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Physics in era 2000
Course: Science 10 (SCI10)
240 Documents
Students shared 240 documents in this course
University: Ateneo de Manila University
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Mats Andersson
, M Sc. Physics & Computer Science, Uppsala University (1991)
Answered Feb 5
No.
He was more of a genius.
If you don’t have a degree in physics, it’s probably impossible for you to comprehend just how
outrageously smart he was. He made important contributions in basically all fields of physics, at a time
when most physicists could master part of a single field.
Consider this: in the late 1800s, no less an authority than Lord Kelvin, who was great enough to get a
unit named after him, discouraged students from going into physics, since there were only two questions
left to sort out, then physics would be complete and done.
The questions were the photoelectric effect, and the lack of a result in the Michelson-Morley
experiment.
Einstein answered both of them. The first answer was “quantum mechanics”, the second answer was
“relativity”—and this has been all physics has been about since then. Basically all that Kelvin knew is
covered (if somewhat briefly) in the first half of a B. Sc. in physics today.
And as a sort of side-thought, Einstein proved that atoms exist. You didn’t even know that, and it would
have been the crowning achievement of any normal physicist.