Albert Einstein
Essay Preview: Albert Einstein
Report this essay
Albert Einstein, a famous scientist. Everyone knows that. But how much do you really know about him. Well, this article is to
Albert Einstein was born on March 15, 1879, in the town of Ulm, in Southern Germany. That town was located at the foot of the Swabian Alps. His address was 135 Bahnhofstrasse but that house was later destroyed in a World War II bombing run. His parents were Hermann and Pauline Koch Einstein. Both of them were Jewish, but didnt strongly practice the religion. Therefore, “Israelitic” was written on the Religion section of Einsteins birth certificate. Two years after Einsteins birth, Einsteins sister, Maria, was born. Einstein could talk in whole sentences at the age of three. Einsteins mom, Pauline Einstein, loved music so Einstein took Violin lessons from age six to thirteen. Einsteins father wasnt a successful businessman. He then started a plumbing/electrical engineering company with his brother in Munich, hoping that would be a success. Albert spent the next 14 years of his life there.
Albert was supposed to go to a Jewish school, but his parents thought that he would get a better education at a Catholic School. He hated the schools military tradition and atmosphere. Einstein wasnt very intelligent during this time.
At the age of twelve, he went to a gymnasium, Luitpold Gymnasium to be more exact, which is like a middle school and a high school combined. During then, he was starting to read books on science. He met a poor scholar who helped Einstein in his studies. The scholars name was Max Talmud. To boost Einsteins knowledge, he gave Einstein several hard problems. One of them was to prove the Pythagorean theorem. (See Diagram 1.)
In 1894, Einsteins family moved to Milan, Italy, but Einstein had to stay in Munich to finish his studies. Before the end of the school year, which was six months after his parents left, he was told to leave the gymnasium because of his disrespect to his teachers. He then moved to Italy, which was a surprise to his parents because they werent expecting him in Italy.
When he was 16Ð, he took a test to get into the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH). You didnt need a high school diploma to get into the ETH. Instead, you need to pass a very hard test. The ETH also played another important role in Einsteins life: it admitted women. Einstein was a year and a half younger than the average student and failed the part of the test that dealt with languages. Fortunately, The principal or the ETH, Albin Herzog, saw some spark in Einsteins mathematical skills and made a bargain with Einstein. He would allow Einstein to go to the ETH if Einstein took one year of languages and sciences in a high school in Aarau. This was one of the best years of Einsteins life. In 1901, He became a Swiss citizen. After one year, he went to the ETH for four years. After he finished those four years, he could become a science teacher. At the ETH, he met a Hungarian girl named Mileva Maric. Mileva and Albert soon fell in love. Before they got married, they had a girl, but no one knows what happened to her.
In 1902, Einsteins dad died. At that time, Einstein worked as a technical expert or patent examiner. He was paid about 3,500 Swiss francs annually. In 1903, Einstein marries Mileva. They had a son, Hans Albert, in May 1904.
Einstein had his “miracle year” in 1905. In that year, he discovered the theory of relativity. Simply put, the theory of relativity states that when one object is accelerated, depending on the velocity of the observer, the object will seem to go at different speeds. Also, relativity said that Newtons law of force was incorrect. In Newtons law, he forgot the fact that friction slows down the force, but in Einsteins theory, he remembered about friction. Also, Newton didnt show that the velocity of an object matters in its mass. In real life, it does. Einstein realized that and showed that in his theory: m = mo/sqrt (1-v2/c2). Translated in English, it means that the mass (m) of an object is equaled to mass of the object with no velocity (mo) divided by the square root of one minus the velocity of the object (v) squared over the speed of light (c) squared. Also in 1905, Einstein said E = moc2 which means that means that mass can produce vast amounts of energy. This theory eventually played a major part in the nuclear age, but at first, it wasnt very popular. This theory was sold to an insurance company for five million dollars.
A scientist called Walter Kaufmann thought the Theory of Relativity was wrong. But Einstein didnt give up. He thought that his own theory was so harmonious and perfect that he thought it had to be correct. This was a feeling that Einstein had throughout his lifetime, and surprisingly enough, he could tell which theories could be trusted to be correct and which could not.
In 1905, Einstein