Albert
Einstein was a German-born physicist who developed the general theory of
relativity. He is considered one of the most influential physicists of the 20th
century.
Who
Was Albert Einstein?
Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 to April
18, 1955) was a German mathematician and physicist who developed the special
and general theories of relativity. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize for physics
for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. In the following decade, he
immigrated to the U.S. after being targeted by the Nazis. His work also had a
major impact on the development of atomic energy. In his later years, Einstein
focused on unified field theory. With his passion for inquiry, Einstein is
generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century.
Albert Einstein’s Inventions and Discoveries
As a physicist, Einstein had many
discoveries, but he is perhaps best known for his theory of relativity and the
equation E=MC2, which foreshadowed the development of atomic power and the
atomic bomb.
Theory of
Relativity
Einstein first proposed a special theory
of relativity in 1905 in his paper, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,”
taking physics in an electrifying new direction. By November 1915, Einstein
completed the general theory of relativity.
Einstein considered this theory the culmination of his life research. He was
convinced of the merits of general relativity because it allowed for a more
accurate prediction of planetary orbits around the sun, which fell short
in Isaac Newton’s theory, and for a more
expansive, nuanced explanation of how gravitational forces worked. Einstein's
assertions were affirmed via observations and measurements by British
astronomers Sir Frank Dyson and Sir Arthur Eddington during the 1919 solar
eclipse, and thus a global science icon was born.
Einstein’s
E=MC^2
Einstein’s 1905 paper on the
matter/energy relationship proposed the equation E=MC2: energy of a body (E) is
equal to the mass (M) of that body times the speed of light squared (C2). This
equation suggested that tiny particles of matter could be converted into huge
amounts of energy, a discovery that heralded atomic power. Famed quantum
theorist Max Planck backed up the assertions of Einstein, who thus became a
star of the lecture circuit and academia, taking on various positions before
becoming director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics from 1913 to
1933.
Family
Albert Einstein grew up in a secular
Jewish family. His father, Hermann Einstein, was a salesman and engineer who,
with his brother, founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a
Munich-based company that manufactured electrical equipment. Albert’s mother,
the former Pauline Koch, ran the family household. Einstein had one sister,
Maja, born two years after him.
Einstein’s Wives and Children
Albert Einstein married Milena Maric on
Jan. 6, 1903. While attending school in Zurich, Einstein met Maric, a Serbian
physics student. Einstein continued to grow closer to Maric, but his parents
were strongly against the relationship due to her ethnic background.
Nonetheless, Einstein continued to see her, with the two developing a
correspondence via letters in which he expressed many of his scientific ideas.
Einstein’s father passed away in 1902, and the couple married thereafter.
That same year the couple had a
daughter, Lieserl, who might have been later raised by Maric's relatives or
given up for adoption. Her ultimate fate and whereabouts remain a mystery. The
couple went on to have two sons, Hans and Eduard. The marriage would not be a
happy one, with the two divorcing in 1919 and Maric having an emotional
breakdown in connection to the split. Einstein, as part of a settlement, agreed
to give Maric any funds he might receive from possibly winning the Nobel Prize
in the future.
During his marriage to Maric, Einstein
had also begun an affair some time earlier with a cousin, Elsa Löwenthal. The
couple wed in 1919, the same year of Einstein’s divorce. He would continue to
see other women throughout his second marriage, which ended with Löwenthal's
death in 1936.
When and Where Was Albert Einstein Born?
Albert Einstein was born on March 14,
1879 in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany.
When Did Albert Einstein Die?
Albert Einstein died at the University
Medical Center at Princeton early in the morning on April 18, 1955 at the age
of 76. The previous day, while working on a speech to honor Israel's seventh
anniversary, Einstein suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was taken to
the hospital for treatment but refused surgery, believing that he had lived his
life and was content to accept his fate. "I want to go when I want,"
he stated at the time. "It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I
have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly."
Einstein’s Brain
During Albert Einstein’s autopsy, Thomas
Stoltz Harvey removed his brain, reportedly without the permission of his
family, for preservation and future study by doctors of neuroscience. However
during his life Einstein participated in brain studies, and at least one
biography says he hoped researchers would study his brain after he died.
Einstein's brain is now located at the Princeton University Medical Center, and
his remains were cremated and his ashes scattered in an undisclosed location,
following his wishes.
In 1999, Canadian scientists who were
studying Einstein’s brain found that his inferior parietal lobe, the area that
processes spatial relationships, 3D-visualization and mathematical thought, was
15 percent wider than in people with normal intelligence. According to The
New York Times, the researchers believe it may help explain why Einstein
was so intelligent.
Early
Life and Education
Einstein attended elementary school at
the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich. However, he felt alienated there and
struggled with the institution's rigid pedagogical style. He also had what were
considered speech challenges, though he developed a passion for classical music
and playing the violin that would stay with him into his later years. Most
significantly, Einstein's youth was marked by deep inquisitiveness and
inquiry.
Towards the end of the 1880s, Max
Talmud, a Polish medical student who sometimes dined with the Einstein family,
became an informal tutor to young Albert. Talmud had introduced his pupil to a
children’s science text that inspired Einstein to dream about the nature of
light. Thus, during his teens, Einstein penned what would be seen as his first
major paper, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic
Fields."
Hermann Einstein relocated the family to
Milan, Italy, in the mid-1890s after his business lost out on a major contract.
Albert was left at a relative's boarding house in Munich to complete his
schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Faced with military duty when he turned of
age, Albert allegedly withdrew from classes, using a doctor’s note to excuse himself
and claim nervous exhaustion. With their son rejoining them in Italy, his
parents understood Einstein's perspective but were concerned about his future
prospects as a school dropout and draft dodger.
Einstein was eventually able to gain
admission into the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, specifically due
to his superb mathematics and physics scores on the entrance exam. He was still
required to complete his pre-university education first, and thus attended a
high school in Aarau, Switzerland helmed by Jost Winteler. Einstein lived with
the schoolmaster's family and fell in love with Winteler's daughter, Marie.
Einstein later renounced his German citizenship and became a Swiss citizen at
the dawn of the new century.
After graduating, Einstein faced major
challenges in terms of finding academic positions, having alienated some
professors over not attending class more regularly in lieu of studying
independently. Einstein eventually found steady work in 1902 after receiving a
referral for a clerk position in a Swiss patent office. While working at the
patent office, Einstein had the time to further explore ideas that had taken
hold during his studies at Polytechnic and thus cemented his theorems on what
would be known as the principle of relativity.
In 1905—seen by many as a "miracle
year" for the theorist—Einstein had four papers published in the Annalen
der Physik, one of the best known physics journals of the era. Two focused
on photoelectric effect and Brownian motion. The two others, which outlined
E=MC2 and the special theory of relativity, were defining for Einstein’s career
and the course of the study of physics.
In 1921, Einstein won the Nobel Prize
for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect, since his ideas on
relativity were still considered questionable. He wasn't actually given the
award until the following year due to a bureaucratic ruling, and during his
acceptance speech he still opted to speak about relativity.
In the development of his general
theory, Einstein had held onto the belief that the universe was a fixed, static
entity, aka a "cosmological constant," though his later theories
directly contradicted this idea and asserted that the universe could be in a
state of flux. Astronomer Edwin Hubble deduced that we
indeed inhabit an expanding universe, with the two scientists meeting at the
Mount Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles in 1930.
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