
When Einstein Was Just Another Physicist - Hooke
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/when-einstein-was-just-another-physicist/
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sytelus
One of my enlightening experiences has been to visit the Einstein's house in
Bern and walk on the same path that he did every day to get to the patent
office. The question in my mind had always been how Einstein suddenly started
thinking about synchronizing clocks using light signals out of nowhere? My
walk had the answer:

In Bern, you see clocks _everywhere_! Towers after towers, buildings after
buildings have clocks of varying sizes and shapes and artwork. The city of
Bern is crazy about having giant clocks all over. In 1905, all these clocks
must be manually synchronized and people may have often noticed slight
differences as they walked and you cannot not think about synchronization
every day!

Inventors in Bern were working on how to synchronize them automatically. One
of those patents landed on Einstein's desk which started his thought process
on synchronizing clocks using the fastest signals possible, i.e., light. But
then things got weird when you think about light signal taking _time_ to
arrive. What if the clock is on the railway station and we need to synchronize
the clock on the train? Now the train is moving away and the light signal is
taking longer and longer. And so the relativity begins... It is very likely
that these ideas would not have born if Einstein wasn't in Bern _and_ working
in that damn patent office!

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airstrike
That's a great write up, thanks for sharing.

I'd add that a genius like Einstein would have thought of fantastic things
wherever he was – it just so happened that this was the experience he was
exposed to which led him to think about time and light, per your story.

I wonder what sort of amazing discoveries he would have made if he had been
exposed to, say, biology and healthcare instead!

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edmundsauto
> I'd add that a genius like Einstein would have thought of fantastic things
> wherever he was – it just so happened that this was the experience he was
> exposed to which led him to think about time and light, per your story.

I don't think this is true. Because of survivor bias, we have no idea how many
Einsteins never had the opportunity. It seems likely there have been a million
people with similar cognitive capabilities, yet very few make such progress.

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numtel
Credit to Stephen Jay Gould for this

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edmundsauto
Can you say a little more about SJG? I've heard the name and been meaning to
read something of his, but never got around to it. Would appreciate a good
rec!

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mikekchar
I just wanted to respond to "just another physicist". In university about a
million years ago, I was very unhappy. I loved being a programmer, but I found
my CS courses very limiting and actually boring. I decided to switch to
honours physics. At my university, the school realised that there is no demand
for a huge number of physicists. In the honours program, they simply gear the
course for the top 2 or three students, with the intent on only graduating
those few people after 4 years. Everybody else they expect to drop out of the
honours program and do a general science degree.

I always thought of myself as a pretty smart guy, but honours physics kicked
my ass really badly. I remember getting assignments with differential
equations before I had ever seen them before. I asked my prof what I should
do. He indicated that there were several good books in the library on the
topic. After spending virtually every night studying and only just barely able
to keep my head above water, I realised. I am not going to get a PhD in
physics. it was a valuable lesson. I went back to CS and ate it up (my god it
was easy after that).

Thinking about "just another physicist" reminds me of the 2 or 3 people who
could actually make it through the programme and then go on to do a PhD. Well,
in my case, the class I was in eventually graduated 5 people -- the most ever!
It turns out they had to turn it up to 11 and _still_ couldn't pare it down,
so I don't feel that bad. But I still feel that the ordinary physics PhD is
not really so ordinary ;-)

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scottlocklin
You're probably selling yourself short. Differential equations isn't a bad
course if you did well in Calculus and have the patience to grind out a ton of
examples. E&M, StatMech and/or Lagrangian Mechanics also ain't bad if it's
taught well, but this is a case where you really have to do the diff eqs
before you can do the physics piece. Diff Eqs is the language of most of
physics; trying to wrap your brain around the other parts _and_ differential
equations at the same time is too big a lift even for a galaxy brain. It's
like being asked to compile kernel modules without knowing how to use a mouse
or keyboard.

I've thought about trying to write something like Lenny Susskind's
"theoretical minimum" book, assuming you have the prerequisites of
differential equations and linear algebra. I mean, everyone struggles with the
complicated problems, but more people should be able to appreciate the
results. Meanwhile Susskind's book is pretty good!

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rubidium
I'll echo the grandparent that learning diff eq at the same time as the
subject (e.g. mechanics) is "par for the course" for physics programs.

There's many times throughout the progression to Physics PhD where "yes
ideally you'd learn the math first" but there is only so much time. And some
physics math is uniquely physics.

I get your general point Scott, but I disagree with "trying to wrap your brain
around the other parts and differential equations at the same time is too big
a lift even for a galaxy brain". Learning both in the same course is doable.

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scottlocklin
The guy I was responding to, mikekchar, claimed that he was given advanced
physics problems requiring diff eqs without having studied them before; this
is absolutely not the case in any physics program I've ever heard of. By the
time you get to Junior Year physics, you've had diff eqs, or at least an
introduction to the ordinary diff eqs you get in late Calculus. You can
probably learn them both in the same course; but only if the course is
designed for this purpose (aka Boas based "math methods for physicists" or
something).

I do remember some guys in grad school who had never seen a Greens function
before (I was doing them in sophomore years; guess I was lucky) encountering
JD Jackson, but that's about the only disconnect I've seen.

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rubidium
Just speaking from my own expedience, I had advanced (jr year) mechanics
before diff eq... but admittedly was taking it early. It was doable but tough.

Greens function were new to me in grad school. Grad school mechanics had be
learning math I didn’t know before too... can’t recall what it was at the
moment.

And then the advanced AMO class had some more math I hadn’t seen.

