What did Albert Einstein contribute to society?

[IronWing]

Now we know that the universe is not only expanding, but it is accelerating! I wonder what he would have though of in terms of dark energy...

The explanations I've heard for "dark energy" have been from folks not working in the field but it always comes across as "The universal expansion is accelerating, therefore - aliens".

 

[sao123]

Premise for the Big Bang Theory ...

terrible tv show... terrible.
couldnt he do something intelligent?

 

[Jeff7]

The explanations I've heard for "dark energy" have been from folks not working in the field but it always comes across as "The universal expansion is accelerating, therefore - aliens".

My limited understanding is that dark matter and dark energy are placeholders, of sorts.
Dark "matter" means that it's something like matter, but not really. Something's wrong with the models, such that they don't match observations - or else our interpretations of the observations are somehow incorrect. So, dark matter is used. It's matter-like, but somehow it's quite difficult to detect.

Dark "energy" - same thing. It's kind of like energy, but not really. If that makes any sense. Something's making the Universe expand at an increasing rate. Energy though? Maybe, or maybe something different.

It seems that some of these fields like to do that. For example, my understanding is that electron "spin" doesn't refer to anything like the spin of a ball or disc. For example, you can have a particle with 1/2 spin, or spin 1/2, whichever it is. But I'm no particle physicist either, I just read a lot of things.

 

[grrl]

...and if he hadn't warned of the possibility of a nuclear weapon, the Germans would have developed it first.

False. There is no evidence they could have ever made an atomic bomb.

 

[Pantlegz]

False. There is no evidence they could have ever made an atomic bomb.

I'm pretty sure the only thing they were lacking was heavy water. They had the design's correctly and were ahead in development for a while, if I remember correctly.

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/physics/brau/H182/Term papers '02/Matt E.htm

 

[Ichinisan]

False. There is no evidence they could have ever made an atomic bomb.

No one implied that they made one. They had been exploring the possibility. The US was motivated to make sure that no other world power developed it first, so inconceivable resources were dedicated to the Manhattan Project.

The US never would have completed such a massive undertaking without the threat/motivation that someone else might do it first.

 

[Muse]

And in fact, as the first working A bomb in the New Mexico desert, all the physicists were betting each other in terms of how big of an explosion it would be. Because it was not a matter of how big the bomb would be based on the assumption that all of the U235 would fission, it was a matter of guessing what tiny fraction of the atoms would undergo fission before they were blasted into widely dispersed cloud of super heated gas. Which is the exact opposite of a critical mass needed to sustain nuclear fission.

Exactly, obviously the whole going critical mess is going to be blown apart so fast a lot of it will never have a chance to be part of the criticality. The scientists were probably very uncertain just how big an explosion they were going to get. I suppose that's a big reason there has been so much testing of nuclear weapons.

 

[preslove]

God damnit, OP, is this excellent, Grade-A trolling. Pissy little shits like Mike Gaynar yelled at you, while nerds got a chance to nerd out and show off. Two birds, one stone. Well done.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

 

[herm0016]

the Photo Electric effect is also very good at telling us the type of rock encountered at each depth in an oil well. It is amazing the use of many of these things.

 

[grrl]

No one implied that they made one. They had been exploring the possibility. The US was motivated to make sure that no other world power developed it first, so inconceivable resources were dedicated to the Manhattan Project.

The US never would have completed such a massive undertaking without the threat/motivation that someone else might do it first.

I never said you did. You claimed "the Germans would have developed it first". However, as you seem to suggest yourself, it is very unlikely they could have mustered the "inconceivable" economic, technical and material resources required.

I'm pretty sure the only thing they were lacking was heavy water. They had the design's correctly and were ahead in development for a while, if I remember correctly.

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/physics/brau/H182/Term%20papers '02/Matt E.htm

The article suggests they were actually hindered by their reliance on heavy water instead of graphite so I don't know how much Weizsacker's boastful assessment is worth.