Einstein Is A Loser!

A poll recently conducted by Physics Web, a physics news website, ranked Sir Isaac Newton as the greatest physicist of the millennium. A similar poll by PhysicsWorld magazine ranked Albert Einstein first and Newton second. Naturally, someone had to break thetie,and who better than Dartmouth's resident physicists? In our non- scientific poll, the father of relativity was deemed irrelevant, as Newton won seven of nine votes cast. "Newton had to invent calculus as well as classical mechanics," explains professor Mary Hudson. "Einstein could not have existed without Newton," says professor emeritus Michael Sturge.

One respondent called the Newton vs. Einstein question a draw, and another cast a write-in vote for nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi. Before you weigh in on the subject, consider this bit of history from professor emeritus William Doyle: "In Newton's time they did not take foolish polls like this."