I think it may also be related to a historical experimental/mathematical difference. Edison (US) admired Lord Kelvin (UK), who believed in constructing physical models of theories. He thought you had to be able to see it. Whereas Laplace and other French (EU) mathematicians favoured a symbolic mathematical approach.
Lord Kelvin had a minor win, in that he refuted one of Laplace's mathematical constructs with a model. Edison also had some wins. But of course, Einstein had the biggest win of all, using a symbolic approach (he began with clear visualizations which he later found mathematics for. There were other factors, but once he switched to a purely mathematical approach, he had no more breakthroughs...)
I personally wonder if this US/EU distinction is somehow be related to having all the land already being owned vs. land available.
PS: I'm taking this from biographies of Edison and Einstein, so please correct me if I'm wrong or omitted something relevant.
Lord Kelvin had a minor win, in that he refuted one of Laplace's mathematical constructs with a model. Edison also had some wins. But of course, Einstein had the biggest win of all, using a symbolic approach (he began with clear visualizations which he later found mathematics for. There were other factors, but once he switched to a purely mathematical approach, he had no more breakthroughs...)
I personally wonder if this US/EU distinction is somehow be related to having all the land already being owned vs. land available.
PS: I'm taking this from biographies of Edison and Einstein, so please correct me if I'm wrong or omitted something relevant.