• Question: What would you ask Einstein if you could go back into the past? x

    Asked by emilyt to Sam on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I would ask him about his amazing year in 1905, when he published four scientific papers about physics that were all groundbreaking and brilliant: how did he get so many ideas in such a short space of time?

      I would also ask him what it was like to be a Jewish academic and also a German. He had to leave Germany because of the Nazis, so I would ask him what it felt like to have books that he had written being burnt in his home country just because he was Jewish.

      Finally I would like to ask him about his friend Kurt Godel, because I find Godel’s mathematical work fascinating too. The two of them were great friends during their time in America.

Comments

  • Photo: David

    David commented on :

    Albert,what would you ask me if you could travel into the future?

  • Photo: Steve

    Steve commented on :

    I like this question – I couldn’t resist answering myself. I would ask him if he could sit down for a while and teach me about general relativity. It is the most beautiful idea, but it is so hard to your head around.

    I would also ask if he regrets spending so much of his life chasing a theory of everything which he never managed to find, and which he seemed to be on the wrong path towards (not that there is currently a right path mind you). I would want to know what else he would have done differently.