<< prev = comments [1] = pings [0] = >>


do the math
03/11/2010 = 06:01 PM

Yesterday, an article was published at space.com about Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

In a nutshell, they basically said, Well, as long as we were out there spending bazillions of dollars anyway, we decided we would test his math. The research did, in fact, prove that, even over vast scales of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, the equations of general relativity do correctly predict the way that mass pulls on other mass in the universe.

I am reminded of West Wing, when fictional president Jed Bartlet said, "You don't have to sell science."

In other words, Well, duh.

Math doesn't suddenly change because the variables in the equation got bigger.

Anyway, I felt it was fitting that this article was posted when it was, because I had been planning on talking a little bit about Einstein anyway.

Not in a science-y way. Stay with me, party people.

The tales of Einstein flunking math are, I've been told, just that — there exists no evidence of his ever having received a failing grade in that subject.

(He did receive a "1" — lowest possible grade — once, in physics, when he was at Zurich Polytechnic Institute, but that's neither here nor there. The professor was specific in stating the work was correct, but the student had what we would now refer to as a bad attitude.)

However, documentation does support the fact that Einstein regularly cut his mathematics courses whilst he was at the Polytech, citing his belief that maths were "superfluous erudition." His maths professor, Hermann Minkowski, called Einstein a "lazy dog."

And where the urban legend states that Einstein once told some junior high school students not to worry about what was then known as "new math" because he had flunked math himself, the truth is far better: his words to those students were, "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics; I can assure you that mine are still greater."

I love that. A lot.

Because it proves another theory, one without any equations at all attached to it; one that we didn't have to spend a bunch of money to go deeper into the problem.

"Nothing you ever learn is wasted."
— The Mom

Einstein did not like math, but he did it anyway so he could get on with what he did like: understanding the universe.

That's what we all kind of need to do. You think?

So now that this blog post is done, and the laundry is put away, I'm going to have a beer.

That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

Tags: Albert Einstein

drinking: nothing yet, but beer is pending
listening to: Tim Minchin, Inflatable You
tonight begins: six straight nights of ten-hour shifts with no time off. i will be burnt out, but oh, the overtime will be so sweet