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I wafpDoes General relativity still stand as one of the greatest feats in Physics ever?
Nobel laureate Max Born https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Born raised general relativity as the "greatest feat of human thinking about nature";\[16\] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_general_relativity#cite_note-16 ellow laureate Paul Dirac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Diras quoted saying it was "probably the greatest scientific discovery ever made". Over here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyW0LWEACfI, Leonard Susskind said "General relativity has a reputation for being very difficult. I think the reason is that it's very difficult."
I'm currently studying it and I can definitely say it is remarkable. But I was curious, for those of you who've studied above and beyond (indeed it has been over 100 years since its initial verification), do these statements stand the test of time? Are there other theories that you think are strong contenders? Have there been others who've made single-handed ground-breaking contributions that deserve a similar sort of recognition?
Tell me your favourite theories or just really difficult physics!
EDIT (2023-Oct-02) : This post got more attention than I expected. Just to make it clear, personally, I believe that "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" by Issac Newton is perhaps the single greatest work written by one individual. Naturally, despite the beauty of GR and the fact that it can arise from basic principles, I believe Newton's theories were astonishing, even for their time. This is without considering the fact that he invented the math required to facilitate his theories. So, in accordance with Lev Landau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Landau#Landau's_ranking_of_physicistswould give Newton the highest ranking of 0 and then Einstein 0.5. Following that would be a few folk like Maxwell, Dirac and the others who were alive in Einstein's time.
This post was intended to find out if there are more theories after Einstein's time that hold the same candle that GR does. I'm learning QFT which has a similar reputation but had multiple contributions, there's also String theory, the Maldacena conjecture, QED, LQG, the standard model etc. For those looking at this post, do tell me what theory after 1921 do you believe is the strongest contender against GR , c
Nobel laureate Max Born https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Born raised general relativity as the "greatest feat of human thinking about nature";\[16\] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_general_relativity#cite_note-16 ellow laureate Paul Dirac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Diras quoted saying it was "probably the greatest scientific discovery ever made". Over here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyW0LWEACfI, Leonard Susskind said "General relativity has a reputation for being very difficult. I think the reason is that it's very difficult."
I'm currently studying it and I can definitely say it is remarkable. But I was curious, for those of you who've studied above and beyond (indeed it has been over 100 years since its initial verification), do these statements stand the test of time? Are there other theories that you think are strong contenders? Have there been others who've made single-handed ground-breaking contributions that deserve a similar sort of recognition?
Tell me your favourite theories or just really difficult physics!
EDIT (2023-Oct-02) : This post got more attention than I expected. Just to make it clear, personally, I believe that "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" by Issac Newton is perhaps the single greatest work written by one individual. Naturally, despite the beauty of GR and the fact that it can arise from basic principles, I believe Newton's theories were astonishing, even for their time. This is without considering the fact that he invented the math required to facilitate his theories. So, in accordance with Lev Landau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Landau#Landau's_ranking_of_physicistswould give Newton the highest ranking of 0 and then Einstein 0.5. Following that would be a few folk like Maxwell, Dirac and the others who were alive in Einstein's time.
This post was intended to find out if there are more theories after Einstein's time that hold the same candle that GR does. I'm learning QFT which has a similar reputation but had multiple contributions, there's also String theory, the Maldacena conjecture, QED, LQG, the standard model etc. For those looking at this post, do tell me what theory after 1921 do you believe is the strongest contender against GR , c
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