Happy 100 birthday

[SuppaTime]

Today marks 100 years since Einstein presented the General Theory of Relativity. It is widely considered to be Einstein's finest achievement although ironically he received his Nobel Prize for his work on the photoelectric effect, not for relativity. The theory has been successfully tested over and over as well as applied to practical problems - GPS would not work without applying the results of relativity (both General and Special theories) to the calculations.

One odd thing about the theory is that Einstein felt compelled to insert a term in his equations called the cosmological constant. That term was designed to prevent run-away inflation of the universe. But 20 years later it was discovered that the universe is indeed expanding, which meant that Einstein's theory was correct without the cosmological constant. Einstein called it his worst blunder in physics and regretted making that last minute addition to his equations. But doubly ironic is that in the last 20 years or so it has been discovered that the universe's expansion is slowing down and this can only be explained if the cosmological constant is retained in the equations. So, Einstein's perceived blunder was not a blunder at all!

Anyway, a brilliant man and a brilliant achievement.

[PonoBill]

More than just brilliant. Most of Einstein's theories would have been discovered by other physicists--they were logical extensions of prior thought. Special relativity was a leap. Some physicists hold that Poincare and Lorenz would have arrived at special relativity independently, but I don't agree. I think we might still not have it if Einstein hadn't taken a leap that others were trying to induce from a more Newtonian basis.