## Monday, December 13, 2010

### Albert Einstein

http://100legends.blogspot.com/ i am legend

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein in 1921
Born 14 March 1879(1879-03-14)
Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire
Died 18 April 1955(1955-04-18) (aged 76)
Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Resting place Grounds of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.
Residence Germany, Italy, Switzerland, United States
Ethnicity Jewish
Citizenship
Alma mater
Known for
Spouse
Awards
Signature
Albert Einstein (pronounced /ˈælbərt ˈaɪnstaɪn/; German: [ˈalbɐt ˈaɪnʃtaɪn]  ( listen); 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential and iconic scientists and intellectuals of all time. A German-Swiss Nobel laureate, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics.[2] He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".[3]
Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the general theory of relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole.[4]
On the eve of World War II in 1939, he personally alerted President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might be developing an atomic weapon, and recommended that the U.S. begin uranium procurement and nuclear research. As a result, Roosevelt advocated such research, leading to the creation of the top secret Manhattan Project, and the U.S. becoming the first and only country to possess nuclear weapons during the war. Days before his death, however, Einstein signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, that highlighted the dangers posed by the military usage of nuclear energy.
Einstein published more than 300 scientific along with over 150 non-scientific works, and received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and American universities;[4] he also wrote about various philosophical and political subjects such as socialism, international relations and the existence of God.[5] His great intelligence and originality has made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius.[6]

## Biography

### Early life and education

Einstein at the age of 4.
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire on 14 March 1879.[7] His father was Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer. His mother was Pauline Einstein (née Koch). In 1880, the family moved to Munich, where his father and his uncle founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a company that manufactured electrical equipment based on direct current.[7]

Albert Einstein in 1893 (age 14).
The Einsteins were non-observant Jews. Their son attended a Catholic elementary school from the age of five until ten.[8] Although Einstein had early speech difficulties, he was a top student in elementary school.[9][10]
His father once showed him a pocket compass; Einstein realized that there must be something causing the needle to move, despite the apparent "empty space".[11] As he grew, Einstein built models and mechanical devices for fun and began to show a talent for mathematics.[7] In 1889, Max Talmud (later changed to Max Talmey) introduced the ten-year old Einstein to key texts in science, mathematics and philosophy, including Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Euclid's Elements (which Einstein called the "holy little geometry book").[12] Talmud was a poor Jewish medical student from Poland. The Jewish community arranged for Talmud to take meals with the Einsteins each week on Thursdays for six years. During this time Talmud wholeheartedly guided Einstein through many secular educational interests.[13][14]
In 1894, his father's company failed: direct current (DC) lost the War of Currents to alternating current (AC). In search of business, the Einstein family moved to Italy, first to Milan and then, a few months later, to Pavia. When the family moved to Pavia, Einstein stayed in Munich to finish his studies at the Luitpold Gymnasium. His father intended for him to pursue electrical engineering, but Einstein clashed with authorities and resented the school's regimen and teaching method. He later wrote that the spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict rote learning. In the spring of 1895, he withdrew to join his family in Pavia, convincing the school to let him go by using a doctor's note.[7] During this time, Einstein wrote his first scientific work, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields".[15]
Einstein applied directly to the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland. Lacking the requisite Matura certificate, he took an entrance examination, which he failed, although he got exceptional marks in mathematics and physics.[16] The Einsteins sent Albert to Aarau, in northern Switzerland to finish secondary school.[7] While lodging with the family of Professor Jost Winteler, he fell in love with Winteler's daughter, Marie. (His sister Maja later married the Wintelers' son, Paul.)[17] In Aarau, Einstein studied Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. At age 17, he graduated, and, with his father's approval, renounced his citizenship in the German Kingdom of Württemberg to avoid military service, and in 1896 he enrolled in the four year mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Polytechnic in Zurich. Marie Winteler moved to Olsberg, Switzerland for a teaching post.
Einstein's future wife, Mileva Marić, also enrolled at the Polytechnic that same year, the only woman among the six students in the mathematics and physics section of the teaching diploma course. Over the next few years, Einstein and Marić's friendship developed into romance, and they read books together on extra-curricular physics in which Einstein was taking an increasing interest. In 1900 Einstein was awarded the Zurich Polytechnic teaching diploma, but Marić failed the examination with a poor grade in the mathematics component, theory of functions.[18] There have been claims that Marić collaborated with Einstein on his celebrated 1905 papers,[19][20] but historians of physics who have studied the issue find no evidence that she made any substantive contributions.[21][22][23][24]

### Marriages and children

In early 1902, Einstein and Mileva Marić had a daughter they named Lieserl in their correspondence, who was born in Novi Sad where Marić's parents lived.[25] Her full name is not known, and her fate is uncertain after 1903.[26]
Einstein and Marić married in January 1903. In May 1904, the couple's first son, Hans Albert Einstein, was born in Bern, Switzerland. Their second son, Eduard, was born in Zurich in July 1910. In 1914, Einstein moved to Berlin, while his wife remained in Zurich with their sons. Marić and Einstein divorced on 14 February 1919, having lived apart for five years.
Einstein married Elsa Löwenthal (née Einstein) on 2 June 1919, after having had a relationship with her since 1912. She was his first cousin maternally and his second cousin paternally. In 1933, they emigrated permanently to the United States. In 1935, Elsa Einstein was diagnosed with heart and kidney problems and died in December 1936.[27]

### Patent office

Left to right: Conrad Habicht, Maurice Solovine and Einstein, who founded the Olympia Academy
After graduating, Einstein spent almost two frustrating years searching for a teaching post, but a former classmate's father helped him secure a job in Bern, at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property, the patent office, as an assistant examiner.[28] He evaluated patent applications for electromagnetic devices. In 1903, Einstein's position at the Swiss Patent Office became permanent, although he was passed over for promotion until he "fully mastered machine technology".[29]
Much of his work at the patent office related to questions about transmission of electric signals and electrical-mechanical synchronization of time, two technical problems that show up conspicuously in the thought experiments that eventually led Einstein to his radical conclusions about the nature of light and the fundamental connection between space and time.[30]
With a few friends he met in Bern, Einstein started a small discussion group, self-mockingly named "The Olympia Academy", which met regularly to discuss science and philosophy. Their readings included the works of Henri Poincaré, Ernst Mach, and David Hume, which influenced his scientific and philosophical outlook.

Einstein's official 1921 portrait after receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 1901, Einstein had a paper on the capillary forces of a straw published in the prestigious Annalen der Physik.[31] On 30 April 1905, he completed his thesis, with Alfred Kleiner, Professor of Experimental Physics, serving as pro-forma advisor. Einstein was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich. His dissertation was entitled "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions".[32] That same year, which has been called Einstein's annus mirabilis or "miracle year", he published four groundbreaking papers, on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of matter and energy, which were to bring him to the notice of the academic world.
By 1908, he was recognized as a leading scientist, and he was appointed lecturer at the University of Berne. The following year, he quit the patent office and the lectureship to take the position of physics docent[33] at the University of Zurich. He became a full professor at Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague in 1911. In 1914, he returned to Germany after being appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (1914–1932)[34] and a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin, although with a special clause in his contract that freed him from most teaching obligations. He became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. In 1916, Einstein was appointed president of the German Physical Society (1916–1918).[35][36]
In 1911, he had calculated that, based on his new theory of general relativity, light from another star would be bent by the Sun's gravity. That prediction was claimed confirmed by observations made by a British expedition led by Sir Arthur Eddington during the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919. International media reports of this made Einstein world famous. On 7 November 1919, the leading British newspaper The Times printed a banner headline that read: "Revolution in Science – New Theory of the Universe – Newtonian Ideas Overthrown".[37] (Much later, questions were raised whether the measurements were accurate enough to support Einstein's theory.)
In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Because relativity was still considered somewhat controversial, it was officially bestowed for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. He also received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society in 1925.

Einstein visited New York City for the first time on 2 April 1921. When asked where he got his scientific ideas, Einstein explained that he believed scientific work best proceeds from an examination of physical reality and a search for underlying axioms, with consistent explanations that apply in all instances and avoid contradicting each other. He also recommended theories with visualizable results.(Einstein 1954)[38]
In 1922, he traveled throughout Asia and later to Palestine, as part of a six-month excursion and speaking tour. His travels included Singapore, Ceylon, and Japan, where he gave a series of lectures to thousands of Japanese. His first lecture in Tokyo lasted four hours, after which he met the emperor and empress at the Imperial Palace where thousands came to watch. Einstein later gave his impressions of the Japanese in a letter to his sons:[39]:307 "Of all the people I have met, I like the Japanese most, as they are modest, intelligent, considerate, and have a feel for art."[39]:308
On his return voyage, he also visited Palestine for twelve days in what would become his only visit to that region. "He was greeted with great British pomp, as if he were a head of state rather than a theoretical physicist", writes Isaacson. This included a cannon salute upon his arrival at the residence of the British high commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel. During one reception given to him, the building was "stormed by throngs who wanted to hear him". In Einstein's talk to the audience, he expressed his happiness over the event:
I consider this the greatest day of my life. Before, I have always found something to regret in the Jewish soul, and that is the forgetfulness of its own people. Today, I have been made happy by the sight of the Jewish people learning to recognize themselves and to make themselves recognized as a force in the world.[40]:308

### Emigration from Germany

Next to Oliver Locker-Lampson, being protected in Norfolk, England, after escaping Nazi Germany in 1933

## Publications

The following publications by Albert Einstein are referenced in this article. A more complete list of his publications may be found at List of scientific publications by Albert Einstein.
• Einstein, Albert (1901), "Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen (Conclusions Drawn from the Phenomena of Capillarity)", Annalen der Physik 4: 513, doi:10.1002/andp.19013090306
• Einstein, Albert (1905a), "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light", Annalen der Physik 17: 132–148 . This annus mirabilis paper on the photoelectric effect was received by Annalen der Physik 18th March.
• Einstein, Albert (1905b), A new determination of molecular dimensions . This PhD thesis was completed 30th April and submitted 20th July.
• Einstein, Albert (1905c), "On the Motion – Required by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat – of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid", Annalen der Physik 17: 549–560 . This annus mirabilis paper on Brownian motion was received 11th May.
• Einstein, Albert (1905d), "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", Annalen der Physik 17: 891–921 . This annus mirabilis paper on special relativity was received 30th June.
• Einstein, Albert (1905e), "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", Annalen der Physik 18: 639–641 . This annus mirabilis paper on mass-energy equivalence was received 27th September.
• Einstein, Albert (1915), "Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation (The Field Equations of Gravitation)", Königlich Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften: 844–847
• Einstein, Albert (1917a), "Kosmologische Betrachtungen zur allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie (Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity)", Königlich Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Einstein, Albert (1917b), "Zur Quantentheorie der Strahlung (On the Quantum Mechanics of Radiation)", Physikalische Zeitschrift 18: 121–128
• Einstein, Albert (11 July 1923), "Fundamental Ideas and Problems of the Theory of Relativity", Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901–1921, Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, retrieved 25 March 2007
• Einstein, Albert (1924), "Quantentheorie des einatomigen idealen Gases (Quantum theory of monatomic ideal gases)", Sitzungsberichte der Preussichen Akademie der Wissenschaften Physikalisch-Mathematische Klasse: 261–267 . First of a series of papers on this topic.
• Einstein, Albert (1926), "Die Ursache der Mäanderbildung der Flussläufe und des sogenannten Baerschen Gesetzes", Die Naturwissenschaften 14: 223–224, doi:10.1007/BF01510300 . On Baer's law and meanders in the courses of rivers.
• Einstein, Albert; Podolsky, Boris; Rosen, Nathan (15 May 1935), "Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?", Physical Review 47 (10): 777–780, doi:10.1103/PhysRev.47.777
• Einstein, Albert (1940), "On Science and Religion", Nature (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic) 146: 605, doi:10.1038/146605a0, ISBN 0707304539
• Einstein, Albert et al. (4 December 1948), "To the editors", New York Times (Melville, NY: AIP, American Inst. of Physics), ISBN 0735403597
• Einstein, Albert (May 1949), "Why Socialism?", Monthly Review, retrieved 16 January 2006
• Einstein, Albert (1950), "On the Generalized Theory of Gravitation", Scientific American CLXXXII (4): 13–17
• Einstein, Albert (1954), Ideas and Opinions, New York: Random House, ISBN 0-517-00393-7
• Einstein, Albert (1969) (in German), Albert Einstein, Hedwig und Max Born: Briefwechsel 1916–1955, Munich: Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, ISBN 388682005X
• Einstein, Albert (1979), Autobiographical Notes, Paul Arthur Schilpp (Centennial ed.), Chicago: Open Court, ISBN 0-875-48352-6 . The chasing a light beam thought experiment is described on pages 48–51.
• Collected Papers: Stachel, John, Martin J. Klein, a. J. Kox, Michel Janssen, R. Schulmann, Diana Komos Buchwald and others (Eds.) (1987–2006), The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Vol. 1–10, Princeton University Press  Further information about the volumes published so far can be found on the webpages of the Einstein Papers Project and on the Princeton University Press Einstein Page