Happy Birthday, Mr. Einstein

Charcoal drawing of Einstein giving a talk in Schenectady in 1939. The original is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy office, donated by Carl George, who I think got it from the artist originally.

The other big nerd event of today is that it’s Einstein’s birthday, on this date back in 1879. I keep meaning to take and post a photo of the cool picture of Einstein we have in the department’s collection of stuff, and this is as good an excuse as any.

Charcoal drawing of Einstein giving a talk in Schenectady in 1939. The original is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy office, donated by Carl George, who I think got it from the artist originally.
Charcoal drawing of Einstein giving a talk in Schenectady in 1939. The original is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy office, donated by Carl George, who I think got it from the artist originally.

If not for him, we wouldn’t have anything to sarcastically call smart people who do dumb things. Oh, yeah, and the whole General Relativity thing, too. So, if you’re so inclined, lift a glass of your favorite beverage in either the opposite direction of the local gravitational field, or the direction in which your frame is being accelerated (whichever you prefer; they’re equivalent) in memory of the dude with the hair. Feel free to play the violin badly and inveigh against the randomness of quantum mechanics, too.