supposed to mean his birth location or his "nationality"? I think such distinctions are somewhat petty anyway, though. I'm fairly sure that Einstein wouldn't have been liked to be listed as being any particular nationality, and certainly not German, but anyway, he's not here so I guess it's not up to him. --Fastfission 21:37, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: If we list him under either national category, I'd list him under both.  If I remember correctly, he didn't consider himself a German if he could help it. Isomorphic 18:25, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

text: Well, if we're going to talk about citizenship, wasn't he also granted American citizenship? I'm fairly sure. Why not put him under all three catergories? And if we're going to argue about where he would've wanted us to place him, I have no input on the subject except this quote from him: "If relativity is proved right the Germans will call me a German, the Swiss will call me a Swiss citizen, and the French will call me a great scientist. If relativity is proved wrong the French will call me a Swiss, the Swiss will call me a German and the Germans will call me a Jew." Clearly, he realized that many nations would claim him as their own, and that his nationality was ambiguous. Just place him under Germany, where he was born, and don't try to predict what Einstein would want. We're not mentally equipped for that. Saraneth 17:25, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Catagories 

message: Whether Tesla was great or not doesn't really matter here, the line in question is "who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century." Which is generally accurate -- he is widely regarded as such -- whether or not you (or I) agree with such an opinion. In the popular mind, and indeed in the mind of many scientists, he is portrayed as the exemplar figure for "scientist" even if in reality one could make several arguments to the contrary.--Fastfission 20:04, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tesla 

message: Near the end of the article, I read that one of Einstein's sons was hospitalized for schizophrenia and later died in an asylum, and the other moved to California. Unfortunately, the article never specifies which son is which. Could someone please clarify? Thanks a bunch! --Saraneth 03:15, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Hans Albert Einstein did not die in an asylum and was an accomplished professor of hydraulic engineering at Berkeley until his death in 1973. So maybe he is the one who goes to California (he certainly didn't die in an asylum). --Fastfission 04:22, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: While copyediting I added some information to that effect.  Thanks for the heads-up! Steven Luo 09:15, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Which son? 

message: Great article. But when did they create and keep the FBI file? Needs to be more specific, and obviously the fact he got citizenship should make some reference to it. :ChrisG 22:33, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The file itself looks like it began taking in submissions from at least 1932 when Einstein applied for a visa to the USA. But I haven't yet found anything more specific... (boy, it's one hateful little file) --Fastfission 22:51, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: FBI File

message: Though it's been discussed many times before, this is a place where our anonymous friend can justify trying to add three pages of bad history to a pretty good entry. All of the people cited hold fringe opinions, no mainstream historian finds their arguments plausible, none have published in peer-reviewed publications, almost all seem to lack understanding of the ways in which Einstein's formulations differed from those who he drew on (Lorentz, Poincaré, etc.), and most of them have no sense about using historical sources (i.e. use propaganda published by the Deutsche Physik physicists as reliable sources). This is not new, and Wikipedia should not be a dump for every looney accusation, especially ones which date back to the worst extremes of German nationalism during World War II. No Einstein scholar gives this sort of stuff a moment of attention, despite the fact that it would be quite a coup to be able to prove conclusively (or even indicate suggestively) that Einstein was a plagiarist. --Fastfission 01:48, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: "Plagiarism"