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Quick Facts
- NAME: Albert Einstein
- OCCUPATION: Physicist
- BIRTH DATE: March 14, 1879
- DEATH DATE: April 18, 1955
- EDUCATION: Luitpold Gymnasium, Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule (Swiss Federal Polytechnic School)
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Ulm, Württemberg, Germany
- PLACE OF DEATH: Princeton, New Jersey
- Full Name: Albert Einstein
Best Known For
Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist who developed the theory of relativity. He is considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century.
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Albert Einstein - Theory of Relativity Proven Correct (0:00)
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Albert Einstein - Scientific Hero
Albert Einstein's vision and innovation created a lasting impact on both the world of science and our society. Click "buy Now" to learn more about the authorized Albert Einstein Archives. Video courtesy of Open Road Media.
Albert Einstein - Scientific Hero
Albert Einstein's vision and innovation created a lasting impact on both the world of science and our society. Click "Buy Now" to learn more about the authorized Albert Einstein Archives. Video courtesy of Open Road Media.
Albert Einstein - Theory of Relativity Proven Correct
In 1919, a Solar Eclipse occurred, giving Einstein the ability to prove his Theory of Relativity correct.
Albert Einstein - Father of the Atomic Age
The rising threat of the Nazi party forced Einstein to abandon his pacifist principles and write a letter to President Roosevelt that triggered the the Manhattan Project.
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Play NowAlbert Einstein. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 04:27, May 22, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408.
Albert Einstein. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408 [Accessed 22 May 2013].
"Albert Einstein." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 22 2013, 04:27 http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408.
"Albert Einstein," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408 [accessed May 22, 2013].
"Albert Einstein," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408 (accessed May 22, 2013).
Albert Einstein [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 22] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408.
Albert Einstein, http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408 (last visited May 22, 2013).
Albert Einstein. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408. Accessed May 22, 2013.
Synopsis
Born in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany in 1879, Albert Einstein developed the special and general theories of relativity. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize for physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century. He died on April 18, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey.
Contents
Quotes
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"
"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."
Early Life
Born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany, Albert Einstein grew up in a secular, middle-class Jewish family. His father, Hermann Einstein, was a salesman and engineer who, with his brother, founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a company that manufactured electrical equipment in Munich, Germany. His mother, the former Pauline Koch, ran the family household. Einstein had one sister, Maja, born two years after him.
Einstein attended elementary school at the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich, where he excelled in his studies. He enjoyed classical music and played the violin. However, he felt alienated and struggled with the rigid Prussian education he received there. He also experienced a speech difficulty, a slow cadence in his speaking where he’d pause to consider what to say next. In later years, Einstein would write about two events that had a marked effect on his childhood. One was an encounter with a compass at age five, where he marveled at the invisible forces that turned the needle. The other was at age 12, when he discovered a book of geometry which he read over and over.
In 1889, the Einstein family invited a poor medical Polish medical student, Max Talmud to come to their house for Thursday evening meals. Talmud became an informal tutor to young Albert, introducing him to higher mathematics and philosophy. One of the books Talmud shared with Albert was a children’s science book in which the author imagined riding alongside electricity that was traveling inside a telegraph wire. Einstein began to wonder what a light beam would look like if you could run alongside it at the same speed. If light were a wave, then the light beam should appear stationary, like a frozen wave. Yet, in reality, the light beam is moving. This paradox led him to write his first "scientific paper" at age 16, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields." This question of the relative speed to the stationary observer and the observer moving with the light was a question that would dominate his thinking for the next 10 years.
In 1894, Hermann Einstein’s company failed to get an important contract to electrify the city of Munich and he was forced to move his family to Milan, Italy. Albert was left at a boarding house in Munich to finish his education at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Alone, miserable, and repelled by the looming prospect of military duty when he turned of age, Albert withdrew from school using a doctor’s note to excuse him and made his way to Milan to join his parents. His parents sympathized with his feelings, but were concerned about the enormous problems that he would face as a school dropout and draft dodger with no employable skills.
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