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Back to Frequently Asked Astronomy and Physics Questions
Do modern physicists consider Einstein to be a genius?
Was his work really as important as people say? Do his
theories still impact the work of physicists today?
Physicists probably rarely use the work "geinus" in
describing a colleague, but many have used that word when
describing Einstein.
His work was VERY IMPORTANT to physics, and his theories
(mostly confirmed by experiment) are vital to modern
physics.
What was his most important contribution in physics?
His most important contributions:
a) The theory of special relativity. It changed our
conception of space and
time. Without it we could not construct the particle
accelerators that are used nowadays to probe the small-scale
world of sub-atomic particles. All other theories must be
consistent with the basic concepts of special relativity
(basically, that physics must be the same for any observers
who only differ by their uniform --- straight line, constant
speed --- motion with respect to each other). If the
equations that a physicist invents to explain some part of
the world predicts results that depend upon the motion of the
observer (experimenter) than the new equations (the new
theory) must be wrong.
b) His introduction of the idea that light comes in
particles called photons
was one of the foundation pieces upon our quantum mechanical view of the
world
was built (e.g., the
explanations of the workings of the atom and smaller scale
structures). He received the nobel prize for this work.
c) His theory of general relativity. The modern theory of
gravity. It is
a relativistically correct theory (Newton's is not), and has
been mostly verified to be correct, however, it has not been
thoroughly tested since complete tests would require the
manipulation (or direct observation) of objects containing
huge masses. This is the theory that predicts the existence
of black holes --- objects that are used in many
explanations of bizarre phenomena observed in the universe
(e.g., quasars).
Did he ever complete work on his Unified Field Theory?
After completing work on general
relativity, Einstein tried to construct a
relativistically correct theory which explained gravity and
the electric and magnetic forces as different aspects of the
same force (or same set of equations). It had already been
shown in the 19th century that electric and magnetic forces
were different aspects of the same phenomena, so there was
reason to believe that might be true of all forces. Einstein
never succeeded. Since then, it has been shown that the
electric and magnetic forces, and so-called "weak nuclear
force" are different aspects of the same force, but nobody
has successfully united the "strong nuclear force" (now
called "quantum chromodynamics"), or gravity, with the
electric/magnetic/weak force (called the "electroweak
force").
