Not, she says, General Relativity, the photoelectric effect, or slices of his brain but the“thought experiment,” for example:
But the maybe most influential of his thought experiments was one that he came up with to illustrate that quantum mechanics must be wrong. In this thought experiment, he explored one of the most peculiar effects of quantum mechanics: entanglement. He did this together with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, so today this is known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen or just EPR experiment.
How does it work? Entangled particles have some measureable property, for example spin, that is correlated between particles even though the value for each single particle is not determined as long as the particles were not measured. If you have a pair of particles, you can know for example that if one particle has spin up, then the other one has spin down, or the other way round, but you may still not know which is which. The consequence is that if one of these particles is measured, the state of the other one seems to change – instantaneously.
Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen suggested this experiment because Einstein believed this instantaneous ‘spooky’ action at a distance is nonsense. You see, Einstein had a problem with it because it seems to conflict with the speed of light limit in Special Relativity. We know today that this is not the case, quantum mechanics does not conflict with Special Relativity because no useful information can be sent between entangled particles. But Einstein didn’t know that. Today, the EPR experiment is no longer a thought experiment. It can, and has been done, and we now know beyond doubt that quantum entanglement is real.
Sabine Hossenfelder, “Einstein’s Greatest Legacy: Thought Experiments” at BackRe(Action)
She notes that one needs evidence from real experiments to demonstrate that the outcome of a thought experiment is real. But it is significant that the human mind is capable of developing the basis for momentous discoveries even before we commit to stuff that requires a budget.
See also: Sabine Hossenfelder asks: Do we need a theory of everything? Hossenfelder: So this whole idea of a theory of everything is based on an unscientific premise. Some people would like the laws of nature to be pretty in a very specific way… This is simply not a good strategy to develop scientific theories, and no, it is most certainly not standard methodology.
Well, that was a treat.
Thanks for putting it up.
Interesting how Dr Hossenfelder does not interlaid with personal asides (“when I was an undergrad in X, I …. etc…)
Nonsense. Neither the thought experiment nor the practical experiment is new. Both are an intrinsic part of thinking and living, and both always work together to solve a problem.
Philosophers and scientists and inventors always do FORMALIZED thought experiments before trying the idea with real stuff. Most patents are thought experiments. Writers of fiction are performing thought experiments.
In 1921, Einstein wondered,,,,
In 1952, after a few decades of thinking the matter over, Einstein concludes that the ability of our mind to comprehend the universe is a miracle
Einstein basically reached the same exact conclusion that Kepler did 3 and 1/2 centuries before Einstein reached it.
Supplemental note:
Shortly after discovering the laws of planetary motion, Kepler stated,
If one has any interest in quantum mechanics, Dr. Hossenfelder’s videos are always a treat! She blames the current lack of significant progress in the field on too much theorizing and reliance on mathematical “beauty” rather than data from experiments.
While neither Einstein nor Maxwell originated thought experiments, the term was supposedly coined by Hans Christian Ørsted in 1811.
The first practical scientific experiment is unknown, but the first recorded practical scientific experiment is actually described in the Bible, perhaps 2,600 years ago. The experiment in human nutrition is recorded in Daniel 1:11-16 and includes the following components:
• A hypothesis
• A set period of time
• More than one experimental subject
• Both an experimental group and a control group
• Well-defined parameters
• A change in a single variable
• An independent evaluator
• Observation and analysis—subjective in the absence of blood tests
• A written record
A friend of mine suggested that I should consider adding another bullet, namely a grant. Daniel and his friends were granted a vegetarian diet.
-Q
Trial and error can be found throughout history, even if none of the evidence of trials has even been discovered. China was the first to have moveable type, beating Gutenberg by centuries. The terracotta soldiers show evidence of mass production. Egyptian core 7 proves the Egyptians could drill through granite with hundreds of times more force than we are able to do today.
http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/egyptxtremasonry.htm
BobRyan,
Indeed! I’ve always been intrigued with ancient construction techniques, especially megalithic structures, cyclopean walls, and what seems to be artificial stone cast in place using geopolymers.
-Q