rhertz wrote:
This is a part of a discussion with DeepSeek (the best AI by far).
It's about the unsolved questions about what happened in 1905. Enjoy.
QUESTION:
Wien was already a Nobel Prize by 1905. He had a tremendous respect and influence from the European physics community (and also abroad). Planck didn't have this. Is it possible that Wien's connections with Poincaré helped to design the Electrodynamics paper? After all, Poincaré (by
March 1905) had already gave the "Lorentz transforms" his modern form,
which Einstein used. Also, the addition of velocities was discovered
first by Poincaré. The spy network between France and Germany was at its high in 1905. after the Dreyfuss affair. Was Wien the MANUFACTURER of Einstein?
I inserted the same question into a different platform and this was the response I got:
Your question raises an intriguing historical hypothesis about the
development of Einstein's 1905 paper on special relativity, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," and the potential roles of Wilhelm
Wien, Henri Poincar�, and a broader network of scientific and political influences. Let�s break this down systematically based on historical
evidence and scientific context.
Wilhelm Wien was indeed a prominent physicist by 1905. He had won the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1911 (not by 1905, as your premise
suggests�perhaps a typo?), but his earlier work on blackbody radiation, particularly Wien�s displacement law (1893), had already earned him
significant respect in the European physics community. Max Planck, while influential for his quantum hypothesis introduced in 1900, was still
building his reputation at that time. Wien�s standing could have given
him a platform to influence younger physicists or facilitate
connections, but there�s no direct evidence he acted as a mentor or "manufacturer" for Einstein.
Henri Poincar�, meanwhile, was a towering figure in mathematics and
theoretical physics. By 1905, he had indeed made critical contributions
to what we now call the Lorentz transformations. In his 1900 paper and subsequent work, Poincar� refined Hendrik Lorentz�s ideas, giving the transformations their modern mathematical form and emphasizing their
group structure. He also derived the relativistic velocity addition
formula before Einstein. His paper "Sur la dynamique de l��lectron,"
submitted in June 1905 (and published in 1906), overlapped significantly
with Einstein�s work, though it was completed independently and slightly
later than Einstein�s submission (June 30, 1905). Poincar�s
contributions were known in the scientific community, and Einstein,
working as a patent clerk in Bern, had access to key journals and likely encountered these ideas indirectly.
Now, could Wien have connected Poincar�s work to Einstein? There�s no documented evidence of direct collaboration between Wien and Poincar� in
1905 that specifically influenced Einstein�s paper. Wien was based in
Germany (W�rzburg, then Munich), while Poincar� was in France, and
though scientific exchange across borders was robust, it�s unclear they
had a personal or professional link strong enough to orchestrate
Einstein�s work. Einstein himself claimed he developed his theory from
first principles, inspired by Lorentz�s 1904 paper and his own thought experiments, with no mention of Wien or Poincar� as intermediaries. His isolation from the academic elite�lacking the connections Wien or Planck enjoyed�makes a "spy network" or orchestrated effort less plausible.
The idea of a Franco-German "spy network" in 1905, heightened by the
Dreyfus Affair (resolved by 1906), is an interesting angle. Scientific espionage did exist, but it typically involved industrial or military
secrets, not theoretical physics, which was openly published and debated
in journals like *Annalen der Physik*. Einstein�s paper was submitted to
that journal, where Wien became an editor in 1906�*after* Einstein�s submission. If Wien had influence, it might have been in promoting
Einstein�s work post-publication, but there�s no evidence he shaped its
content beforehand.
As for Einstein being "manufactured" by Wien, this hinges on Einstein�s originality. Historians debate how much he drew from contemporaries like Lorentz and Poincar�, but his paper�s clarity, focus on physical
principles (e.g., relativity and light constancy), and lack of
mathematical formalism distinguished it. Wien could have admired
Einstein�s work later�Einstein�s rise in the physics community
accelerated after 1905�but there�s no archival trace (letters, notes, or testimony) suggesting Wien fed him ideas or acted as a puppet master.
In short, while Wien�s prominence and Poincar�s contributions could theoretically have intersected to influence Einstein, no concrete
evidence supports this. The timeline, Einstein�s independent approach,
and the open nature of scientific discourse in 1905 make it unlikely
Wien "designed" the electrodynamics paper or served as a conduit for
Poincar�s ideas via a spy network. It�s a fascinating speculation, but
the historical record leans toward Einstein synthesizing available
knowledge into a bold, original framework�albeit one standing on the
shoulders of giants like Poincar� and Lorentz. What do you think of this assessment? Any specific sources or angles you�d like me to dig into
further?
--
The Starmaker -- To question the unquestionable, ask the unaskable,
to think the unthinkable, mention the unmentionable, say the unsayable,
and challenge the unchallengeable.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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