Albert+Einstein

=**ALBERT EINSTEIN**=

His name is synonymous with “genius.” He will be remembered as the man who changed history by changing the way we see just about everything. In 1999, TIME magazine named him #1 on its list of “The Most Important People of the Century.”



**Childhood**:
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany on March 14, 1879, to Hermann and Pauline Einstein. Albert was very slow in learning language and speaking skills. He had a speech teacher at one point. This background might explain his increased interest in everyday wonders. He learned to see and appreciate what others took as a given. He was perceived as a rebel, a dreamer, and a somewhat slow child because of his lacking abilities. His grade-school teacher told him he “would never amount to much.”

**Before the “Miracle Year”:**
Contrary to popular belief, Einstein did not fail his math classes. He learned calculus by age 15, and he had something that many, more experienced mathematicians didn’t: a gift for vision; the ability to see the picture behind the numbers. He didn’t see math as an exercise, he saw it as a puzzle. He focused his concentration naturally on the big picture. This advantage would help him become the “father of modern physics.”

**The Miracle Year:**
The Einstein family crossed borders many times, trying to get by after Hermann’s business failed. Soon Albert found himself a grown man living in Switzerland. There he met his future wife: Mileva Maric, the only female in his college class. After putting their first daughter up for adoption, they got married, stabilized themselves financially, and had more children. Einstein got a job at the patent office near the local university, where he took notes on his theories and “thought experiments” during his spare time. In 1905, he wrote and published five papers. All of them were brilliant and showed incredible intellect. But the fifth one was even greater. It is what led to the most famous equation in the world: E=mc2. It’s called //The Theory of Relativity//.

His ideas were not an overnight success. In fact, very little happened after they were published, because they conflicted with existing theories (that Einstein had already rejected, of course). But they did get the attention of Max Planck, a respected physicist from Germany.

**Rise to Fame:**
Einstein stayed at the patent office for four more years, quietly perfecting his ideas and thinking up new ones as his theories slowly rippled through communities of physicists. But even a small bit of recognition helped. He held a post at Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics by 1913. Unfortunately, he divorced his wife Mileva the following year, and although his personal life was less than perfect, his scientific productivity stayed the same. He continued to perfect his //Theory of Relativity// as word continued to spread.

//Note: the basic idea of the Theory of Relativity is that Energy is interchangeable with Mass, and mass will become Energy if it reaches the speed of light. There are many other ideas relating to this theory, like the way light travels, or the nature of time itself. Einstein explains it like this: “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.” Though not incredibly complicated, very few people FULLY understand his theory. Little-known fact… the actual equation is not E=mc2, that is just a simplified version of a much longer equation with a very similar mathematical result.//

**Becoming a Father Figure to Mankind:**
Einstein fell in love again and married his cousin, Elsa Einstein in 1919. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, giving the prize money to Mileva as a divorce settlement. By 1931, he was invited to Charlie Chaplin’s movie premiere in Los Angeles. He was world famous for his work and already considered a legend by many. He became less of a physicist and more of a purveyor of wisdom and knowledge in general. In 1933, he moved from Germany to America as Adolf Hitler came to power. Einstein, of Jewish faith, had anticipated the rise of the Nazis. He would soon advise president Roosevelt, before the second world war, that the Germans were probably developing a nuclear bomb, and the United States should do the same. They did, and they built it first. This would not have been possible without The Theory of Relativity, which explains the concept of small matter having the ability to give off a large amount of energy. One of Einstein’s biggest disappointments, he has said, is that he helped usher the world into the atomic age.

**Death:[[image:http://qualitystudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/albert-einstein-quotes2.jpg width="220" height="281" align="right"]]**
He continued to work on theories regarding the nature of the universe, almost to the exact moment he passed. On April 17, 1955 he checked himself into Princeton Hospital because of sharp pains in his chest. He passed the next day from an aneurysm. When Einstein’s death (at the age of 76) was publicized, the front page proclaimed him to be, possibly, “the greatest genius of all time.”

**Lasting Impact:**
Today, his ideas are still relevant and are still being explored. What interests some people the most is that it was all in his head. Einstein didn't use any physical experiments to define his theories. He changed the history, and future, of the planet just by thinking. And he has had a huge influence... A $1.42 billion “Einstein Telescope” is being planned in Europe. With it they intend to detect ripples in “space-time,” another well-known theory of Einstein’s. So far scientists have had good luck proving his ideas. $750 million says //The Theory of Relativity// is correct. With it, inventors produced the atomic clock, and a slew of satellites to go with it. GPS systems would not work without him. His thoughts fuel a hefty chunk of the scientific community, leading to newer and greater discoveries. Einstein is the reason we have remote controls and digital cameras, thanks to the "photoelectric effect." Also: cell phones, automatic doorways, computers, DVDs, carbon dating, and many medical scanners would not have been possible, or at least would be very different, without Albert Einstein. It is likely that Einstein will change our world again some day.

Related Links:
Atomic Bomb Cinema and Technology NASA Apollo 11 - Mission to the Moon Apollo Program

**Works Cited:**
Isaacson, Walter. //EINSTEIN//. New York: SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2007. Print.

Edward Ellis. "EINSTEIN IS DEAD AT 76." __New York World-Telegram__ [New York] 18 April1955, 2nd Edition: 1+.

"Albert Einstein - Biography." //Nobelprize.org//. The Nobel Foundation, 1922. Web. 19 May 2011.

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"Albert Einstein." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 19 May 2011. [].

The New York Times. "Dr. Albert Einstein Dies in Sleep at 76; World Mourns Loss of Great Scientist." //The New York Times -//

//Breaking News, World News & Multimedia//. The New York Times Company, 2010. Web. 19 May 2011.

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Science a Go Go. "Ten Obscure Factoids Concerning Albert Einstein." //Science News, Research And Discussion//. Science a Go

(and Its Licensors), 7 Oct. 1998. Web. 19 May 2011.

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Johnson, Alex. "It's Albert's World. We Just Live in It. - Technology & Science - Science - A Century of Einstein -

Msnbc.com." //Msnbc.com - Breaking News, Science and Tech News, World News, US News, Local News- Msnbc.com//.

Msnbc.com, 19 Apr. 2005. Web. 04 June 2011. .