Talk:Albert Einstein

GA Reassessment

Albert Einstein

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • GAN review not found

Result: Kept, with thanks to XOR'easter for their hard work. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 18:11, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

It looks like there's some uncited text and other problems including

• If one end of a wormhole was positively charged, the other end would be negatively charged. These properties led Einstein to believe that pairs of particles and antiparticles could be described in this way.
• Later, after the death of his second wife Elsa, Einstein was briefly in a relationship with Margarita Konenkova. Konenkova was a Russian spy who was married to the Russian sculptor Sergei Konenkov (who created the bronze bust of Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton).[67][68][failed verification]*the Einstein-Cartan theory section
• The equations of motion section
• The Adiabatic principle and action-angle variables section
• In "Über die Entwicklung unserer Anschauungen über das Wesen und die Konstitution der Strahlung" ("The Development of our Views on the Composition and Essence of Radiation"), on the quantization of light, and in an earlier 1909 paper, Einstein showed that Max Planck's energy quanta must have well-defined momenta and act in some respects as independent, point-like particles. This paper introduced the photon concept (although the name photon was introduced later by Gilbert N. Lewis in 1926) and inspired the notion of wave–particle duality in quantum mechanics. Einstein saw this wave–particle duality in radiation as concrete evidence for his conviction that physics needed a new, unified foundation.
• The matter waves section
• Although he was lauded for this work, his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. Notably, Einstein's unification project did not accommodate the strong and weak nuclear forces, neither of which was well understood until many years after his death. Although mainstream physics long ignored Einstein's approaches to unification, Einstein's work has motivated modern quests for a theory of everything, in particular string theory, where geometrical fields emerge in a unified quantum-mechanical setting.
• The other investigations section
• Einstein suggested to Erwin Schrödinger that he might be able to reproduce the statistics of a Bose–Einstein gas by considering a box. Then to each possible quantum motion of a particle in a box associate an independent harmonic oscillator. Quantizing these oscillators, each level will have an integer occupation number, which will be the number of particles in it.
• Many popular quotations are often misattributed to him.[example needed]

and possibly more. Though some of these could have been general referenced and I missed it. Onegreatjoke (talk) 18:01, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

Seems rather odd to open this without editing the article yourself or raising any issues on the article talkpage first. --JBL (talk) 18:45, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

 This review was put on hold for two months to relieve pressure on topic editors at GAR. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 22:57, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

On a first reading, none of the uncited statements look atrocious. Various standard textbooks/histories/biographies should cover them, I think. XOR'easter (talk) 18:56, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Working through these as I find the time. XOR'easter (talk) 21:04, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

All the {{citation needed}} tags are addressed now. XOR'easter (talk) 20:20, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

XOR'easter, thanks for your efforts. A couple of things still need to be directly cited: the quotes in the sentence beginning "As he stated in the paper" in the physical cosmology section, the Einstein–Cartan theory and Wave–particle duality sections. Also, do you think MOS:OVERSECTION is a problem at all? ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 16:46, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

The citation for the "As he stated in the paper..." is immediately preceding that passage. I don't see the need to repeat footnotes there.

There are more divisions into short subsections than I would have included, but I'm not sure that's a problem per se. XOR'easter (talk) 17:41, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Semi-protected edit request on 22 May 2025

from:

In July 1912, he returned

to:

From 30 October to 3 November 1911, he attended the first Solvay Conference on Physics.

In July 1912, he returned

References

2601:646:203:E7B0:A26B:8CD1:B6E4:B736 (talk) 18:47, 22 May 2025 (UTC)

 Done. See [1]. - DVdm (talk) 21:42, 22 May 2025 (UTC)

Person of the Century

I added that Einstein was named Time's Person of the Century to the lead. I was asked if other figures who made the list had this mentioned in the lead. They do. On the page for Igor Stravinsky (no slouch) we find the following in the lead: "In 1998, Time magazine listed Stravinsky as one of the 100 most influential people of the century." Surely Einstein leading that same list is noteworthy? In the lead for Yo Yo Ma (also no slouch) we learn that: "He was named as one of Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020." Being named Person of the Century is quite a bit more significant than being named one of the 100 most influential people of a particular year (no disrespect to Mr. Ma!)

I was told that the honor was "fluff" as Time is not a scientific publication. True, Time is not a scientific publication, but, as Walter Isaacson and others note, Einstein's influence extends beyond science; Eddington's measurement of the gravitational lensing of stalight by the sun made Einstein one of the first modern celebrities. His ideas and opinions on politics and philosophy carried weight. The accompanying Time piece reflects this. I was told that it was not on par with a Nobel. Einstein's Nobel Prize in Physics (for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect) is duly noted in the lead, but as of this writing 226 individuals have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Person of the Century is given to one person, once. That's not to say it's more significant than a Nobel, only that it's unique and, therefore, worth noting. (The runners-up for Person of the Century, Mahatma Gandhi and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, were not historical lightweights.)

As can be gathered from Igor Stravinsky (a Featured Article, per the robust standards of Wikipedia editors), making Time's list of the most influential people of the century is encyclopedically significant; leading the same list is also encyclopedically significant. Noting that Einstein topped the list is testament to his influence, an influence that extends beyond science. Time quotes Gerald Holton: “If Einstein’s ideas are really naive, the world is really in pretty bad shape.” The editors add: "Rather it seems to him that Einstein’s humane and democratic instincts are 'an ideal political model for the 21st century,' embodying the very best of this century as well as our highest hopes for the next. What more could we ask of a man to personify the past 100 years?" What more, indeed? Charlie Faust (talk) 04:38, 24 May 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Drop the stick and back slowly away from the horse carcass Moxy🍁 07:14, 24 May 2025 (UTC)

Well, am I wrong? I was asked if any other figures from Time's list of the most influential people of the century have this mentioned in their leads. They do. That's on Igor Stravinsky, a Featured Article. Surely Einstein leading that same list is noteworthy? Charlie Faust (talk) 14:06, 24 May 2025 (UTC)

Subtle is the Lord

I added some quotes from Abraham Pais's biography Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein. This is a uniquely valuable source, as Pais knew Einstein personally, and does not shirk from mathematics in explaining Einstein's theories. (Both these virtues distinguish him from most Einstein biographers.)

One quote, which I added to "Religious and philosophical views", was: "A religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance of those superpersonal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation ... A legitimate conflict between science and religion cannot exist ... Science without science is lame, religion without science is blind." That gets to the heart of the matter; it sums up Einstein's religious and philosophical views. Surely it's worth including under "Religious and philosophical views"?

I was asked "is there any indication that these quotes are somewhat famous?" Fame is a poor criterion for judging encyclopedic significance, since not all famous quotes are profound, and vice versa. But here you go: "Einstein’s Famous Quote About Science and Religion Didn’t Mean What You Were Taught", The New Republic. (That's an article by a militant atheist arguing that the quote had been misrepresented, but even so "Einstein's Famous Quote" is right there in the title.) It is, by any reasonable definition, a famous quote. Charlie Faust (talk) 23:29, 24 May 2025 (UTC)

Elemental Matters

I propose adding the following to the lead:

"Many things have been named in his honor, including, in 1955, the element Einsteinium."

Einstein having an element named for him is important enough to be in the lead. Only sixteen scientists (counting the Curies) have been so honored; many members of that group have this mentioned in their leads; see Lise Meitner, Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi, Featured Articles all.

It would be entirely appropriate to note that other things are named for Einstein; the lead for Alan Turing (a Good Article) informs us: "Turing left an extensive legacy in mathematics and computing which has become widely recognised with statues and many things named after him, including an annual award for computing innovation. His portrait appears on the Bank of England £50 note, first released on 23 June 2021 to coincide with his birthday. The audience vote in a 2019 BBC series named Turing the greatest person of the 20th century." Charlie Faust (talk) 13:48, 5 June 2025 (UTC)