Ahmet Samet zdilek
2091502
Table of Contents
1
Albert Einstein...................................................................................................... 1
1.1
Early Life and Education........................................................................................ 2
1.2
Scientific Career................................................................................................... 3
1.2.1
Annus Mirabilis Papers.................................................................................... 3
1.2.2
General Principles........................................................................................... 3
1.2.3
Theory of Relativity......................................................................................... 3
1.3
Conclusion........................................................................................................... 4
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein 14 March 1879 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist.
Einstein's work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He developed the
general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum
mechanics). Einstein is best known in popular culture for his massenergy equivalence formula E =
mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"). He received the 1921 Nobel
Prize in Physics for his "services to theoretical physics", in particular his discovery of the law of the
photoelectric effect, a pivotal step in the evolution of quantum theory. On 5 December 2014,
universities and archives announced the release of Einstein's papers, comprising more than 30,000
unique documents. [Overbye,2014]
Figure 1 Albert Einstein
1.1 Early Life and Education
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Wrttemberg in the German Empire on
14 March 1879. His parents were Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer, and Pauline 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.
The Einstein were non-observant Ashkenazi Jews. Albert attended a Catholic elementary
school from the age of 5 for three years. At the age of 8, he was transferred to the Luitpold
Gymnasium (now known as the Albert Einstein Gymnasium), where he received advanced primary
and secondary school education until he left Germany seven years later.
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. At the end of December 1894, he travelled to Italy to join his family in Pavia, convincing
the school to let him go by using a doctor's note.
Einstein's future wife, Mileva Mari, also enrolled at the Polytechnic that same year. She
was 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 Mari' 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 Zrich Polytechnic teaching diploma, but Mari failed
the examination with a poor grade in the mathematics component, theory of functions. There have
been claims that Mari collaborated with Einstein on his celebrated 1905 papers, but historians of
physics who have studied the issue find no evidence that she made any substantive contributions.
"Einstein fell in love" with Mozart's music and studied music more willingly. He taught
himself to play without "ever practicing systematically", he said, deciding that "love is a better
teacher than a sense of duty." He loves music.
1.2 Scientific Career
Throughout his life, Einstein published hundreds of books and articles. In addition to the
work he did by himself he also collaborated with other scientists on additional projects including
the BoseEinstein statistics, the Einstein refrigerator and others.
1.2.1 Annus Mirabilis Papers
The Annus Mirabilis papers are four articles pertaining to the photoelectric effect (which
gave rise to quantum theory), Brownian motion, the special theory of relativity, and E = mc2 that
Albert Einstein published in the Annalen der Physik scientific journal in 1905. These four works
contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed views on space, time,
and matter. The four papers are given in the Table 1:
Table 1: Annus Mirabilis Papers
Area of Focus
Received
Published
Photoelectric effect
18 March
9 June
Brownian motion
11 May
18 July
Special relativity
30 June
26 September
Matterenergy
27 September
21 November
1.2.2 General Principles
He articulated the principle of relativity. This was understood by Hermann Minkowski to be
a generalization of rotational invariance from space to space-time. Other principles postulated by
Einstein and later vindicated are the principle of equivalence and the principle of adiabatic
invariance of the quantum number.
1.2.3 Theory of Relativity
Einstein's "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Krper" ("On the Electrodynamics of Moving
Bodies") was received on 30 June 1905 and published 26 September of that same year. It reconciles
Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism with the laws of mechanics, by introducing
major changes to mechanics close to the speed of light. This later became known as Einstein's
special theory of relativity.
1.3 Conclusion
In the period before World War II, the New York Times published a vignette in their "The
Talk of the Town" feature saying that Einstein was so well known in America that he would be
stopped on the street by people wanting him to explain "that theory". He finally figured out a way to
handle the incessant inquiries. He told his inquirers "Pardon me, sorry! Always I am mistaken for
Professor Einstein."
Einstein has been the subject of or inspiration for many novels, films, plays, and works of
music. He is a favorite model for depictions of mad scientists and absent-minded professors; his
expressive face and distinctive hairstyle have been widely copied and exaggerated. Time magazine's
Frederic Golden wrote that Einstein was "a cartoonist's dream come true".
References
Overby D. (2014) Thousands of Einstein Documents Are Now a Click Away. New York City:
New York Times
