There used to be a few words to describe scientists in the field of theoretical and experimental physics: "theoretical physics waste paper, experimental physics spending money, theoretical and experimental physics Fermi." Of course, this is a compliment to Comrade Fermi as the last rare talent with both theoretical and experimental physics in the 20th century. Scientists like Fermi are really rare. But what we are going to talk about today is a super tycoon of physics in the 20th century who even Fermi looks up to: Einstein, who is second to none in the field of theoretical physics, and his theory has been verified throughout the 20th century and even in 2 1 century!

Did Einstein create the special theory of relativity? Don't!

Many friends who don't understand the special theory of relativity believe that it was originally created by Einstein. There is usually only one sentence. Einstein's special theory of relativity was born in 1905. Actually, it was really born, but it was the foreshadowing of many scientists. Einstein once said that if he didn't work out the special theory of relativity, some scientists would discover it within five years! Let's learn about the background of special relativity!

The early foreshadowing is Newton's universal gravitation and three laws, Laplace's proof of the periodicity of planets orbiting the solar system, and Levi's calculation of the precession of mercury. Earlier, it was thought that there was a ravaged star in Mercury's orbit. Other key points are as follows:

Firstly, Maxwell's equations were introduced in the1860s, and it was deduced that electromagnetic wave was a constant, which was consistent with the speed of light, so that Maxwell realized that light was also an electromagnetic wave.

Then, Michelson and Morey, who love ether, conducted an experiment to prove the drift of ether, and the result was a drift zero, which made Michelson and Morey dumbfounded. After the story spread in the scientific community, many parties joined the battle, but there was no difference except that the error was getting smaller and smaller.

1895, Lorenz put forward the concept of length contraction of high-speed moving objects to explain the zero result of ether drift, and put forward the concept of local time through the correlation state theorem. With this theory, Lorenz explained the aberration, Doppler shift and Fizeau flow experiment. In the same year, Lorenz used Maxwell's electromagnetic theory to put forward a set of coordinate system transformation equations moving in ether, which is Lorenz transformation!

1900, poincare explained Lorenz's local time with the speed of light synchronization. 1904, poincare put forward the principle of relativity independently of Einstein: "There is no experiment in mechanics and electromagnetism that can distinguish any inertial reference frame between static and uniform motion."

Everyone here should know that the speed of light of the special theory of relativity is constant, and the next principle of relativity is ready. Therefore, Einstein put forward the special theory of relativity in 1905, which is only the result of a phased summary and pioneering thinking. Without Maxwell, Lorenz and Poincare, Einstein didn't know how many years he would have to work, and with Einstein's theoretical physics foundation, it was difficult to get the data that needed experimental physics support. Of course, Einstein didn't get all the honors. At the beginning of this paper, Einstein has defined the essence of special relativity!

Did Einstein create the general theory of relativity? Obviously!

Although many mathematical and physical tools are used in general relativity, this theory was formed by Einstein's independent thinking from beginning to end, and the only one who turned to other scientists for help was mathematical tools. Therefore, from this perspective, there is no doubt that Einstein enjoys universal glory. Ten years may be too tight for a theory and system, but for Einstein, he finished it in 19 15.

This equation is a set of second-order nonlinear partial differential equations, which is difficult to solve mathematically. Einstein himself can only deduce several predictions by approximate methods, but the most famous one is the first exact solution obtained by Schwarzschild in 19 16: schwarzschild metric, which is regarded as the theoretical basis of black holes!

19 17 years, Einstein applied the gravitational field equation to the whole universe, creating the cosmological application field of relativity. But Einstein was more inclined to the static theory of the universe, so he added a constant to the gravitational field equation to modify the dynamic universe into static.

Friedman and Lemaistre got the solution of the expanding universe from the gravitational field equation, while Hubble observed the expansion of the universe, which annoyed Einstein. "This is Einstein's biggest mistake," Einstein thought!

Of course, Einstein's broad phase also proved that mercury precession, gravity bending light, explained the expansion of the universe, discovered black holes, predicted gravitational waves, and so on. In fact, there are more than that, including photoelectric theory and molecular motion theory, laser theory and Bose-Einstein condensed matter, and so on. These are Einstein's contributions to theoretical physics!

However, Einstein's mistakes in quantum mechanics are unforgivable. Perhaps he was so interested in the continuity of the world that he almost gave up his position as one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics. He opposed the fundamental overthrow of quantum mechanics in the early stage, the confrontation with Bohr in the middle stage and the imperfection of quantum theory in the later stage. It can almost be said that even if Einstein went fishing after 1927, there would be no great loss to the scientific community. So Einstein still made a mistake.

However, we should be clear that although Einstein has been delayed in quantum mechanics, his various thought experiments are an important source of the sustained and solid foundation of quantum mechanics. Perhaps the opponent's strength is giving quantum mechanics a model of barbaric growth, but at least it proves that Einstein is not a god, he is a living person. In any case, we admire his courage and greatness. Even in the next few hundred years, his groundbreaking theory will still shine in the scientific community, and Einstein's legend will be circulated in the scientific community forever.