Re: Langevin's paradox again

Am Freitag000012, 12.07.2024 um 09:32 schrieb Athel Cornish-Bowden:

On 2024-07-12 06:11:26 +0000, Thomas Heger said:
 

Am Donnerstag000011, 11.07.2024 um 13:14 schrieb J. J. Lodder:

Richard Hachel <r.hachel@wanadou.fr> wrote:
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Langevin's paradox.
The Langevin paradox is a very serious criticism against the theory of
relativity. Unfortunately, the canonization and divinization of Albert
Einstein as the new son of God on earth (it was excessive in both
substance and form) completely obscured the problem, and we only saw
dozens high-level theorists were right against him, and that their
grievances were audible.

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Here you have Langevin (seated in front of the blackboard)
with Einstein and Ehrenfest.
You can see how devastated Einstein is at his theory
having been destroyed by Langevin, can't you?
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Langevin#/media/File:EinsteinEhrenfestKamerlingh-OnnesWeiss.jpg>
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BTW, Einstein is on record as having praised Langevin
as 'the only Frenchman who understands relativity'.
Langevin started lecturing on relativity in 1910.

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I had assumed, that Einstein spoke French very well.
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He had several other opportunities to speak French.
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E.g. the works of Poincaré were written in French and seemingly Einstein knew them.

 Being able to read and understand French is not the same as beingg able to speak "French very well". I can read and understand written Portuguese, but I certainly can't speak it or understand it when spoken (in Portugal; in Brazil it is less impenetrable).

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He had attended the 'Solveig Conference' which was held in French.
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Einstein had also a number of contacts to people speaking French, like:
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Marie Curie
Langvin
George Lemaitre
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But when did he learn French?
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He had no particular talent for foreign languages, which can be seen at his very poor perfomance in English, after ten years in Princton!!
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So: where, when and why did he learn French?
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My current 'work hypothesis' goes like this:
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he was actually Swiss citizen from birth and born in the west of Szwizzerland, were they speak German and French.

 Nonsense. He was born in Ulm, which is not and never was in Switzerland.

I had the impression, that is CV didn't make sense.
My alternative explanation was: he was neither Jew nor German, but a Swiss citizen from birth.
Particularly inconvincing were these elements of his official biography:
his parents left him back in Munich, when the Einsteins went to Italy at the age of fourteen.
But what kind of parents do this????
Einstein went to school in Munich, but didn't finish school and went to Pavia, Italy, where the Einsteins lived then.
But Einstein lived there for a year (according to the website of the Jesuit facility next door of the Einsteins) without going to school.
But why didn't he attend school in Pavia, if he lived there with his family and was a teenager???
Einstein gave up German citizenship befor he left Germany.
But as a German I have difficulty to except this story, because such an abendioning of citizenship was only possible, if the citizen gets another citizenship. And - of course- minors cannot do anything alike without their parents.
Einstein went from Pavia to Aarau in Swizzerland, alone actually, to attend school there.
This is at least a little unlikely, because he could as well go to New York or Sidney, if he didn't speak Italian, instead of to Aarau.
But why did the Swiss allow an unattended sateless teenager to go to school in their beautiful country???
As far as I know, the Swiss were not very keen to have refugees of any origin.
But after school he went to Zurich attended the ETH and studied physics (as teacher).
After university he went to Bern and worked in the patent office there.
But state officials (called 'Beamte' in German) needed to be born citizens (at least in Germany) in those days.
TH

And possibly his CV was a complete fake and his name wasn't Einstein and he was possibly not even a Jew (which is why he declined the presidency of Israel).
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TH