Einstein's Biggest Blunder, Explained

This video is about how Albert Einstein made a mistake when applying the Field Equations of General Relativity to cosmology (in particular, to a static, constant density universe), and solved the problem by introducing the cosmological constant, rather than allowing for a dynamic universe with a scale factor - that is, the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker universe, first developed by Alexander Friedmann of Russia. Later, it was discovered by the Slipher and Hubble red-shift that the universe is indeed expanding, and even later, by Schwarz and company in 1998, that the expansion is accelerating - aka, dark energy. And the cosmological constant was re-introduced.

REFERENCES

The Einstein Field Equations

Interrogating the Legend of Einstein’s “Biggest Blunder”

On the General Theory of Relativity (Einstein)

The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity (Albert Einstein)

Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity

Einstein Wrongly Criticizes Alexander Friedmann

Alexander Friedmann Corrects Einstein

Einstein Admits his Mathematical Mistake

The Field Equations of Gravitation

George Gamow

Mach’s Principle

Equivalence Principle

Sean Carroll and William Press Paper

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Created by Henry Reich

[nathanbanks]

"If you don't want to make silly math mistakes like Einstein" is the best segue ever.

[J.P.Nery.N.]

Einstein. The man who is right even when he's wrong.

[pepperjacks]

Einstein wrong?
*Universe changes to match*

[ayushshukla]

A bit more on it:
The constant that Einstein added has had an effect on findings related to dark energy.
I read it somewhere:
Einstein's two biggest mistakes were:
Adding that constant
Removing that constant

[samg]

Schrodinger's Einstein is wrong and right at the same time

[aryamanmishra]

When Universe respects you so much that it changes the whole game just to match your equation.

[joshlake]

Thank you, Henry, this is absolutely perfect for the capstone piece at the end of my cosmology class after students finish their Hubble constant lab. Beautifully explained as always! Your videos make my teaching so much more effective.

[loohpjames]

"If you don't want to make silly math mistakes like Einstein"... emm...
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I probably won't have the chance to even make the mistake...

[rttr]

"if you dont want to make silly math mistakes like einstien" that went from 0 to completely unrelatable

[AstroTibs]

Finally, someone correctly pointing out that Einstein did not "accidentally predict" dark energy, and that his error was only incidentally useful.

[TonyZhang]

math that I know 0:05
what i thought math in school is 0:19
math in school: 1:02

[SadMark]

The man so badass that he got the right answer with the wrong assumptions

[duchi]

*When you realize*
You are small brain and cannot understand big brain equations

[carazy_]

You should use Brilliant so that you don’t miscalculate those trivial fundamental equations of the universe and such

[TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

Wait... I have to rewatch this because I lost him when he said "F = ma"

[adamkey]

Einstein's blunder still contributes more to science than the rest of us mere mortals ever will 🤷‍♂️

[SirBelchaloT]

Well as someone who’s about to go into their third year of a physics degree, after hearing that the field equations are actually a SYSTEM of TEN, PARTIAL. SECOND ORDER. DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS.

You know I really just think engineering is more my thing after all

[reznovvazileski]

My QM teacher always told me that getting the right answer only means your mistakes canceled each other out. This would be the perfect example of such an occurrence :')

[skyechen]

Einstein: "Oops, I made a mistake, I will change my answer"
Scientists a decade after his death: "Actually your first answer was correct shouldn't have changed it"

[TaliesinMyrddin]

*Watches video*

Hehe

Einstein hair funny