Einstein’s 1917 cosmological constant

Sources

• Einstein, “Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity” (English translation) (opens in a new tab)

  Albert Einstein, “Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity,” Prussian Academy of Sciences, 1917

Objections & responses

The cosmological constant turned out to be real. Dark energy, discovered in 1998, is exactly that term. Einstein’s blunder was one of the great correct guesses in physics. Hasn’t this anecdote aged badly?

That is the first thing any physicist will say, and it is right. The constant was reintroduced for a different reason (accelerating expansion) and with a different value, so the story is nuanced: Einstein was wrong to use the term to force a static universe and right, by accident, that it belongs in the equations. The point of this claim survives the update. The assumption of an eternal, static universe was so strong that even Einstein bent his theory to it, and the evidence bent it back.

Appears under 1 claim in this case

• Einstein assumed a static, eternal universe and changed his own equations to keep it that way, a move he later regarded as a serious mistake.