How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
BOOK II – The Power of Three (#48. "The Einstein Enigma")
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Tuesday, September 13, 2022"
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
– Albert Einstein
CONSIDERATION #48 – “The Einstein Enigma”
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
The idea for this book series literally began with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. I had a basic understanding of what it was, but never felt that I had a solid sense of what it meant. I knew that it had to do with the relativity of space and time, black holes, and the speed of light, but what was the essential point? What did it really mean? I began to think about all the things we “think” we know, and how they impact us in ways we never consider. Our Reality is literally constructed on what we have learned from the past and think we “know” about it “now.” We have a serious problematic tendency to assume we understand, or are above, the past, and those who came before us. Does the average person have any real understanding of the foundation that supports everything we now experience and know, as Reality?
“The idea of a book series about the most important things in human history and understanding related to Reality started with delving into the mystery of Einstein’s abstraction called ‘Relativity’…”
As a teacher, I knew that the best way to learn about something was to know it well enough to teach it to someone else. How could I communicate a complicated idea like Einstein’s theory of Relativity to the average person so that they could really understand it? That was the initial idea behind this book series. The idea of a book series about the most important things in human history and understanding related to Reality started with delving into the mystery of Einstein’s abstraction called “Relativity,” until I finally understood its fundamental implications and consequences related to our present concept of Reality well enough to coherently explain it to someone else.
Well, here we are.
CONSIDERATION #48: “The Einstein Enigma”
Chapter 3 – The Einstein Enigma
“Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation…”
– Albert Einstein
In one single year, 1905, Albert Einstein did more to change our perception of physical reality than perhaps any other figure in human history. At only 26 years old, Einstein completed his PhD dissertation and published his Special Theory of Relativity, which later led to his General Theory of Relativity. He corroborated Planck’s concept of light energy as discrete packets of quantum energy emitting from an atom, which he called “photons.” In that year he also explained the equivalency of mass and energy in his most famous equation E=mc2. These amazing scientific revelations, and more, earned him the designation, “the father of modern physics.” This is how Einstein described four of the five major papers he would publish that year:
"The first deals with radiation and the energy properties of light and is very revolutionary." (Leading to a Nobel Prize for the photoelectric effect, which became the foundation for a revolutionary new scientific field: quantum mechanics.)
"The second paper is a determination of the true sizes of atoms." (His second and third papers mathematically explained Brownian motion; proving the existence of molecules and atoms.)
"The fourth paper is only a rough draft at this point, and... employs a modification of the theory of space and time" (This paper describes his Special Theory of Relativity, setting a speed limit in the universe based on the speed of light.)
In addition, Einstein published a fifth paper later that year containing an addendum to his Special Theory of Relativity which identified the unique relationship between energy and mass, incapsulated in perhaps the most famous scientific equation of all time: E=mc2.
POSTSCRIPT
It is almost impossible to communicate how much Einstein changed our perception of reality. Prior to Einstein, reality, science, and the future were certain. We knew and understood the basic principles of reality that were completely empirical such as time, space, and physical objects being composed of a physical substance called “matter.” The “objective” discipline of science was about finding out how all these things worked. However, Einstein changed that.
“Not only did it shatter the reality of classical physics; it shattered Einstein’s conception of Reality as well.”
Einstein postulated that time, space, matter, energy, and virtually everything else we thought we understood was completely wrong. The “Reality” of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, Descartes, and the entire “Empirical” scientific community had been based on the concept of “certainty.” Einstein, for the first time, introduced the possibility that “Reality” was “relative.” Not only did it shatter the reality of classical physics; it shattered Einstein’s conception of Reality as well. It also opened the door for a branch of physics that was beyond even Einstein’s capacity to comprehend or understand, Quantum Mechanics.
Next week we begin the journey from Empirical Science to Theoretical Abstraction starting with Einstein’s first Nobel Prize winning revelation; that the distinction between what is physical and what is non-physical is just an illusion.
“Untangling the Knots of Reality” is Part of the “Reality by a Thread” Upgrade – CLICK IMAGE to learn more!
Excerpt from Untangling the Knots of Reality – Podcast #14: SPECIAL EDITION “Untangling The Cosmic Symphony." UPGRADE TODAY!
COMING SEPTEMBER 22 ! CLICK IMAGE to learn more…
