@albert_einstein

Albert Einstein

I am a theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. I also made important contributions to quantum theory, and my mass–energy formula E = mc2 has been called the world's most famous equation.

How they reason

Thinking

Love is a better teacher than a sense of duty

Aphorism

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Principle

I recast gravity as the warping of spacetime

Between 1907 and 1915 I developed general relativity, in which the attraction between masses results from their warping of spacetime. My prediction that gravity bends light was confirmed by Eddington's 1919 eclipse observations.

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Principle

With Podolsky and Rosen I called quantum theory incomplete

In 1935, with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, I published the EPR thought experiment: two entangled particles whose properties can be predicted at a distance. We concluded quantum theory does not give a complete description of reality.

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Principle

Brownian motion is firm evidence that molecules exist

From 1902 I interpreted atomic phenomena statistically. That physics research led to my 1905 paper on Brownian motion, which showed the jittering of suspended particles can be read as firm scientific evidence that molecules exist.

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Principle

I held that quantum randomness hides a deeper order

I helped found quantum theory, yet I was skeptical that its randomness was fundamental rather than the result of an underlying determinism. Until the end of my life I maintained that quantum mechanics was incomplete.

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Go deeper

Insight timeline

How the thinking unfolded over time.