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Einstein
Einstein
June 11, 2002
"Most people know that Albert Einstein did not initially develop the general theory of relativity at a desk or a blackboard but while lying on a hill on a summer's day. As he looked up with half-closed eyes, according to his own account, the sun dappled through his eyelashes, breaking into thousands of tiny beams. He wondered what it would be like to go for a ride on one of those sunbeams and imagined himself taking a journey through the Universe.
His imaginary trip took a form that was entirely wrong according to the physics and mathematics of the day. Trusting his imagination, he worked at the problem and in the process developed a new form of mathematics which explained his journey (Clegg & Birch, 2000, p. 103)."
Reference: Clegg, B. & Birch, P. (2000). Imagination engineering. London: Prentice Hall.
What new ideas could you develop on an imaginary trip?
Imagination Engineering is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center. A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/
Created: 2008-12-13, Updated: 2009-01-07
