Einstein's Blunder

An episode of the Gresham College Lectures podcast, hosted by Gresham College, titled "Einstein's Blunder" was published on November 15, 2021 and runs 50 minutes.

November 15, 2021 ·50m · Gresham College Lectures

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Summary

When Albert Einstein tweaked his newly invented equations of General Relativity in 1917, he had one goal in mind: to find a solution that described a closed, static, eternal universe. He therefore minted a new universal constant to make it work. After Hubble's discovery of the expansion of the universe in 1929, Einstein reportedly declared it his "greatest blunder". In 1998 observations of distant exploding stars brought Einstein's "blunder" back into consideration: Einstein might have been r...

Episode Description

When Albert Einstein tweaked his newly invented equations of General Relativity in 1917, he had one goal in mind: to find a solution that described a closed, static, eternal universe. He therefore minted a new universal constant to make it work. After Hubble's discovery of the expansion of the universe in 1929, Einstein reportedly declared it his "greatest blunder". In 1998 observations of distant exploding stars brought Einstein's "blunder" back into consideration: Einstein might have been right the first time around.

A lecture by Roberto Trotta

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/einsteins-blunder

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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