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- Nov 25, 191590% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
Einstein Presents the Field Equations of General Relativity
- Einstein presented the field equations of gravitation to the Prussian Academy of Sciences on 25 November 1915[1][2]
- The paper's own header records both dates: "Session from November 25, 1915; published December 2, 1915", printed in Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungsberichte, 1915 (part 2), pages 844-847[1]
- It opens: "I have shown in two recently published reports, how one can arrive at field equations of gravitation, that are in agreement with the postulate of general relativity"[1]
- An "inconsistency with observation sent Einstein back to the drawing board" before this final version; David Hilbert "derived the theory of general relativity from an elegant variational principle almost simultaneously"[2]
- The equations "relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter-energy within it", connecting local spacetime curvature expressed by the Einstein tensor with the local energy, momentum and stress expressed by the stress-energy tensor[3]
- Written this way they are "a set of nonlinear partial differential equations" whose solutions are the components of the metric tensor, and they "reduce to Newton's law of gravitation in the limit of a weak gravitational field and velocities that are much less than the speed of light"[3]
- Each side is a symmetric 4x4 tensor of ten independent components; "the four Bianchi identities reduce the number of independent equations from 10 to 6, leaving the metric with four gauge-fixing degrees of freedom"[3]
- Exact solutions need simplifying symmetry - Schwarzschild found one in 1915, published 1916 - and the linearised equations are "used to study phenomena such as gravitational waves"[2][3]
References 388% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_Field_Equations_of_Gravitationen.wikisource.org· Posted Sep 22, 2026· Starts Nov 25, 1915 ✓· 33% of score
Two sources agree. Wikipedia's[2][3] History of general relativity says "on 25 November 1915, Einstein presented the updated Einstein field equations to the Prussian Academy of Sciences", and the Wikisource translation of the paper itself carries the publication header: presented at the session of 25 November 1915 and printed in Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungsberichte, 1915 (part 2), pages 844-847.
- [2]90%History of general relativityen.wikipedia.org· Added Sep 22, 2026· 33% of score
Dates the presentation to the Prussian Academy and explains what forced the revision: an earlier version was inconsistent with observation, and the final equations relate the Einstein tensor to the stress-energy tensor.[1]
- [3]85%Einstein field equationsen.wikipedia.org· Added Sep 22, 2026· 33% of score
Describes what the equations say - they "relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter-energy within it" - and that they were published by Einstein in 1915 as a tensor equation.[1]
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