-6

According to this website,

Vashishtha Narayan Singh [was] a man from Bihar who challenged Einstein theory E = mc2 and also theory of Gauss.

Many other sites make the same claim about Vashishth Narayan Singh.

How true is it?

F1Krazy
  • 3,520
  • 5
  • 20
  • 29
Gary 2
  • 89
  • 3
  • 9
    What does "challenge" mean in this context? Surely anyone can "challenge" a theory just by saying it's false? How *exactly* did Singh challenge E=mc2? – F1Krazy Jul 09 '22 at 18:35
  • 4
    Your link says *"He is a great example of talented mathematician and yet again India has failed to recognize him and use his services like many others.*" The [Wikipdia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vashishtha_Narayan_Singh) however says *"He was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India, posthumously in 2020"* ... – Weather Vane Jul 09 '22 at 23:24
  • 1
    ... and [India Today](https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/renowned-mathematician-vashishtha-dies-in-patna-family-made-to-wait-for-ambulance-1618915-2019-11-14) states "*Vashishtha Narayan Singh had taught at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He was also a visiting professor at BN Mandal University, Madhepura."* But when he returned to India he was suffering from schizophrenia. So your source lacks credibility. – Weather Vane Jul 09 '22 at 23:24
  • @WeatherVane: The claim talks about him in the present tense, but the award was posthumous, suggesting the claim is just out of date, rather than wrong. His schizophrenia has nothing to do with notability. – Oddthinking Jul 10 '22 at 13:04
  • @Oddthinking yes I noticed that the award was fairly recent. His schizophrenia *was* relevant to why his services were not used on his return to India. – Weather Vane Jul 10 '22 at 13:06

1 Answers1

4

How to prove a negative? Daijiworld Media Pvt Ltd., Mangalore reported:

Another Beautiful Mind
. . .
The second claim that is made about Singh, and one which is considered to have no evidence for, is that he had challenged the mass-energy relationship of Albert Einstein himself. Both these claims remain unresolved, for the man who could put to rest the ambiguities that the claims entail is in no state to remember coherently anything of his past except for a few memories here and there.

There are numerous references to Singh's challenge to Einstein's theory, but they only mention in passing words like "who claimed to have challenged..."

He may well have challenged Einstein's theory, but so have thousands of others.

Weather Vane
  • 7,653
  • 1
  • 32
  • 42