Albert Einstein
By: Mandy Larsen
Mandy Larsen
Physics 1010
Albert Einstein
“Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.” This
was a quote by the famous scientist, Albert Einstein. I chose to write my paper on this world
known genius that changed how we view the universe. He was arguably the most influential
scientist of the 20th century. Some of the things he is most commonly known for are his
contribution to energy, light, time, and gravity. Throughout my paper I will be looking deeper
into his life and many of his discoveries.
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879. Einstein grew up in a
middle-class Jewish family. He began to have an interest in understanding science at the age of
10. He didn’t do well in most subjects except for physics and mathematics. Those two subjects
he excelled in from day one. He moved around quite a bit and transferred to a few different
schools as a small child. In 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich and
trained to be a physics and mathematics teacher. He was not fond of school; he felt it did not
allow him to fully exude his talents. He received his diploma in 1901 where he then acquired
Swiss Citizenship. He was a tutor and a technical assistant. In 1905 he got his doctorate degree.
While attending school he met Mileva Mari and married her. They had two children. In
may 1904, the couple’s first son, Hans Albert Einstein was born. Their second son, Eduard was
born in 1910. Einstein moved from Switzerland to Berlin, while his family stayed in Zurich. They
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divorced in 1919. He remarried a woman, Elsa Lowenthal in 1919. In 1933 they moved to the
United States because he was offered a job position to be a professor of Theoretical Physics at
Princeton. His second wife because ill and died in 1936. He became a citizen of the United
States in 1940.
E=MC2 is an equation we still use today. This was one of Einstein’s theories that energy
is proportionate to the amount of mass that an object holds. Meaning to a certain degree,
energy and mass are interchangeable. This led to a devastating discovery of the atom bomb. To
this day it’s one of Einstein’s most important contributions to modern day society. At the time
they were led to believe the Germans were working on a plan to build the first atomic bomb.
He wrote a letter to the president at that time, Franklin D. Roosevelt explaining his concerns
and the power of mass destruction behind it if put to use. This gave rise to the Manhattan
project and later the first of two atomic weapons that were ever used during a time of war.
One of Einstein’s more interesting discoveries is a theory as to why the sky is blue. This
was a question that many people asked and it wasn’t until his idea that light particles scatter as
a result of the atmosphere, allowing the blue spectrum to show through tell they had an
answer. He wrote a paper with a new understanding of the structure of light arguing that light
can act as particle of energy, in some ways like the particles of gas. Einstein proved previous
theories wrong with light quanta, as he called the particles of energy. He made clear how light
ejects electrons from metal.
Einstein said “There is no difference between the past and the future in the 4dimentional space-time world. The present is only an illusion.” This is a quote said to explain his
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theory of relativity. Most physicists do not believe time flows from the future into the past.
According to relativity, there is no such thing as “now”. Time is relative, not absolute as Newton
claimed. It speeds up or slows down depending on how fast one this is moving relative to
something else. In the book called Everything Forever, it describes the mental state in
describing the notion of infinite spaces and time. His theories lead us in the right direction, but
it wasn’t until Einstein passed away when other scientists began to understand his radical ideas.
The Big Bang and Quantum theory are two discoveries that seemed to be against all odds until
further research was done by several scientists.
Gravity was another part of his discoveries formed from his General Theory of Relativity.
He didn’t think gravity was a force at all. Basic physics states that if there are no external forces
at work, an object will always travel in a straight line. Along with two objects traveling parallel
paths will remain parallel if there are no external forces. That fact is they do meet and Einstein
says it’s because of gravity. His theory is gravity is not a force. It’s a curve in space-time.
According to him, those objects are travelling in the straightest possible line, but due to a
distortion in space-time, that line is along a spherical path. Meaning, the two straight paths
along the sphere end in a single point. There are many different theories as to what gravity is.
After readying several I am not sure that anyone has an exact answer. One thing we do know
for a fact is, what goes up must come down. We also know gravity is keeping the earth in orbit
safely and we won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
In doing all my research I had a very hard time pin pointing what to add in my paper.
Albert Einstein was a man of many talents. There was not just one major invention he came up
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with, there were several. To briefly sum up the outcomes of his inventions and how they have
affected us today, they have helped pave the way for the invention of television, nuclear
weapons and nuclear energy. Aside from these few of many important contributions
mentioned, his general relativity and special relativity theories have helped humankinds
understanding of how the universe works, especially when it comes to time and gravity. I have
always loved his famous quotes which is what encouraged me to write my paper on him. After
doing my researcher I learned so much more about the man and just how insanely brilliant he
actually was.
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Bibliography

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
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http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408?page=6

http://www.richeast.org/htwm/2003/wb/Einstein1.html

http://www.bibalex.org/einstein2005/achievements.htm

Everything Forever: Learning to See Timelessness by Gevin Giorbran.
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