einstein's universe

There's one post i'm trying to find, i'm having no luck so i guess i'll start a new thread. Does anyone know wheather einstein ever questioned his own theories? Did he ever get any flack from other physicists(sp) from the time? Were any of his theories ever proven wrong?

After General Relativity he went on a quest to unify all (at that time) known laws of physics, General Relativity was a his combinatory work with Special Relativity, Newton's law of universal gravitation and his views that gravitational acceleration can be described by the curvature of space and time.

While he was at it, the laws of Quantum Mechanics came about showing the inner workings of atoms in great detail, also showing many new particles that weren't known before, including experimental proofs to back it up.

Because the basis of Quantium Mechanics is that there is no certainty and you can only calculate odds for the possible outcomes, Einstein refused to take these new laws into account.

He commented on Quantum Mechanics that:

"God Doesn't Trow Dice"

He firmly believed that all laws of all fields of physics had to come down to absolutes. Set parameters for everything.

He tried to unify General Relativity with the laws existing before Quantum Mechanics until the day he died.

If he hadn't been so stubborn to refuse to embrace quantum mechanics we might have had a unified theory for the known laws already.

So to answer your questions

Did he ever doubt himself:
No, unfortunatly he didn't.

Did he get any flack from other physicists:
Yes, it took 10 years of ridicule before anyone accepted his special relativity and about as much time for anyone to accept his general relativity work, which is rather common in science, when someone makes a major breakthrough that changes the entire playing field so thoroughly as special relativity did.
And afterwards, when he refused to embrace Quantum Mechanics, he got ridiculed and flack from other scientists because he refused to embrace new things.

Was he ever proven wrong?
Yes, Einstein was wrong in refusing to embrace Quantum Mechanics and most other evolutions in science after his general relativity was common science.

He also believed in the Steady State theory, disliking the idea of a finite universe even when his theory of special relativity said otherwise.

Btw, don't make a mistake between Quantum Theory, which was the field of quantum sciences in Einsteins time and Quantum Mechanics as we know it today.

Einstein actually contributed greatly to Quantum theory and laid many of its basis.

It was only after Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg came up with their interpretation of Quantum theory, now known as Quantum Mechanics, which showed that the Quantum world was inherently probabilistic, that Einstein fell behind.

As I said in my first reply, he stated "God doesn't trow dice".
Einstein was not a Christian or catholic really, he saw himself as an agnostic, but firmly believed that there was a God, creator, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world.

Even though he wasn't religious to the extent that he followed a certain church, his views and ultimate demise as an innovator in science still was due to his religious beliefs, that there was a god that created everything to be in a preset harmony with definite answers, which would translate in mathematical methods and scientific laws with which everything could be calculated and stated to have a specific outcome.

His religious beliefs wouldn't allow him to believe that the quantum world is based on harmonious chaos (probabilities and odds with no definite answers, where the more information you have, the more precise you can calculate the odds.)

I recall reading at one point that Einstein expressed doubts at one point over whether or not an 'ether' existed, and whether that would have consequences on his theories.

Once Einstein was established as an eminent physicist himself, I don't think other physicists gave him any trouble. But when he first started out, he was a lowly patent clerk with no university education, and people were wondering who this young punk with his new theories that, if true, would revolutionize physics. Once his theories held up to scrutiny, people took him seriously after that.

As far as I am aware, Einstein's theories haven't been proven wrong, yet.

thanks for the replies everyone, does anyone know how the laws of physics (universe) has anything to do with einstein? Like why the universe has laws?

Relativity is based on the works of Lorrentz and Poincare. I've only a basic understanding, more of a conceptual understanding so corrections are welcome.
Lorrentzian relativity is mathematically similar to Einsteins except only clocks and rulers are effected by velocity due to Lorrentz contraction. Lorrentz maintains an ether and implies absolute time rather than the concept of space time. The paper was published a year before Einstein's.
I believe Lorrentz equations are used in preference to relativity in satellites and other space craft. As are Sagnac's.
General relativity has been far more successful, however the concept of space time was used to replace the ether, I believe space and time are not connected, atomic clock experiments can also be explained with the highly successful Lorrentz equations.
Others also question whether E really does = mc2. My knowledge of quantum physics doesn't allow me a good opinion on that.

In the end Einstein was not satisfied with his theories, I'm not bashing here, I give credit were credit is due, Einstein pretty much started quantum physics, he won the noble prize for his work on the photo electric effect so he was hardly scared of quantum physics he also sought to unify electromagnetism and gravity.

[edit on 18-9-2007 by squiz]

i don't know if your correct about einstein being religious in the theistic sense. from my research and understanding he was actually just using the world "god" in the "pantheistic" sense, as many scientists did before him and still do today. its just a poetic expression of his ideas, a replacement of words that makes it sound more profound. a great crime in my opinion.. causes a lot of misinterpretation and confusion.