[HN Gopher] Marcel Grossmann and his contribution to the general...
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       Marcel Grossmann and his contribution to the general theory of
       relativity
        
       Author : joebig
       Score  : 27 points
       Date   : 2024-03-13 16:05 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org)
        
       | joebig wrote:
       | One of Grossman's bound, beautifully handwritten notes, many
       | which were once used by Einstein to get through university exams:
       | https://www.e-manuscripta.ch/zut/content/titleinfo/146744
        
         | soperj wrote:
         | I'm not sure how he writes pages and pages like that, without
         | even crossing out a word because of a mistake? I feel like he
         | must have re-written some of these notes afterwards, but even
         | then, how do you never make a mistake?
        
           | throwbadubadu wrote:
           | My notes looked like crap almost always, but I knew some
           | girls in university where notes looked good while writing and
           | then exactly did this rewriting for perfectionism (and
           | besides that, this written reiteration is likely quite good
           | to ingrain it, like spaced learning).
        
           | abdullahkhalids wrote:
           | Any such notes are most likely rewritten form of rougher
           | notes written elsewhere. Then again, it's not difficult to
           | write without making a mistake.
           | 
           | Think about musicians who improvise for quite a long time,
           | playing hundreds of bars, while never playing a wrong note.
        
           | markus_zhang wrote:
           | I think most likely the notes were the result of re-
           | processing information written down earlier -- if the
           | original content was taken from a class. Nevertheless, that
           | is very impressive -- almost a product of art. I wish I could
           | get one copy.
        
       | boringuser2 wrote:
       | If you want to talk about contributions to the general theory of
       | relativity, why not talk about the people that Einstein is
       | alleged to have plagiarized, Henri Poincare, David Hilbert and
       | Hendrik Antoon Lorentz?
        
         | pvg wrote:
         | Because the author wanted to talk about Grossman? It's odd to
         | criticize a piece for covering its chosen topic.
        
           | boringuser2 wrote:
           | Right, it's not so much a critique of the author's work that
           | I've presented as much as a meta-commentary on the article in
           | the context that we're posting on a forum that aggregates
           | content for public consumption.
           | 
           | The author is fine, he can publish whatever he pleases. I
           | can't stop him, as you've pointed out.
           | 
           | From a meta-commentary perspective, it is actually quite
           | interesting that Einstein's alleged plagiarism covers many
           | diverse sources.
        
             | ducttapecrown wrote:
             | Thank you for the boring off-topic comments, boringuser2.
             | Maybe boringuser1 was too interesting, so you were created.
             | I promise to read the article if you do.
        
         | codethief wrote:
         | What exactly do you think Einstein plagiarized?
        
           | boringuser2 wrote:
           | I don't think anything, im referring to allegations.
        
           | BenoitP wrote:
           | Relativity was ripe for discovery. And a lot of other
           | scientists came very close:
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_priority_dispute
           | 
           | But that's just how science work, and no ill will would have
           | been employed by any participant; just as their fanclub want
           | to pit them against one another.
        
             | rhdunn wrote:
             | Just like how Leibniz and Newton independantly formulated
             | calculus, building on the work of others.
        
           | optimalsolver wrote:
           | Relevant username.
        
         | BenoitP wrote:
         | Plagiarized is too strong of a word. Poincare too based his
         | work on Lorentz's. And both with Einstein he sort of derived E
         | = m c * 2, independently and earlier. But Einstein's
         | publication was more complete.
         | 
         | Science is not totally ordered, the same invention can occur at
         | two different places from the same shoulders of the same giant.
         | Science is just partially ordered.
        
           | boringuser2 wrote:
           | The problem is when the "ordering" of science is horizontal.
           | 
           | I.e. Einstein reading their works and copying their
           | conclusions.
           | 
           | This is highly likely to have happened, regardless of the
           | "completeness" of one work or another.
           | 
           | The thing I like about this is that it levels celebrity
           | (something man-made) with rationality.
           | 
           | Why not reduce Einstein's celebrity? It reflects reality more
           | accurately to do so.
        
         | pnin wrote:
         | Neither Poincare nor Lorentz are relevant to the genesis of
         | General Relativity. The only relevant priority dispute is
         | whether Einstein or Hilbert wrote down the correct field
         | equations first. This was after a long correspondence between
         | the two, in which Einstein explained his ideas -- there is no
         | dispute that Einstein "invented" General Relativity. See
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_relativity_priority_di...
        
         | fngjdflmdflg wrote:
         | You are thinking of specific relativity. He didn't plagiarize
         | the theory of specific relativity either because nobody had
         | suggested it. Poincare's idea of relativity relied on the
         | existence of a Luminiferous aether which was disproved in the
         | early 20th century.
        
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       (page generated 2024-03-13 23:00 UTC)