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Mar 14, 2017 · Born on 14 March 1879 in Ulm, Germany, Albert Einstein was the most impactful physicist of the 20th century. He received a bachelor’s degree from Swiss Federal Polytechnic in 1900 and a PhD from the University of Zurich in 1905. Einstein’s career famously began at a patent office in Bern, Switzerland, where he had time to ponder big ...
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Albert Einstein was a famous physicist. His research spanned from quantum mechanics to theories about gravity and motion. After publishing some groundbreaking papers, Einstein toured the world and gave speeches about his discoveries. In 1921 he won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the photoelectric effect.
Read more below: From graduation to the “miracle year” of scientific theories
What is Albert Einstein known for?
Albert Einstein is best known for his equation E = mc2, which states that energy and mass (matter) are the same thing, just in different forms. He is also known for his discovery of the photoelectric effect, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. Einstein developed a theory of special and general relativity, which helped to complicate and expand upon theories that had been put forth by Isaac Newton over 200 years prior.
How Albert Einstein Developed the Theory of General Relativity
Learn more about why it took Albert Einstein years to express his ideas mathematically.
Einstein’s parents were secular, middle-class Jews. His father, Hermann Einstein, was originally a featherbed salesman and later ran an electrochemical factory with moderate success. His mother, the former Pauline Koch, ran the family household. He had one sister, Maria (who went by the name Maja), born two years after Albert.
Einstein would write that two “wonders” deeply affected his early years. The first was his encounter with a compass at age five. He was mystified that invisible forces could deflect the needle. This would lead to a lifelong fascination with invisible forces. The second wonder came at age 12 when he discovered a book of geometry, which he devoured, calling it his “sacred little geometry book.”
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All About Einstein
Einstein became deeply religious at age 12, even composing several songs in praise of God and chanting religious songs on the way to school. This began to change, however, after he read science books that contradicted his religious beliefs. This challenge to established authority left a deep and lasting impression. At the Luitpold Gymnasium, Einstein often felt out of place and victimized by a Prussian-style educational system that seemed to stifle originality and creativity. One teacher even told him that he would never amount to anything.
Yet another important influence on Einstein was a young medical student, Max Talmud (later Max Talmey), who often had dinner at the Einstein home. Talmud became an informal tutor, introducing Einstein to higher mathematics and philosophy. A pivotal turning point occurred when Einstein was 16 years old. Talmud had earlier introduced him to a children’s science series by Aaron Bernstein, Naturwissenschaftliche Volksbucher (1867–68; Popular Books on Physical Science), in which the author imagined riding alongside electricity that was traveling inside a telegraph wire. Einstein then asked himself the question that would dominate his thinking for the next 10 years: What would a light beam look like if you could run alongside it? If light were a wave, then the light beam should appear stationary, like a frozen wave. Even as a child, though, he knew that stationary light waves had never been seen, so there was a paradox. Einstein also wrote his first “scientific paper” at that time (“The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields”).
His ideas and theories were so shockingly revolutionary, he changed the way the Universe was imagined, not just once, but several times. Albert Einstein was proclaimed a genius while still in his ...
Mar 11, 2024 · A brief biography of Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955), the scientist whose theories changed the way we think about the universe.
Jul 20, 2023 · Physicist Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. Read about his inventions, IQ, wives, death, and more.
Nov 18, 2022 · Albert Einstein profoundly changed physics and ideas about space and time. ... a town that today has a population of just more than 120,000. ... Harvey's 1985 study authors reported that Einstein ...
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Albert Einstein. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1921. Born: 14 March 1879, Ulm, Germany. Died: 18 April 1955, Princeton, NJ, USA. Affiliation at the time of the award: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut (now Max-Planck-Institut) für Physik, Berlin, Germany. Prize motivation: “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the ...
