Albert Einstein

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 lassical 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, layed 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 ntitled 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 he 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.

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