[nikitesla]

What were the I.Q.s of some of the top Mathematicians and Physicists, of the last 500 years? Einstein, Planck, Bohr, Neumann, Heisenberg, Shroedinger, Steven Hawking, or say Helmholtz, Maxwell, Faraday, Thomas Young, Newton,. and how about Mathematicians Jacob Bernoulli, Leonard Euler, Gauss, Fermat, Descartes, Laplace, Fourier, Bertrand Russell,and Kurt Geodel? To name just a few. A friend of mine enjoys needling me on the topic of IQ and intelligence. I believe it is a complex issue and not easily reflected in a two or three digit number whose top limit nor specific criteria for creating (the index), have been objectively defined. Has anyone seen the famous Physicists or Mathematicians, of the last 500 years or so listed, with surmised IQ rating and if so can someone name the sources and reasoning used to surmise the IQ given, for each person? And supposedly the index was created to measure abstract reasoning,. with a correlation of the "problem solving ability" indicated, to the future performance as measured by "lifetime earnings" in England in the 1800's. I think I heard that the guy who was measured by Mensa as having the highest IQ in the World, lives in England, is in his 50's and briefly held a job as a janitor but hasn't worked most of his life?

[sarnian]

As IQ tests were first initiated early in the 20' century, there are only IQ details available since than.

Please read this article about the origin of IQ testing.

Another article abouth IQ testing history

[nikitesla]

Sarnian, Thanks for the reply. If you will notice in my question, I did mention that I was wondering, if anyone had SURMISED what some of these guys I.Q. was, rather than if they had taken modern IQ tests although several of the people mentioned did live in the 20th century, and as I had noted some of the idea's which have been used to test intelligence have been around since the 1800's, for instance Bennet (spelling?) the Frenchman whose intelligence test was used to develop the Sanford- Bennet test. In answer to my own question there was a Time Life book published in the 1960's called I think "The Mind" that did attempt to guestimate intelligence of famous people. They seemed to think that of the list, of people they came up with, Geothe the author, of the early 1800's had the highest guestimated IQ of more than 200. Well, it is such a pleasure to see all the activity surrounding idle intellectual speculation, that this question has generated. I probably should have asked about whether Einstein went out with Marilyn Monroe.

[sarnian]

... to test intelligence have been around since the 1800's...

True, but these early tests were not reliable at all, and were only specific for one field, while one can be a genius on one field, but a total failure in many other fields.

... I probably should have asked about whether Einstein went out with Marilyn Monroe.

Well, John F. Kennedy did, and see what happened to both of them...
BTW : I have that entire Time Life series including the book "The Mind" here on the shelves!