Accomplishments In The Life Of Albert Einstein

Essay, Research Paper

Accomplishments in the Life

Of Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was one of the greatest geniuses of all time. In 1886 he began his school career in Munich. He studied mathematics, in particular calculus, beginning around 1891.

In 1894 Einstein’s family moved to Milan but Albert stayed behind in Munich. In 1895 Albert failed an examination that would have allowed him to study for a diploma as an electrical engineer at the Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule in Zurich. After some time he graduated in 1900 as a teacher, teaching mathematics at the Technical High School in Winterthur.

Einstein finally landed another temporary job at the patent office in Bern. His title was technical expert third class. He worked in this patent office from 1902 to 1909 holding a temporary post when he was first appointed. By 1904 the position was made permanent and in 1906 he was promoted to technical expert second class.

Einstein earned a doctorate from the University of Zurich in 1905 for a thesis on a new determination of molecular dimensions.

Einstein wrote three papers in 1905. In the first one he examined the phenomenon discovered by Max Planck, which was, according to which electromagnetic energy seemed to be emitted from radiating object in discrete quantities. The energy of these quanta was directly proportional to the frequency of the radiation. This contradicted the normal electromagnetic theory based on Maxwell’s equations and the laws of thermodynamics, which assured that electromagnetic energy was made up of waves that could contain any small amount of energy. Einstein used Planck’s quantum hypothesis to describe the electromagnetic radiation of light. Einstein’s second paper proposed what is now called the special theory of relativity. He based his new theory on a reinterpretation of the classical principle of relativity, specifically the laws of physics had to have the same form in any frame of reference. Later in 1905 Einstein showed how mass and energy were equal. The third paper in 1905 concerned statistical mechanics.

After 1905 Einstein made important contributions to quantum theory, but he wanted to extend the special theory of relativity to phenomena involving acceleration. The key appeared in 1907 with the principle of equivalence, in which gravitational acceleration was held to be indistinguishable from acceleration caused by mechanical forces. From then on, gravitational mass was identical with inertial mass.

1909 recognized Einstein as a leading scientific thinker and in the same year he resigned from the patent office. He was appointed a full professor at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague in 1911. Also in 1911, Einstein was able to make preliminary predictions about how a ray of light from a distant star, passing near the sun, would appear to be bent slightly in the direction of the sun.

Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 but not for relativity, rather for his 1905 work on the photoelectric effect. At approximately 1922 he made many international visits. He visited Paris in 1922 and during 1923 he visited Palestine. After making his last major scientific discovery on the association of waves with matter in 1924 he made more visits in 1925 to South America.

In 1940 Einstein became a citizen of the United States. He made many contributions to peace during his life. In 1944 he made a contribution to the war effort by handwriting his 1905 paper on special relativity and putting it up for auction. It raised six million dollars. The manuscript today is held in the Library of Congress.

One week before his death, Einstein signed his last letter to Bertrand Russell in which he agreed that his name should go on a manifesto urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons. It fit him that one of his last acts was to argue, just as he had done all his life, for international peace.