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Lot #208
Albert Einstein Handwritten Scientific Calculations

Dense scientific calculations in the hand of Albert Einstein, hard at work on his Unified Field Theory

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Description

Dense scientific calculations in the hand of Albert Einstein, hard at work on his Unified Field Theory

Unsigned handwritten scientific calculations by Albert Einstein, one page, 8.5 x 11, no date but circa 1950. Einstein pens approximately 34 lines of dense scientific calculations pertaining to his work on the Unified Field Theory, with a section set out in an unusual tabular form, and several lines numbered "(1)" through "(4)." Einstein also jots a few notes in German, including: "Mit 1 und 3 bleibt nur [With 1 and 3 only remains]," "würde Φ bestimmen [would determine]" "Probieren [Try]," and "Erste Gl[ied] erfüllt durch [First term satisfied by]." Much of the page is devoted to expressions containing what are called 'Christoffel symbols,' represented by capital gammas ("Γ"). In fine condition.

Einstein quietly pioneered a new approach to Unified Field Theory while World War II was raging. Intending his new Unified Field Theory to be 'a generalization of the relativistic theory of gravitation,' Einstein thought such a theory needed to be written in a new mathematical formalism capable of supporting both complex numbers and an asymmetric composition of the metric tensor.

Tilman Sauer describes Einstein’s final UFT papers as 'highly abstract and esoteric theoretical investigations…exploring consequences of a generalized mathematics very much like venturing into an uncharted terrain,' and Einstein himself said that these papers were 'hard work…for which [even] a true mathematician would not muster the courage.'

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