I just ran into our old friend vimjams (from the Martian Chronicles). He's moved on from the "ancient ruins on Mars" idea and is posting this.

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/einstein.html

So, did Dr. Einstein plagiarize his theories? I'm not well versed in physics but this whole accusation seems rather suspect to me. What do you physics buffs think?

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An open mind is like an open window...without a good screen you'll get all sorts of weird bugs!

I'm not going to bother reading what he has to say, but I did dig up something about the Family Guy reference to such matters here:

Remember. Some cartoons are smarter than people.

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"I'm making wheatloaf. It's like meatloaf, only with wheat"
"Isn't that just...bread?"

I'm not well versed in relativity or the historic development of it, but just looking at the other articles on that website should be enough to not rely on them. The article also mentions a socalled British Institute of Precise Physics that is clearly a crank site.

Cold fusion and autodynamics Since when did they become a important element of the physics community?

I'm also a little disappointed over the article accusing Einstein of plagiarising Poincaré and Lorentz but the "common" theory of Einstein plagiarising his wife Mileva as mentioned in this thread in BABBling: Fun facts about Albert Einstein! is not mentioned.

It is a common mistake to seize upon something out of context, and extrapolate its meaning. For instance, in that link, it says "Due to the fact that Einstein's special relativity theory was known in some circles as the relativity theory of Poincaré and Lorentz, one would think that Poincaré and Lorentz might have had something to do with its creation."

On the other hand, the work of Poincaré and Lorentz was a bit different from Einstein's. For instance, Pais, in his biography of Einstein, says (p.21, pb):
So, with that view, it is no longer so mysterious why these two did not contest priority with Einstein. If Einstein was a plagiarist, why did they not come forward and accuse him of it? It was not because such accusations are a modern phenomenon--some of Galileo's greatest difficulties, four hundred years ago, were caused by his disputes over priority. It was not because he did something that was only recognized after they had died--both were well aware of Einstein's work.

It was because he had done something that they had not done.
That's not a common theory, and there is very little evidence that that is true.

PS: I apologize QuagmaPhage, I may have misread your comments. Maybe your disappointment in Moody's site was that it wasn't wacky enough?

Thanks everyone, the whole idea seemed pretty wacky to me. All science is built upon the knowledge of those who've gone before, this certainly can't be construed as "plagairism". Where do people come up with ideas like this?...just amazes me.

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An open mind is like an open window...without a good screen you'll get all sorts of weird bugs!

Many of these claims originated from nazi propaganda in the 1930s.

Great episode. 8)

True, there are a lot of anti-semitic websites out there that try to prove that Einstein plagiarized everything, saying stuff like "how could a single Jew come up with all this revolutionary physics." it's completely unfounded, but unfortunately it probably will continue as a sub-culture for years to come.

N C Moore, for a very detailed rebuttal and analysis of the claim of whether Einstein plagiarized his ideas, go here

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Some try to tell me, thoughts they cannot defend,... - Moody Blues.

Actually, in his later years, Einstein had Henny Youngman writing material for him.

EINSTEIN: "Now, take my theory of relativity. Please!"

[Sound of rimshot]

[Celestial Mechanic ducks and runs for cover!]

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Microsoft is over if you want it.

The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

I heard of the theory of Einstein plagiarsing his wife some years ago, but I had not heard of the other plagiarising theories before reading them on this site, so I assumed that it was more well known, but not accepted of course, hence the "" around common. My disappointment was because Moody didn't include this and some of the other socalled experimental evidence against SR that Sam5 has mentioned. For an anti-relativity site I would have expected a better attack on Einstein with more math, but I guess that most anti-relativists don't know enough math to make a believable attack. Moody's article is wacky enough to not be believable to me especially the summary and conclusions section.

I thought this sounded familiar...

i get the feeling that was written by a chemist... a paranoid chemist...

i've been told there's this huge rivalry between physicist and chemists. reading the introductions to my first year physics and chemistry textbooks seem to suggest this even further...

Where is GrapesOfMentock/Kilopi/WhateverHisNewNameIs? He can certainly remember this topic from JW back in the days when this board didn't require a password to post. I think he went off and studied the history on this topic specifically from those posts.

"Science" has not be letting Einstein slide with plaigerism. Surely Lorentz himself would have screamed bloody murder if he thought so, no?

That would be milli360 these days, and he's already contributed to the thread.

Cold fusion and autodynamics Since when did they become a important element of the physics community?
[/quote]

Cold fusion
Navy Supports Cold Fusion
http://www.unusualresearch.com/ColdF...ldfusenavy.htm

March 20, 2004
Various News Media Report
New DOE Review of Cold Fusion
http://www.infinite-energy.com/resources/inthenews.html

autodynamics
Physics Essays Volume 1, number 4 1988
A New Experiment with RaE
by Ricardo L. Carezani
269 to 271
Physics Essays Volume 5, number 1 1992
The Muon Decay
By Ricardo L. Carezani
19 to 26
Physics Essays Volume 6, Number 3 1993
The Compton Effect and Autodynaics
Ricardo L. Carezani
384 to 388
Physics Essays Volume 10, Number 2 1997
193 to196
References
Autodynamics: Fundamental Basis for a New Relativistic Mechanics
Society For The Advancement Of Autodynamics United Kingdom
http://www.autodynamicsuk.org/
http://www.autodynamicsuk.org/ADUK-News.htm#NEWSHeader
Society for the Advancement of Autodynamics
http://www.autodynamics.org/
http://www.autodynamics.org/html/physbody.html