# Einstein's biggest mistake?

## TL;DR

This paper examines Einstein's historical mistakes, suggesting his misnaming of A and B coefficients may have had significant long-term impacts on physics and chemistry education and understanding.

## Contribution

It proposes that Einstein's misnaming of his A and B coefficients was a major overlooked mistake influencing multiple scientific fields.

## Key findings

- Einstein's cosmological constant was later validated.
- His rejection of quantum mechanics was influential but not a mistake.
- The misnaming of A and B coefficients has affected scientific interpretation.

## Abstract

What, if any, was Einstein's biggest mistake, the one most affecting our physics today? There is a perhaps apocryphal story, recounted by George Gamow, that he counted his cosmological constant as his biggest blunder. We now know his hypothesized cosmological constant to be correct. His lifelong rejection of quantum mechanics, an interesting side-story in the evolution of 20th-century physics, is a candidate. None of these introduced difficulties in how our physics is done today. It can be argued that his biggest actual mistake, one that affects many subfields of physics and chemistry and bewilders students today, occurred in his naming of his A and B coefficients.