Full name: Einstein's Mistakes: The Human Failings of Genius

Author: Hans C. Ohanian Year: 2008 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Science, Biographies, History Purchase/reserch links: Goodreads Amazon LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780393062939 9780393337686 0393062937

Although Einstein was the greatest genius of the twentieth century, many of his ground-breaking discoveries were blighted by mistakes, ranging from serious misconceptions in physics to blatant errors in mathematics. For instance, Einstein's first theoretical proof of the famous formula E = mc2 was incomplete and only approximately valid; he struggled with this problem for many years, but he never found a complete proof (better mathematicians did). In this provocative forensic biography, Hans C. Ohanian dissects this and other mistakes and places them in the context of Einstein's turbulent life and times. Einstein was often navigating in a fog of irrational and mystical inspirations, but his profound intuition about physics permitted him to reach his goal despite-and sometimes because of-the mistakes he made along the way. Einstein's uncanny ability to use his mistakes subconsciously as stepping stones toward his revolutionary theories was one hallmark of his genius. Similar books: Boltzmann's Atom by David Lindley Quantum Man by Lawrence M. Krauss Einstein by Michael White Stephen Hawking by Kitty Ferguson The Man Who Changed Everything by Basil Mahon Erwin Schrodinger and the Quantum Revolution by John Gribbin The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo Stephen Hawking by Michael White Richard Feynman by John Gribbin Faust in Copenhagen by Gino Segre Einstein's Cosmos by Michio Kaku Genius by James Gleick Feynman's Rainbow by Leonard Mlodinow Robert Oppenheimer by Ray Monk Prime Obsession by John Derbyshire Disturbing the Universe by Freeman Dyson Men Of Mathematics by Eric Temple Bell The Beat of a Different Drum by Jagdish Mehra The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard P. Feynman