An aether theorist would have regarded ".nor according to Maxwell's equations" as simply representing a misunderstanding on Einstein's part. Einstein's statement, ".there seems to be no such thing.on the basis of experience," would not have counted as an objection, but would have represented a mere statement of fact, since no one had ever traveled at such speeds. A 19th century aether theorist would have had no difficulties with the thought experiment. But various sources note that Einstein did not learn Maxwell's theory until 1898, in university. At 16 years old and a student at the Gymnasium in Aarau, Einstein would have had the thought experiment in late 1895 to early 1896. Norton lists several problems with Einstein's recounting, both historical and scientific: 1. However, Norton has noted that Einstein's reminiscences were probably colored by a half-century of hindsight. : 26–27, 121–127 Special relativity Pursuing a beam of light Įinstein's thought experiment as a 16-year-old studentĮinstein's recollections of his youthful musings are widely cited because of the hints they provide of his later great discovery. This included his use of thought experiments. His work in the patent office "stimulated to see the physical ramifications of theoretical concepts." These aspects of his thinking style inspired him to fill his papers with vivid practical detail making them quite different from, say, the papers of Lorentz or Maxwell. Įinstein had a highly visual understanding of physics. In fact, it was a logical demonstration described by Galileo in Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche (1638). This has sometimes been taken to be an actual physical demonstration, involving his climbing up the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropping two heavy weights off it. Perhaps the best known in the history of modern science is Galileo's demonstration that falling objects must fall at the same rate regardless of their masses. When effectively used, the irrelevant particulars that convert a straightforward argument into a thought experiment can act as "intuition pumps" that stimulate readers' ability to apply their intuitions to their understanding of a scenario. Norton, a well-known philosopher of science, has noted that "a good thought experiment is a good argument a bad thought experiment is a bad argument." A thought experiment can always be reconstructed as a straightforward argument, without the irrelevant particulars. It is the invocation of these particulars that give thought experiments their experiment-like appearance. Thought experiments invoke particulars that are irrelevant to the generality of their conclusions. They can only provide conclusions based on deductive or inductive reasoning from their starting assumptions. Īs opposed to physical experiments, thought experiments do not report new empirical data. They describe experiments that, except for some specific and necessary idealizations, could conceivably be performed in the real world. A scientific thought experiment, in particular, may examine the implications of a theory, law, or set of principles with the aid of fictive and/or natural particulars (demons sorting molecules, cats whose lives hinge upon a radioactive disintegration, men in enclosed elevators) in an idealized environment (massless trapdoors, absence of friction). In a profound contribution to the literature on quantum mechanics, Einstein considered two particles briefly interacting and then flying apart so that their states are correlated, anticipating the phenomenon known as quantum entanglement.Ī thought experiment is a logical argument or mental model cast within the context of an imaginary (hypothetical or even counterfactual) scenario. In his debates with Niels Bohr on the nature of reality, he proposed imaginary devices intended to show, at least in concept, how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle might be evaded. For general relativity, he considered a person falling off a roof, accelerating elevators, blind beetles crawling on curved surfaces and the like.
For special relativity, he employed moving trains and flashes of lightning to explain his most penetrating insights. In his youth, he mentally chased beams of light. Einstein's thought experiments took diverse forms. Kinds of scientific mental experiments done by EinsteinĪ hallmark of Albert Einstein's career was his use of visualized thought experiments ( German: Gedankenexperiment ) as a fundamental tool for understanding physical issues and for elucidating his concepts to others.
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