Albert Einstein

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Albert Einstein

• Born March 14, 1879 in Germany
• Died April 18, 1955 in USA

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Born into a Jewish family where no traditions
were kept. Given religious education and musical
education. Einstein longed for a religious
life. At age 4 father shows him a
compass. Albert is filled with awe the needle
moved under the influence of an intangible,
divine power.


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Albert took violin lessons from age 6 to age 13.
Music was an expression of praise to God for
Albert Einstein. And to Einstein, all of nature
was the manifestation of Gods glory. Science
without religion is lame religion without
science is blind.
He was especially fascinated by light.
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Around the age of 12, Albert begins his
mathematical studies particularly calculus. In
1895 Einstein failed an entrance exam to
Eidgenossische Technische Hoschschule (ETH) in
Zurich. He is quoted as saying Education is
that which remains when one has forgotten
everything learned in school. Instead of
ETH, Einstein attended a secondary school where
he graduates in 1900 as a teacher in mathematics
and physics. This is where he met Mileva
Maric. In 1902 he and Miss Maric (sweetheart
and already-mother of his first child, a daughter
born in 1901) marry. Two sons were born to them
after their marriage, one in 1904 and one in
1910. Einstein was completely absorbed in his
work. Their marriage was not a happy one. They
were separated in 1914 and divorced in 1919.
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While unquestionably brilliant, Einstein was
not a good student and was not accepted for a
teaching position by any of the universities at
which he applied. He took a job at the patent
office in Bern, Switzerland. While at the
patent office (1902 1909) he completed an
astonishing range of theoretical physics
publications, written in his spare time without
the benefit of close contact with the scientific
community.
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Newton had established time to be a mathematical,
universal, absolute. And for calculus, it
worked. Calculus was developed around the fact
that a particle whose position at time t is given
by x(t), its velocity as dx/dt and its
acceleration as the second derivative with
respect to time. This requires time to be
continuous.
James Maxwell, a leading physicist in the early
1900s, developed a set of equations that so
perfectly described light that the speed of light
becomes the univeral absolute, not time. And
nothing can ever move faster than the speed of
light. This led to the theory that time is
quantised, and not continuous.
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Einstein saw that Newton and Maxwell were in
direct conflict with each other. His
fascination with light and this conflict led him
to ask the nagging question If you were to
catch up with a light beam, what would you see?
Newtons relative velocity says that if you catch
up to the front of a beam of light, and continue
moving at the speed of light, it should appear to
you as holding still. To a person on the
ground, the two people in this car are each
moving 65 mph. To a person in the back seat of
the car, the two people sitting in front are
holding still.
Maxwells theories say that speed of light NEVER
changes no matter how fast you go, it will still
speed away from you at 3x108 m/s.
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EINSTEIN if you caught of with a beam of light,
if you could move that fast, time would appear to
stand still. Look at a clock tower as you speed
away from it at the speed of light. You are
moving so fast that the clock would appear
stopped (the light reflecting off of it to make
it visible to you could not catch up with you)
but your own wrist watch (moving at the speed of
light with you) would have the normal time. A
storm broke loose in my mind, he commented.
Time can beat at different rates throughout the
universe, depending on how fast you moved.
EINSTEIN now imagine a train. If you give it
enough energy, and continue feeding it more
energy and more energy and more energy until its
speed approaches the speed of light and you
keep giving it more energy, but it can never go
any faster. WHERE DOES THAT EXTRA ENERGY GO? It
is not causing the trains speed to increase. IT
GOES INTO THE TRAINS MASS. THE ENERGY CONVERTS
TO MASS. E mc2
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How much is your pen worth (in terms of energy)?
Emc2

• Weigh your pen in kg.
• This is the mass, m.
• Speed of light, c 3 x 108 m/s.
• Calculate the energy (E) stored in your pen.
  This calculated energy has units of Joules (J).
• 5. Convert the energy in Joules to energy in
  Kilowatt.hours the unit of measurement your
  electric company uses to charge you.
• Use 3.6 x 106 Joules 1 Kilowatt.hour

• If you could sell your pen for the energy stored
  in it at the same rate you pay for energy
  (10 per Kilowatt.hour), how much would it be
  worth?

For example My pen weighs 11 grams 0.011 kg.
E (.011)(3x108)2 9.9x1014 J 9.9x1014
J . 275,000,000 kwh.
At 10 per kwh, this pen is worth (are you
sitting down?) 27,500,000 !!!!!!
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1905 Einstein published his theory on Special
Relativity and several other papers. 1908
Einstein became a lecturer at the University of
Bern. 1909 Resigns from patent office.
Recognized as a leading scientific thinker. 1911
Appointed full professor at Karl-Ferdinand
University in Prague 1914 Returns to Germany
with research position in Prussian Academy of
Sciences, a chair at the University of Berlin,
and offered the directorship of Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute of Physics in Berlin. 1919 London
Times headline Revolution in Science New
Theory of Universe Newtonian Ideas Overthrown.
Divorced Mileva. Married 1st cousin, Elsa. 1920
Lectures in Berlin were disrupted by anti-Jewish
demonstrations. If my theory of relativity is
proven successful, Germany will claim me as a a
German and France will declare that I am a
citizen of the world. Should my theory prove
untrue, France will say that I am a German and
Germany will declare that I am a Jew. 1921
Receives Nobel Peace Prize for 1905 work on
photoelectric effect. 1930 Offered a post at
Princeton. Left Germany in December 1932. The
following month the Nazis came to power and
Einstein never returned to Germany.
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1940 Einstein becomes an American citizen. 1939
1945 Four letters are written to President
Roosevelt warning of the possible dire
consequences of his theory of relativity.
Encourages President to be proactive since Hitler
was certainly developing a bomb using uranium and
nuclear fission an application of his famous
(now infamous?) Emc2. 1949 unwell.
Hospitalized. 1950 Prepares a will. Leaves his
scientific papers to the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem.
1952 Israels first president dies. Einstein
is offered the Israeli presidency. He declines
but finds it hard to do so without causing
offence. 1955 A week before his death, Einstein
agreed that his name should go on a manifesto
urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons.
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Sources

• http//www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Mathem
  aticians/Einstein.html
• http//inventors.about.com/library/inventor/bleins
  tein.htm
• http//www.skirball.org/exhibit/einstein-answers.a
  sp
• http//www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Quotat
  ions/Einstein.html
• PBS NOVA Einsteins Big Idea