I've heard this repeatedly over the years, that Einstein was bad at math, that he was bad at history, that he was dyslexic. I also read somewhere in my youth that some of the " bad at math" stuff was based on a poor exam score he once received - but that the test had been in French, which Einstein couldn't read.
Can someone cut through the junk and get to the heart of this. Was one of history's greatest "teachers" a bad student, or have a learning disability? I find it hard to believe.
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asked Mar 17, 2011 at 15:46
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No, he wasn't: page with german article and image of school certificate
The Swiss school system has a 6 as best grade, and 1 as poorest, while the german is the other way round. Perhaps the legend is founded there.
--source
Translation of the subjects and grades in the image:
The education council of the Canton Aargau
certifies Albert Einstein, born Mar. 14 1879
final secondary-school examinations from Sep 18, 19, 21 and 30
German language and literature : 5
French " " " : 3
English " " " : -
Italian " " " : 5
History : 6
Geography : 4
Algebra : 6
Geometry : 6
Descriptive geometry : 6
Physics : 6
Chemistry : 5
Natural history : 5
Artistic drawing : 4
Technical drawing : 4
documented at 3rd of Oct., 1896
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It's a myth that Einstein was bad at math.
In 1935, a rabbi in Princeton showed him [Einstein] a clipping of the Ripley’s [Believe it or Not] column with the headline “Greatest living mathematician failed in mathematics.” Einstein laughed. “I never failed in mathematics,” he replied, correctly. “Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus.” (Source: Time)
Although, as someone who studied physics himself I can tell you that physicists (including Einstein) sometimes do seek help from mathematicians.
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This myth might finally be dead (or at least bleeding out)....
In 1896 Einstein enrolled in a four year program at Zurich Polytechnic. In 1900 the Polytechnic awarded him a mathematics and physics teaching diploma. Here is his Leaving Certificate...Marks are from 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest)...
Other than Physical experiments for beginners with a mark of 1 (maybe physical experiment wasn't his bag).
More myth debunking evidence can be found in this New York Times article from 1984:
EINSTEIN REVEALED AS BRILLIANT IN YOUTH
There is some great stuff at the Einstein Archives Online and it looks like the full collection is moving online...
...his entire archive of 80,000 documents held as a bequest by the university will be digitized and put online, thanks to a $500,000 grant...
You can't tell Newton F=ma is wrong if you can't do the math. Albert was one smart dude.
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Einstein clearly was a physical genius - the greatest physicist since Newton - and he is widely known for the following seminal contributions:
- Using photons to explain the photoelectric effect (quantum theory was not mainstream)
- Explaining Brownian motion through atoms (atomic theory was not mainstream)
- Extending dynamics to support EM theory (special relativity)
- Unifying special relativity and mechanics, while proposing a new theory of gravitation (general relativity)
- Being the first scientist to start the search for a theory of everything (TOE)
- Various contributions to quantum mechanics, especially in its epistemology (EPR, light box, Scrödinger's cat and other gendankenexperiments).
Most of his contributions did not require an extensive mathematical knowledge. The average mathematical level of a physicist of his time was more than enough to understand most of his contribution.
That is, with the very notable exception of general relativity. GR is based on differential geometry which is way more sophisticated than mere calculus or Lorentzian/Euclidean geometry which is pretty much all that was needed for the rest.
That is why it took Einstein 10 years of hard work to extend special relativity to general relativity - he knew perfectly well where he was going, but he needed to study the maths.
I believe that his "struggling with the maths" was a bit misinterpreted. He was far-exceeding his contemporaries on the subject and that is why he was struggling - not because he was not "good at maths". GR is still considered graduate-level physics because of the complicated maths needed.
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Einstein online mentions Einstein had some problems passing an exam so that he can start Polytechnical Institute studies at earlier age then normally allowed, but his problems were limited to linguistic and historical subjects:
At the beginning of October 1895 Einstein wrote this exam. He obtained the best results in the mathematical- and natural science subjects, but in the linguistic- and historical subjects his achievements were unsatisfactory. His overall result was rated as insufficient.
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