Life and Times of Albert Einstein
Even though he did not receive the Nobel Prize for it, Albert Einstein is most well-known for his discovery of Theory of Relativity. Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 at Wurttemberg, a historical German territory. Then after six weeks, his family left for Munich. At Munich, Albert instigated his education at the Luitpold Gymnasium, a secondary school in Munich. Afterwards, his family went to Italy and Albert continued with his studies at Aarau in Switzerland.
Einstein was slightly different from other kids. He barely spoke as a young boy and was considered a retarded. At an early age, he started showing propensity for mathematics, mainly geometry and calculus. He discovered his own path of knowledge in mathematics and philosophy with a friend of the family, Max Talmud.
In the year 1896, Albert took admission in the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School located in Zurich. There he worked towards becoming a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, he got his certificate and also attained Swiss citizenship. However, he was not able to get a teacher’s post, so he took a post as technical assistant at Swiss Patent Office. During 1905, he got his doctor’s degree.
Einstein established the theory of general relativity between the years 1907 and 1915. In 1915, Einstein gave many lectures about his new theory, together with a new 10 equations to substitute Newton’s law of gravity, now recognized as Einstein’s Field Equation. The whole theory was published in 1916.
Soon after one year, Einstein again published a paper brining a new concept into his General Theory of Relativity, that he called the Cosmological Constant that kept back the universe from crumpling in on it. Later, he termed this notion as his Greatest Blunder. Einstein is known for developing the theory of relativity, which is one of the two main supports of modern physics along with quantum mechanics. Einstein is mainly recognized for his most popular formula of E = mc2. In 1921, he won Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions in theoretical physics and his work in the field of quantum theory.
In the years after the World War II ended, Einstein became a prominent figure in the global government movement. He was also presented with the Presidency of Israel, but he declined the offer. Instead, he worked together with Dr. Chaim Weizmann and opened the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Einstein has also made contributions in statistical mechanics by developing the theory of the monatomic ideal gas and he has also done lots of significant work in the field of atomic transition probabilities and creation of relativistic cosmology. Even after he retired, he never stopped working in the field of various physics concepts.
Einstein issued over 300 scientific papers together with more than 150 non-scientific works. Some of the Einstein’s most significant works comprise of Special Theory of Relativity, General Theory of Relativity, and The Evolution of Physics. He also wrote some non-science works like Zionism, and Why War?
Various reputed universities of Europe and America, bestowed Albert Einstein with honorary doctorate degrees in medicine, science, and philosophy. He was also given memberships of all the prominent scientific institutes all through the world.
In 1903, Albert Einstein tied knot with Mileva Maric and had one daughter and two sons. After divorcing in 1919, he married his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal and she died in 1936. And later on Albert Einstein died in 1955.
Einstein always seemed to have a clear idea about the different problems of physics and had strong determination to decipher them. He always followed a tactic of his own and was able to envisage the key steps as he moved towards his goal. He always looked upon his most important accomplishments as way to move forward to the next discovery.
