Einstein

Albert Einstein

by

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was born in the city of Ulm,
Wurttemberg, Germany on March 14, 1879. Although, his
parents, Harmann and Paulina Koch Einstein raised him in
Munich where the family owned a small shop that manufactured
electric machinery. But multiple business failures forced his
family to move to Milan, Italy. Albert Einstein did not talk
until he was three years old. But at the age of 12 he had
already taught himself Euclidean geometry. And at only 15
years of age Albert dropped out of school. Albert liked
classical music and one of his favorite hobbies is playing the
Violin.

Like most teenage kids, Einstein disliked school because
he thought is was boring and unimaginative. Then he dropped
out of school not much later. After he dropped out of school
he stayed one year with his parents in Italy but then
continued and finished secondary school in Switzerland. He
got himself into the Swiss Polytechnic Institute where he,
studied mathematics and physics. But, once again, did not
like the teachings of the school. He often ditched classes,
played the violin and studied by himself. Even though
Einstein ditched his classes, he passed his tests by studying
his classmates notes. Then he eventually graduated in the year
1900. His teachers did not like him very much because of his
ditching habits and would not recommend him for any
universities. For two years Einstein worked as a tutor and
substitute teacher. And later worked seven years from 1902 to
1909 at the Swiss Patent Office, located in Bern, as an
examiner. This job gave him lots of free time and he used
that time to performing experiments.

In 1903 Einstein got married to Mileva Mari‡, his
classmate at Swiss Polytechnic Institute. Albert and Mileva
had two sons and a daughter but got later separated. Later,
he then married Elsa, his first cousin, and gained two
stepdaughters. Elsa died at Princeton in 1936.

In 1905 Einstein published three major theoretical
papers. The first was about Brownian motion. In this paper
Einstein predicted the movements of particles that are
randomly suspended in fluid. His theory was later proved to
be accurate.

The second paper about the photoelectric effect, won the
Nobel Prize in 1921. In that paper about photoelectric
effect, Einstein hypothesized that under certain
circumstances, light could be considered as consisting of
particles. These particles were first called quanta but are
now known as photons. This discovery about the photoelectric
cell would later lead to the invention of television. At the
time no one accepted Einstein's theory, but almost a decade
later an American physicist Robert Andrews Millikan
experimentally confirmed the theory.

Finally his last, and probably most famous, paper
entitled The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, which was
written in 1905. It later became known as Einstein's special
theory of relativity. This special theory of relativity was
about how time gets slower and the mass of any object will
increase as it gets closer to the speed of light.

In 1920, Einstein became internationally famous. During
World War I he was one of the few Germans to publicly protest
the participation of the Germans in the War. Immediately
after Hitler came to power, Einstein left Germany, in fear oh
his life, and headed for the United States. When he got to
the United States, Einstein went to New Jersey and get a job
at Princeton.

In a later publication Einstein came up with the famous
equation: E = mc2. Which means energy equals mass times the
velocity of light squared.

On August 2, 1939, Einstein wrote a letter, with the help
of other physicists, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This
letter was about the possibility of the atomic bomb. He also
mentioned that the Germans had the capability to build an
atomic bomb. This led to the United States researching the
atomic bomb and finally making an atomic bomb for defense.
Although, Einstein didn't know about it because he strongly
opposed war and violence. In fact Einstein was once quoted
saying, "Not to use violence in fighting for our cause but by
non participation in anything you believe is evil,"

When Adolf Hitler rose to power, Einstein immediately
left Germany and moved to the United States. He was offered
a lifetime job at the Institute or Advanced Studies in
Princeton, New Jersey. Albert Einstein became an American
citizen in 1940. Then on April 18, 1955, Einstein died in his
hospital bed at the Princeton medical center.

Bibliography

Glasstone, Samuel. Einstein, Albert. Microsoft Encarta 96
Encyclopedia. 1996 ed.

Einstein, Albert. The Random House Encyclopedia New Revised
3rd Edition. 1990 ed.

Einstein, Albert. Random House Webster's College Dictionary.
p 248. New York: Random House Inc., 1991.

Einstein, Albert. The World Book Encyclopedia. 1990ed.