Einstein vs Minkowski
Q: Who deserves more credit for developing special relativity theory, Minkowski or Einstein?
A: Special relativity was invented/discovered by Einstein and there is no discussion about it. All historians of physics agree on that. Even though the seminal ideas were somehow in the air by the early twentieth century, in particular in the works of Poincaré and Lorentz, Einstein was the first person to fully understand what today is the physics of special relativity: principle of special relativity, constancy of the speed of light, relativity of space and time, etc.
What is true, though, is that Minkowski was the first person to establish the modern mathematical framework for the special theory of relativity. Only after Minkowski's work did physicists start thinking about spacetime, instead of space and time related by some sets of equations. The Lorentz transformations passed from being a set of equations relating the three space and time coordinates of two inertial observers to be rotations in an abstract space-time.
Minkowski famously said:
“Gentlemen! The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you … are radical. Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality.”
Thanks to Minkowski's invention, years later was Einstein able to formulate his theory of general relativity. Moreover, it is Minkowski’s approach that is still used today by theoretical physicists.
Hope you enjoyed it.