Talk:Albert Einstein

Photo of Einstein's matriculation certificate

The heading reads "The Education Committee of the Canton of Aargau." His scores were German 5, French 3, Italian 5, History 6, Geography 4, Algebra 6, Geometry 6, Descriptive Geometry 6, Physics 6, Chemistry 5, Natural History 5, Art Drawing 4, Technical Drawing 4. The scores are 6 = excellent, 5 = good, 4 = sufficient, 3 = poor, 2 = very poor, 1 = unusable.

Can someone find a way to work this info into the article without looking too obtrusive? BhangraGirl (talk) 22:00, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I have deleted my own comment on the certificate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Einstein-matura.jpg, the mistake was mine! On magnifying the facsimile I can see that the grades are indeed for the Matura examination (Maturitätsprüfung), not the Aargau Kantonsschule Final Grades leaving certificate that all students received as I mistakenly stated. Closer inspection of Einstein's leaving certificate in the Collected Papers (vol. 1, doc. 19) shows it differs for two of the subjects from the Matura grades as shown on the facsimile. Apologies for my error. Esterson (talk) 14:06, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

I've included information on Einstein's Matura grades in a revamped paragraph. 18:43, 1 November 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Esterson (talk • contribs)

Einstein and music

Einstein played Violin. His interest in music is very well know. There are many reliable sources available on this topic. We could mention about this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Viswesr (talk • contribs) 16:21, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

This has been brought up before on this talk page (search the archive if you are interested) and has been rejected because it is such a minor aspect of Einstein's life. See WP:TRIVIA for a more details. meshach (talk) 01:31, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

Apologies, I had to jump in because, although I see the rationale for excluding too much trivia, Einstein as musician is not trivial. It was solace, inspiration and nourishment for him - and he was just plain fond of playing both violin and piano (see Ronald W. Clark). I do agree that some mention of his accomplished status as a musician should be mentioned someplace. One sentence couldn't hurt! Djathinkimacowboy 09:47, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Religion Muslim according to...

http://qiyamah-is-getting-closer.blogspot.com/2011/06/subahanallah-albert-einstein-was-muslim.html

This needs expert attention to set things straight correctly, thank you with blessings! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.232.191.16 (talk) 18:23, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Fails wp:RS. - DVdm (talk) 18:32, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Sasse photo

A couple of people have tried to add the Sasse tongue photo to this article. This photo cannot be used here because NFCC#10c requires a non-free use rationale for each article where a non-free image is used.

So could a rationale be created for this article? No, WP:CSD#F7, WP:NFCC#2, WP:NFCC#8, and WP:NFC#UUI#8 allow use of a UPI image only if it is the subject of sourced commentary.

So could the commentary be copied from Albert Einstein in popular culture? Not a good idea: The popular culture article actually was split off as a home for the tongue photo as a result of comments at a WP:GA discussion on the biography. Besides that, at 94,130 bytes the biography is already too long. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TEB728 (talk • contribs) 20:16, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

I find it a distasteful photo, so just don't bother, please. - DVdm (talk) 20:30, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Letter to FDR

Rather than stating he was responsible for alerting FDR to the possibility of an atomic bomb, it should read something like: Because of his fame and gravitas, Albert Einstein was enlisted by Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, and Eugene Wigner as a suitable messenger to FDR on the possibility of an atomic bomb, and the possibility that Hitler could gain access to one before the United States.

Indeed, this is an important point to include since Einstein, by his own words, had not yet considered the possibility for a chain reaction and was startled by the news of the ongoing experiments toward that end. He of course immediately understood the implications of such a possibility. This is described in a little more detail (although not entirely well) in a later paragraph, but that is no reason to be sloppy in the introduction section. The way it is written will imply to the casual reader that it was Einstein's insight. Indeed, this is the perception most people who are aware of this issue have of Einstein warning FDR, reinforced by such sloppy writing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.126.8.113 (talk) 15:46, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

A very good point. AvocadosTheorem (talk) 21:10, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Einstein's summer house in Caputh

During his time in Berlin Einstein lived in Haberlandstraße 5. From 1929 to 1932, however, he spent the summer months in his summer house in Caputh, Brandenburg (built for Einstein by the architect Konrad Wachsmann). Could this be mentioned? Gebe7 (talk) 18:07, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Jewish

The article should say in the first line that Einstein was a Jew. Calling someone who lived through the Holocaust era German-born and not mentioning their Jewishness is really odd. The Germans certainly didn't include Jews in their "German-ness". One could instead say he was a Jew born in Germany.