Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics).
Einstein is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 has been called the most famous formula in the world, and even people who have no idea what mass-energy equivalence is still know it.
Albert Einstein did not fail at mathematics in school. In fact, he actually excelled at mathematics throughout his schooling and even considered becoming a mathematician for a time. This rumor actually started while he was still alive and even showed up in a particular issue of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.
When Albert Einstein was five years old and sick in bed, his father showed him a simple pocket compass. Einstein was mesmerized. What force exerted itself on the little needle to make it point in a single direction? This question haunted Einstein for many years and has been noted as the beginning of his fascination with science.
At the age of 7, he started school in Munich. At the age of 9, he entered the Luitpold-Gymnasium. By the age of 12 he was studying calculus. Now this was very advanced, because the students would normally study calculus when they were 15 years old. He was very good at the sciences. But, because the 19th-century German education system was very harsh and regimented, he didn’t really develop his non-mathematical skills (such as history, languages, music and geography). In fact, it was his mother, not his school, who encouraged him to study the violin – and he did quite well at that as well.
Einstein’s mother, Pauline, was an accomplished pianist and wanted her son to love music too, so she started him on violin lessons when he was six years old. Unfortunately, at first, Einstein hated
playing the violin.This all change When Einstein was 13-years old, he suddenly changed his mind about the violin when he heard the music of Mozart. With a new passion for playing, Einstein continued to play the violin until the last few years of his life. For nearly seven decades, Einstein would not only use the violin to relax when he became stuck in his thinking process, he would play socially at local recitals or join in impromptu groups such as Christmas carolers who stopped at his home.
Actually If the whole “genius” thing didn’t work out, Einstein could have become a violinist.
In 1895, he sat the entrance examinations to get into the prestigious Federal Polytechnic School (or Academy) in Zurich, Switzerland. He was 16, two years younger than his fellow applicants. He did outstandingly well in physics and mathematics, but failed the non-science subjects, doing especially badly in French – so he was not accepted.
So the next year, he finally started studying at the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (even though he was now one year younger than most of his fellow students). Also in the year 1896, even though he was only 16 years old, he wrote a brilliant essay that led directly to his later work in relativity.
So how did the myth that he failed high school start? Easy. In 1896, which was Einstein’s last year at the school in Aargau, the school’s system of marking was reversed. A grading of “6”, which had previously been the lowest mark, was now the highest mark. And so, a grading of “1”, which had been the highest mark, was now the lowest mark. And so, anybody looking up Einstein’s grades would see that he had scored lots of grades around “1” – which under the new marking scheme, meant a “fail”.
In 1905, Einstein had the biggest year of his life. He wrote, with the help of his wife, Mileva, five ground-breaking papers that, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica “forever changed Man’s view of the Universe“.
One paper, of course, dealt with Relativity – what happens to objects as they move relative to other objects. Another paper proved that atoms and molecules had to exist, based on the fact that you could see tiny particles jigging around when you looked at a drop of water through a microscope. A third paper looked at a strange property of light – the Photoelectric Effect. Plants and solar cells do the Photoelectric Effect, when they turn light into electricity. His paper explained the Photoelectric Effect.
Einstein did not win the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on Relativity but it was the unglamorous Photoelectric Effect that got him the Nobel Prize.
Mileva Marić was a Serbian physicist. She was the only woman among Albert Einstein’s fellow students at the Zurich Polytechnic. They developed a relationship and had a daughter before their marriage, Lieserl, who either died young or was given up for adoption. After their marriage in 1903, they had two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard.
They separated in 1914, with Marić taking the boys and returning to Zurich from Berlin. They divorced in 1919; that year Einstein married again. When he received the Nobel Prize in 1921, he transferred the money to Marić, chiefly to support their sons; she had access to the interest.
Elsa Loewenthal began a relationship with her cousin Albert Einstein at Easter 1912, while Albert was still married to his first wife, the physicist Mileva Marić. Einstein’s divorce from Maric was final on February 14, 1919, and Elsa married him three and a half months later, on June 2, 1919.
When Einstein attended college at the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, he fell in love with sailing. He would often take a boat out onto a lake, pull out a notebook, relax, and think. Even though Einstein never learned to swim, he kept sailing as a hobby throughout his life.
Part of Einstein’s charm was his disheveled look. In addition to his uncombed hair, one of Einstein’s peculiar habits was to never wear socks. Whether it was while out sailing or to a formal dinner at the White House, Einstein went without socks everywhere.
Einstein loved to smoke. As he walked between his house and his office at Princeton, one could often see him followed by a trail of smoke. Nearly as part of his image as his wild hair and baggy clothes was Einstein clutching his trusty briar pipe. In 1950, Einstein is noted as saying, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs,” Although he favored pipes, Einstein was not one to turn down a cigar or even a cigarette.
Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel which he politely declined.
Albert Einstein considered himself an agnostic, not an atheist.
Albert Einstein had no car of his own and he also never learned how to drive.
Hours before his death, Einstein was still attempting to prove his Theory of Everything.
The pathologist who made Einstein body’s autopsy stole his brain and kept it in a jar for 20 years. He eventually got the permission necessary from Einstein’s son, but he was fired from Princeton when he refused to turn the brain over. He kept it for over forty years before finally returning it in 1998.
Comments are closed.