Einstein manuscript on the theory of relativity under the hammer (video)

A manuscript co-authored by the legendary physicist Albert Einstein, which describes the genesis of the general theory of relativity, one of his most important discoveries, was due to be auctioned in Paris on Tuesday. Einstein’s general theory of relativity is the classical theory of gravity developed at the beginning of the 20th century. Einstein recognized that gravitation is caused by mass and energy and can be experienced as the curvature of space-time. According to the auction house Christie’s, the document created by Einstein and his colleague and friend, the Swiss physicist Michele Besso, has an estimated value of 2 to 3 million euros, according to Vincent Belloy, an expert on books and manuscripts at Christie’s. “This working document reflects the work of the two researchers who really worked together, in a competitive spirit, sometimes even in symbiosis. It is a manuscript they worked on between 1913 and 1914. Einstein’s working documents from before 1919 are extremely rare. Einstein is someone who took very few notes. The very fact that the manuscript survived and found its way to us makes it absolutely extraordinary. ” At the same time, says the expert, this manuscript also shows Einstein as a searching and fallible person and not as an absolute genius: “What particularly touches me when reading this manuscript is that we could have this kind of infallible picture of Einstein as an absolute genius that finds the right equation from the first calculation. This manuscript shows that Einstein was intelligent, but he was a scientist like any other and, like any other scientist, goes through phases of doubt, hypotheses that are confirmed or too not, by review, by mistake. Einstein makes mistakes in this manuscript, and in some ways that makes it even bigger, in my opinion, because we see the persistence, the thought that was nascent, that is being corrected and redirected. ” The 54-page document, known as the “Einstein-Besso Manuscript,” is one of two surviving working documents that record the birth of Einstein’s theory. The other is Einstein’s notes, which are kept in the archives of the University of Jerusalem.