The Sheila Variations

There was an interesting article recently on the Don Quixote anniversary, with a great quote from a literature prof at Spain's National Open University - "Its message is that you're either mad or you'll end up mad"

and, as an aside, Einstein published important papers on the Special Theory of Relativity, Brownian motion and the Photoelectric Effect all in 1905.

But isn't it, in terms of general public knowledge, the relativity thing that he is most known for?

I forget the difference between the general and the specific theory. (I mean, if I ever even knew the difference in the first place.)

It is generally, Sheila, but his Photoelectric effect work, for example, foreshadowed Quantum theory.. 1905 was an annus mirabilis for Einstein because of the breadth and importance of all the work he published then.. and his 1921 Nobel Prize picked out his Photoelectric work.

Oh and The General Theory was when he tried to bring Gravity into the Special Relativity theory.. as I recall he had to 'fudge' it to make the equations work.

That's the irony Sheila, he never won the Nobel Prize for his Special Theory of Relativity.

It's that damn Gravity, easy to understand and perform calculations from a Newtonian perspective, but a huge obstacle STILL when trying to come up with a Grand Unified Theory.

Relativity is what he's most known for, but the technological consequences of the Photoelectric Effect paper are huge, and people forget that when he published the paper on Brownian Motion it was still a matter of scientific debate as to the true existance of atoms. From my biased perpective as a former chemist, I'd rank the papers in order of import: Photoelectric Effect, Brownian Motion, Relativity.

Dearest: 2005 is the bicentennial of the birth of Thomas Dorr, of Rhode Island's Dorr Rebellion. A remarkable man, far ahead of his times in many things. He was a champion of the common man when such was hard to find. Love, dad

Dad - oh, that's right. I may be insane, but i seem to recall going on a field trip to see Dorr's grave. In 6th grade.