• Question: who do you think was smartest a - albert Einstein b - Stephen hawking c - Isaac newton

    Asked by anon-244317 to Ondrej, Jordan, Eleanor, Ed, Christine, Alice on 17 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Edward Banks

      Edward Banks answered on 17 Mar 2020:

      It’s not a competition! All three of these were brilliant scientists who provided massive advances in their fields, and existed at very different times in history which lets them shine in different ways.
      That said… Newton created an entirely new branch of mathematics (calculus) to help him figure out some of his problems. Does that make him smarter? Not sure.

    • Photo: Jordan McElwee

      Jordan McElwee answered on 17 Mar 2020:

      That is a really tough question. For me it’s between Einstein and Newton (no offence to Hawking!), as both of them completely revolutionised science of the time.
      I think I would have to say Einstein. Although Newton invented a completely new set of mathematics (calculus) just to write his equations and be the first person to have a working theory of gravity, I think Einstein did something much harder. Although everyone at the time ‘knew’ that Newton’s theory of gravity was correct, Einstein approached the problem in a completely different way. It’s incredibly hard to take a step back and change the way you think about something, and I think that’s what made Einstein a genius.

    • Photo: Eleanor Jones

      Eleanor Jones answered on 18 Mar 2020:

      I think it’s so hard to compare these three scientists. They all lived at completely different points in scientific development and each contributed hugely to the advancement of different areas of science. All three of them were incredible and I’m not sure I could really pick who was the best!

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