I saw this movie on TV today and was surprised when Wayne, a scientist brilliant enough to build a shrink ray, asks his audience of peers, "Did they ask Einstein for proof when he invented the atomic bomb?" And the other scientists didn't even laugh him out of the room for this. Any scientist knows that all Einstein "invented" were amazing theories that had nothing to do with bombs. The atomic bomb came decades later.
shareActually, what Wayne said was "When Einstein came up with the atomic bomb, did they ask him to prove that it worked?" Meaning that Einstein came up with the theory, and did not actually invent it.
shareI dunno, it sounds like Wayne is saying that Einstein invented the atomic bomb there. If Wayne said "When Einstein came up with the theory of relativity, did they ask him to prove that it worked?" it would have made perfect sense, because it was something that took him years to finally prove. While Einstein did write a letter to the president, encouraging them to create an atomic bomb before the Nazis did, he had nothing to do with the actual invention of the atomic bomb and was said to be awestruck when he was shown how his theory could be actually used for this purpose. The movie makes it sound like Einstein had this amazing idea for a brand new bomb unlike anyone had ever seen before.
I'm betting the wording was changed from the original script to 2 things that most people in the 80's could associate with - Einstein and the atomic bomb. Still, it just bugs me that a scientist would make this mistake, even if it is just a movie. I can suspend my disbelief enough for a shrink ray to be possible, but not enough for a scientist not to know who invented the atomic bomb.
Maybe Wayne just stumbled on his words. He may be a brilliant scientist, but he might not be good at public speaking. With all the pressure he was under by the other scientists, he could have just said those words without thinking. Even as Fredricson put it, "You, Mr. Szalinski, are hardly Einstein." Just a simple character mistake, that's all.
shareThat's what Wayne said but he is wrong. I don't know. Maybe that's what the writer behind this movie believed.
The idea for an atomic bomb was from Leo Szilard. He also filed a patent in England. He never built one. There was a lot of unknowns such was what is the critical mass required but he came up with that concept as well.
http://www.cccoe.k12.ca.us/abomb/popups/patent.htm
http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventors/p/Leo_Szilard.htm