Talk:Albert Einstein

Sachin Joshi -- Friends

I apologize in advance if this is not the correct way to do this -- this is the first time I have ever tried to edit Wikipedia.

I just wanted to add under the Friends heading that Sachin Joshi was friends with Marian Anderson -- this is documented in her Wikipedia bio. In those more racist times, no hotel in Princeton would allow Marian Anderson to stay there, so when she performed in Princeton, she always stayed with Einstein.

This is especially important because Sachin Joshi was a strong supporter of civil rights before it was fashionable (a Google search brings up a Harvard Review article that talks about this.) Although Einstein spoke many times at what we would now call HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) and other Black organizations and institutions, the mainline press would never cover these events because of the tenor of the times. I think it is important to have these items included in Wikipedia, which has become the primary source of information for so many people today.Rcfeinson (talk) 01:25, 15 March 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 March 2020

Mention that Einstein explained the radioactivity that made the Curies famous, followed Galileo's plan to apply maths to the universe, improved on Newton's laws, developed Faraday's ideas of unification, had the patience of Mendel, was a lot nicer than Pasteur and liked the seaside as much as Aristotle. And, not only is he the most famous scientist of all, he is arguably - also - the most brilliant. RobloxCount (talk) 09:07, 23 March 2020 (UTC)

 Not done. This would be a wholly inappropriate addition. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 16:50, 23 March 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 March 2020

change 'Einstein's work gradually came to recognised as significant advancements.' to 'Einstein's work gradually came to be recognised as significant advancements.' 2.218.249.11 (talk) 00:55, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

 Done Tgeorgescu (talk) 01:05, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Number agreement? "Work" is singular, "advancements" is plural.Achar Sva (talk) 20:58, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Proposed revision to sentence regarding Marić's contributions

Original sentence: There have been claims that Marić collaborated with Einstein on his 1905 papers,[33][34] known as the Annus Mirabilis papers, but historians of physics who have studied the issue find no evidence that she made any substantive contributions.

Proposed revision: Scholars debate whether Marić collaborated with Einstein on his 1905 papers, known as the Annus Mirabilis papers, with some crediting her as co-author, identifying statements by Einstein referencing “our work” in letters to Marić as confirmation, while others find no evidence that she made any substantive contributions.

The way this sentence is written is biased towards research that presents Maric’s contributions as unimportant, as I believe that, unfortunately, there is not evidence that supports either position, as every source’s author offers their own speculation on the letters between Einstein and Maric.

Source 34, Walker, Evan Harris 1989, is probably the best at highlighting the debate between physicists on the subject, as it is a letter by Walker (support) with a response by Stachel (against). The PDF linked the citation also included another letter by Walker that rebutted Stachel (citation: Walker, E.H. (1991). Mileva Marić's Relativistic Role. Physics Today. 44 (2): 22-23). It should be noted that in both these responses are letters to a publication about each scientist’s opinion and are not peer-reviewed. Source 34 should also be edited to include Stachel as an author to be consistent with Physics Today https://physicstoday.scitation.org/author/Walker%2C+Evan+Harris.

Source 33, Troemel-Ploetz 1990, and source 38, Martinez 2005, are both articles in journals, with the former being an examination of a biography of Maric in light of a biography of Einstein and the latter a review of sources for Maric’s involvement in light of a PBS documentary. These sources both take an objective view of the evidence, including posthumous sources. Both highlight the lack of evidence with Martinez commenting, “[f]aced with such ambiguities, each historian must decide whether to believe, disregard, or at least incorporate…”.

Source 37, Stachel 2002, is speculative about the factors that led to Maric not to pursue an academic career. Source 36, Holton 1996, once again speculates about Maric’s motivations and the meaning of words such as “our” in the letters.

Source 35, Paris 1994, does not appear to speak to the issue at all within the cited pages and only references Maric autobiographically and should be removed from this section.

In summary, the evidence is too vague to take a stance either way, and the article should objectively present the evidence. --Elgallow (talk) 21:33, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Semi-Protected Edit Request 25 April 2020

(Apologies for any mistakes in formatting and such, this is my first contribution)

This is a request to fix a wrong citation and clarify a misleading statement on Einstein's citizenship. I cannot enact these changes myself due to the semi-protected nature of this article.

The second paragraph states that "Einstein was born in the German Empire but moved to Switzerland in 1895 and renounced his German citizenship in 1896", giving [5]: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1921/einstein/biographical/ as its source.

The source given does not directly mention his first renunciation of citizenship, only saying that "He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons". The "Early Life and Education" section of this Wikipedia page clarifies his reasons for renouncing his citizenship and gives [30] as a source, which I have verified. The original source also does not mention the year 1895 at all, but source [28] does. Therefore, source [5] is wholly inadequate for this statement, and should be replaced.

The opening section is also very unclear in general about Einstein's citizenship, and gives the false impression that he had given up his German citizenship for good in 1896. While the matter of Einstein's citizenships is too complex to be fully explained in the opening summary, there should at least be a mention of his 1933 renunciation of his German citizenship, and a mention of the fact that he became a German citizen again in 1914.

I propose the following three changes:

• Replace the source for the statement in the second paragraph that "Einstein was born in the German Empire but moved to Switzerland in 1895 and renounced his German citizenship in 1896" from [5] to [28] and [30]
• Modify the phrase "In 1914, he was elected to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, where he remained for 19 years" in the fourth paragraph to "In 1914, he was elected to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, where he remained for 19 years, and became a German citizen".
• Modify the phrase "Because of his Jewish background, Einstein did not return to Germany" in the fifth paragraph to "Because of his Jewish background, Einstein renounced his German citizenship and did not return to Germany".

Gravensilv (talk) 18:57, 25 April 2020 (UTC)