Einstein's Errors—Part 1

One hundred years ago the world was notified by an obscure patent-office clerk in Switzerland (one Albert Einstein), that its notion of how gravity worked was wrong. For more than 200 years before that, Newton's description of the “universal law of gravitation” had been considered irrefutable: gravity was a force that can be expressed as an attraction between two or more bodies. Thus, if I hold out a ball, the Earth attracts the ball toward it through a gravitational force, and when I release the ball, gravity pulls it straight down.

Einstein rewrote our concept of the physics of gravitation when he published his general theory of relativity in December 1915, titled “The Field Equations of Gravitation.” Instead of the Earth pulling a ball downward, the mass of the planet literally bends or warps space around it. Then, as the ball travels, it's forced to follow the warped space field, right into the planet. The image is a little easier to grasp if we ponder the Sun, whose huge mass warps space so much around itself that Earth, “thinking” it's following a straight line, actually circles the sun. The “straight lines” of space have literally been curved by the sun's huge mass.

Not many scientists—let alone average people—in 1915 bothered to heed the scribblings of a lowly German patent clerk in Switzerland. But four years later a prominent English astronomer used Einstein's equations to explain an anomalous shift in the apparent position of a distant star as its image passed behind our sun during an eclipse. Overnight Einstein became a science rock star. For the next 40 years Albert remained in the physics limelight, as he continued his researches. He remained in the public limelight also; abetted by his fascinating personal idiosyncrasies, wild hairdo, and otherwise photogenic appearance.

Few scientific figures have ever approached Einstein's fame. (Maybe today, Steven Hawking is close.) His discoveries came from his unique ability to blend a keen skill at mathematics, with a penetrating insight into experimental measurements, but topped off by his talent at conducting thought experiments. His thought experiments were a crucial ingredient in his work, because most of what he studied could not at the time be tested by physical experiments. Humans had yet to visit space or build the required complicated test equipment to run the necessary experiments. These came later, when they subsequently verified every abstract equation and thought experiment that he had run inside his head.

Over the last 100 years Einstein's theories have repeatedly shown to be correct. Not one significant error has been found. He was not perfect, and physicists love to mention his small errors, but they have never denied his fundamental insights. The man has been right on.

More on Einstein's errors next time...