IUBio

brain sizes: Einstein's and women's

Cary Kittrell cary at afone.as.arizona.edu
Thu Oct 24 20:27:36 EST 2002


In article <%C%t9.17327$C53.690178 at news2.west.cox.net> "John Knight" <jwknight at polbox.com> writes:
<
<
<Well said, Ed!
<
<There are a few minor points that might need to be corrected.  You wrote:
<
<> Clearly, physical characteristics get handed down.  Equally clearly, IQ
<> gets handed down, as well, despite how politically incorrect it may be to
<> recognize that there is about a 15-point gulf between jews and Caucasians,
<> the same gap which exists between Caucasians and American blacks, by the
<> way.
<
<
<This may be the best and biggest LIE the jews have ever pulled off.  If you
<ask a jew to produce such a test result, we GUARANTEE you that he cannot
<produce the proof.  Not even the moron Einstein, who FLUNKED algebra, was
<able to "invent" or "discover" or even "WRITE" his own research paper:  he
<had to STEAL and PLAGIARIZE from White Christian European men who published
<the ENTIRE work 1-2 decades earlier http://christianparty.net/einstein.htm
<


Interestingly enough:


 
Copyright 1984 The New York Times Company  
                               The New York Times

              February 14, 1984, Tuesday, Late City Final Edition

SECTION: Section C; Page 1, Column 5; Science Desk

HEADLINE: EINSTEIN REVEALED AS BRILLIANT IN YOUTH

BYLINE: By WALTER SULLIVAN

 BODY:
   CONTRARY to a popular legend that has given comfort to countless
slow starters, young Albert Einstein was remarkably gifted in
mathematics, algebra and physics, academic records recently acquired
from Swiss archives show.

    The records, contained in a collection of the great theorist's
papers now being prepared for publication at Princeton, confirm that
Einstein was a  child prodigy, conversant in college physics before he
was 11 years old, a ''brilliant'' violin player who got high marks in
Latin and Greek. But his inability to master French was the bane of
his school days, and may have been chiefly responsible for his failing
college entrance examinations.

   The documents ''place Einstein in the context of his times much
more  than in the past, providing details of his education in Germany
and  Switzerland and his more human contacts,'' said Dr. John Stachel,
editor  of the papers.

   A prime objective of Princeton University Press, which plans to 
publish the first volume of the Einstein papers in 1985 after years of
controversy and lawsuits, is to seek out the roots of Einstein's
sudden  penetration to a deeper understanding of nature. The series
may run to 38 volumes when complete.

   The initial volume includes Einstein's first scientific essay,
dealing  with the effect of magnetism on the hypothetical ''ether.''
It was written  when he was 16, apparently as part of his first,
unsuccessful effort to gain  admission to the Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich.

   Although some Einstein biographers have disputed the widely held 
belief that Einstein was a poor student, the papers at Princeton lay
this to rest, once and for all. According to Dr. Stachel, those who
saw  Einstein's academic records may have been misled by a reversal in
the grading system of his school in Aargau, Switzerland.

   Those records show that, for two successive terms, when Einstein
was  16, his mark in arithmetic and algebra was 1 on a scale of 6, in
which 1  was the highest grade. For the next term his mark was 6,
which would have  been the lowest grade,except that the grading scale
had been reversed by school officials.

   Examination of the papers, now numbering in the tens of thousands,
is a journey into the academic world of the 19th century, with
emphasis, in Einstein's elementary school experience in Munich, on
regimentation and  learning by rote. The curriculum, however, was less
rigid in the  preparatory school heattended in Switzerland.

    {...}

Neglected Math for Physics

   His academic records there were destroyed in World War II, but Dr.
Stachel and his colleagues at Princeton have in hand a letter sent to
a Munich  newspaper in 1929 by H. Wieleitner, then principal of the
Luitpold  Gymnasium. He had examined Einstein's school record to
refute a report  in a Berlin magazine that Einstein had been a very
poor student.

   With 1 as the highest grade and 6 the lowest, the principal
reported, Einstein's marks in Greek, Latin and mathematics oscillated
between 1  and 2 until, toward the end, he invariably scored 1 in
math. Nevertheless, as  pointed out by Banesh Hoffmann of Queens
College in his book on  Einstein, the latter confessed that he later
neglected mathematics in favor of physics.

   Another testament to his childhood precocity comes from Dr. Max 
Talmey, who, as a medical student in Munich, knew Einstein when he was
ten and a half years old. His ''exceptional intelligence,'' Talmey
wrote  later in a book, enabled him to discuss with a college graduate
''subjects far beyond the comprehension'' of so young a child.

   Talmey gave him two books on physics, one of which was entitled 
''Force and Matter,'' as though anticipating Einstein's famous
definition  of the relationship between mass and energy.

A Weakness in French

  It was chiefly Einstein's weakness in French that led to his failure
to  pass the entrance examinations for the Federal Technical Institute
in Zurich. According to the documents assembled at Princeton, he had
been allowed to  take the examinations even though he was two years
younger than the normal  admission age of 18, thanks in part to
intervention by a family friend.

   The friend was Gustav Maier, whose banking house in Ulm, Germany,
many  years earlier had been on the same street as the feather-bedding
factory of Einstein'sgrandfather. Maier wrote to Albin Herzog, head of
the Zurich institute, which was then as now of international repute,
extolling Einstein's genius and urging that he be allowed to take the
exam even thoughhe lacked a school diploma.

   While Maier's letter has not been found, the archives of the Zurich
institutehave produced Herzog's reply. ''In my opinion,'' he wrote,
''it is not advisable to remove even so-called 'Wunderkinder' from an 
institution in which they have begun studies before they have been
fully completed.''

   He recommended that Einstein finish his preparatory studies, but
said hecould take the examinations if he wished. When Einstein failed
them, Herzog suggested that he enter the Aargau Cantonal School, whose
graduates were automatically admitted to the institute. This was the
course that Einstein followed and he was admitted to the Zurich
institute in 1896.

Faulty Essay Gives Insights

   Before that, at Aargau, French was almost his nemesis. Swiss
archives have produced the minutes of a teacher's conference held on
March 15, 1899, in which it was noted that a written reprimand from
the French teacher had been entered in Einstein's record.

   When he finally graduated this blemish was again noted. He was
''promoted with protest in French,'' his transcript read.

   It may be that Einstein, reared in a German-speaking environment,
had difficulty competing with Swiss students who, though in the
German- speaking region, were taught French from childhood.

   The essay that Einstein wrote in French on his original examination
for acceptance at the institute in Zurich was full of errors, but also
very revealing. It is quoted in part by Abraham Pais in his recent
book on  Einstein, ''Subtle Is the Lord.''

  Entitled ''My Future Projects,'' the essay says he hopes to
concentrate on mathematics and physics. ''I see myself becoming a
teacher of these  branches of natural science, chosing the theoretical
part of these  sciences.''

   ''Here are the causes which have led me to this plan,'' he
continued.  ''It is above all my personal disposition toward abstract
thought and mathematics, lack of imagination and of practical
talent.''

   The Aargau records include an ''inspector's report'' on 17 students
of the violin and piano. ''One student, named Einstein'' it says,
''gave a brilliant, as well as understanding, rendition of an adagio
from a Beethoven sonata.'' Einstein continued to play the violin
during his years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton,
until his death in 1955.




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