Talk:Albert Einstein

The passage on infant Lieserl

I have reverted the amendments made by Cam04 to the passage on Lieserl for the following reasons. First note that the reference for the additional information is http://www.einstein-website.de/. This may look "official", but it is the website of a single individual, Hans-Josef Küpper.

Quote from Cam04 version: "Lieserl was thought to be born mentally challenged." There is no serious evidence that this was the case. It is speculation by the author of Einstein's Daughter: The Search for Lieserl, Michele Zackheim, prefaced by the words "Ultimately, I came to believe…" It is based on some underscoring in a passage relating to mentally retarded or sick children in a book that had belonged to Mileva Maric. In other words, it is entirely circumstantial, without direct evidence. (Maric also underlined a passage on female homosexual love. Does that mean we should speculate she was gay?) (Zackheim 1999, pp. 242, 243, 250-251.)

Quote: "Some believed Lieserl died in September 1903 as a result of an infection due to scarlet fever, although private letters between Einstein and Marić that surfaced in the 1980s make it seem that she was given up for adoption shortly after birth."

The construction of this sentence reads as if there was information before the discovery of the correspondence between Einstein and Maric in 1986, and then the discovery provided fresh information indicating that she was given up for adoption, whereas the letters are our only source of information. (The phrase "shortly after birth" is also inaccurate.) While one sentence of Einstein's, in a letter in September 1903, suggests they were considering adoption he is also concerned about "what has befallen Lieserl", going on to refer to scarlet fever. Many infants in those days would have died from this disease, so in the absence of further evidence there is no way of knowing if Lieserl died at around 18 months old, or was adopted.

I propose the following amended version of the current passage:

At the end of January 1902, Einstein and Marić had a daughter they named Lieserl, born in Novi Sad where Marić was staying with her parents. Her fate is unknown, but the contents of a letter Einstein wrote to Marić in September 1903 suggest that she was either adopted or died of scarlet fever in infancy. (Ref: J. Renn & R. Schulmann, Albert Einstein/Mileva Marić: The Love Letters., 1992, pp. 73-74, 78; A. Calaprice & T. Lipscombe, Albert Einstein: A Biography, 2005, pp. 22-23.)

Esterson (talk) 09:34, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Numerology of Einstein's Birth Date

Many people note with delight that Einstein's birthday, March 14, is also "Pi Day", because of its similarity with an approximation of π (3.14). It is also the birthday of the fictional character Jake Harper in the TV series Two and a Half Men.

Also, the year of Einstein's birth, 1879, is a prime number. Einstein was born on the 73^rd day of that year, 73 also being a prime number. According to the Jewish Calendar, he was born in the year 5639 A.M. — again, a prime number. Josh-Levin@ieee.org (talk) 15:04, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

The Pi Day connection is already noted at Pi Day. If you have Reliable Source citations showing significance for the other information, I suppose it could be added to Albert Einstein in popular culture. Not this article, though. --MelanieN (talk) 16:11, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Him and 1/365 of the world's population. So what? He had no special connection to pi or prime numbers. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:27, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Lead image

Does anyone besides me think File:Einstein-formal portrait-35.jpg would be a better lead image? --Wikiwatcher1 (talk) 06:08, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Should I be bold? --Wikiwatcher1 (talk) 08:19, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Thats not a nice pic at all - we should use File:Albert Einstein (Nobel).png if its to be changed.Moxy (talk) 11:49, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

OK with me - you can feel free to switch them. A portrait is better for a lead. --Wikiwatcher1 (talk) 18:22, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Data of something close to the Einstein's brain

I heard that in the beginning, the brain of Einstein was contained in a jar of candies, is it true?--Paritto (talk) 21:44, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

No, in the beginning, Einstein's brain was contained in Einstein's skull.

Even if the candy-jar thing were true, it wouldn't merit mention in the article. — DAGwyn (talk) 22:20, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Obvious answer, but thanks because your opinion. According to I, it is otherwise in order that the article look more interesting for the common reader, perhaps a kid.--Paritto (talk) 00:52, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Swiss American nationality

Einstein asked his father for the Swiss nationality when ha was very young because he was "apatrid". He has kept it all his life. I don't understand why it doesn't appear clearly in the introduction of this article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.77.185.151 (talk) 20:28, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

Einstein obtained Swiss citizenship in 1901 when he was 21, and there was no question of asking his father for permission. The information about this is in the article at the appropriate place. Esterson (talk) 21:13, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

I have a question about this. The "Citizenship" section of the {{infobox}} contains an explicit entry for "Stateless", and there are two ranges of years listed for "Stateless": "(1896–1901; 1933–1940)". The first one sounds right to me, but the second one ("1933–1940") does not seem consistent with the entry for "Switzerland" going all the way from 1901 to 1955. Perhaps that entry for "Switzerland (1901–1955)" was added later? (and perhaps someone forgot to "update" the entry for "Stateless"?) Just an idea... --Mike Schwartz (talk) 17:59, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

Well spotted. The "Stateless" entry 1933-1940 is surely erroneous, as he never gave up his Swiss citizenship. It should be deleted.

Einstein's possession of Swiss citizenship in 1933 after he had renounced his German citizenship is shown here (though for some reason the photograph itself no longer shows up on the webpage).

http://www.immigrationmatters.co.uk/albert-einsteins-1933-uk-immigration-landing-card-found-but-would-he-have-been-allowed-entry-in-2011.html

Esterson (talk) 19:14, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for answering that question, AND for fixing the dates in the "infobox" (very promptly! I might add).  :-)

You are correct that there is a problem at the web page you linked to in regard to the photo of the landing card. However, I did a little bit of snooping around, and it appears that the photo of the landing card does still exist on a web site that is later linked to... -- but at a different URL. I now think that the explicit link from http://www.immigrationmatters.co.uk/albert-einsteins-1933-uk-immigration-landing-card-found-but-would-he-have-been-allowed-entry-in-2011.html to (the older URL?) : http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/einstein (with a prefix or "header" saying "More details of the landing card:") should instead point to (the newer URL) : http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/visit/floor-plan/seized/objects/einstein/ . Perhaps the problem with the photo showing up, can also be remedied by simply causing some "image" tag, to also point to [the image which can be seen at] the newer URL! (but the image's new URL is: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/visit/floor-plan/seized/graphics/large/einstein-landing-card.jpg -- which is a different new URL, from the one for the web page that "contains" the photo of the landing card.) (right?)

I might be a little bit confused here, myself. The above explanation assumes that there is an "image" tag, somewhere, that points to "some" older URL, and that just did not get updated when the change (some kind of web-address change) occurred -- causing the displaying of the photo to stop working.

In reality, there are probably (at least!) 2 changes needed, to the HTML for the web page you linked to. "One": the dead link that points to the older URL, needs to be updated to point to the newer URL; and "two": the URL in the image tag, that is broken, probably needs to be updated, to point instead to the image's new URL.

(See?) Now, since the web site http://www.immigrationmatters.co.uk/ is probably not a wiki, -- (and I am not suggesting that it should be), -- we probably cannot edit it ourselves. But maybe if someone is willing to contact the website maintainer person[s], for that web site, then perhaps they would consider updating the HTML to resume showing the photo correctly -- especially if it turns out that the fix can be applied fairly simply, such as by using an updated URL, in an "image" tag. I hope so. --Mike Schwartz (talk) 11:01, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for tracking down the photo of Einstein's Landing Card for May 1933 confirming he had retained his Swiss citizenship at that time: [1] Esterson (talk) 11:25, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Bruria

Bruria Kaufman is said to be a "renowned" physicist. Peacock wording could be mentioned.