Albert Einstein finally hit on the core idea underlying his famous theory of relativity one night after months of intense mathematical exercises. He had given himself a break from the work and let his imagination wander about the concepts of space and time. Various images that came to mind prompted him to try a thought experiment: If two bolts of lightning struck the front and back of a moving train at the same time, would an observer standing beside the track and an observer standing on the moving train see the strikes as simultaneous? The answer, in short, was no. The floodgates in Einstein's mind opened, and he laid down an ingenious description of the universe. With his sudden insight, Einstein turned our conceptions of time and space inside out.

Certainly Einstein would not have reached his brilliant notion without his vast knowledge of physics and his ability to think clearly. But the decisive moment arose from his capacity to imagine physical reality from a perspective no one else had ever tried. Einstein was a master at restructuring problems.

This article was originally published with the title The Eureka Moment.

1 Comments

1. 1. aquaponics.me.uk 09:59 AM 8/4/10

   There is a New Science in all of this. Humphry Davy invented the miners safety lamp in a eureka a moment where the inability of a flame to cross a mesh was utilised to great life saving effect. This, like most eureka moments was pure spin. The truth was, as a young 19th C man on his own with a candle in a TV-less environment, he was in the habit of lighting his farts, and noted that if outide his nightshift the flame did not burn through, if under - it was painful. As shocking as it sounds the outcome of this basic experiment was wonderful. I have shocking theories about Kekule too... Einstein cadged his theory from his wife, stole it, didn't credit her and dumped her to boot. aquaponics.me.uk

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