Albert Einstein

There have been tremendous amounts of brilliant scientists; however, Albert Einstein was one of the
smartest people in the group who contributed to the society lots of momentous scientific inventions.
Einstein showed the world that absolute time had to be replaced by a new absolute, the speed of light.
Not like other scientists, Einstein did not agree with the “old physics.” Instead, he held his own belief and
showed that space and time were absolute and the speed of light was relative. In addition, he not only
contributed to the science but also contributed to the math by showing how to calculate Avogadro’s
number. Also, Einstein helped to open the door to a new science world by providing the idea of quantum
physics. With all the efforts he put in for the world, he won the Noble Prize in 1921. ¹

‍Insight and Influence

Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Wurttemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. He had to move around
quite a bit because his father was failing repeatedly on businesses that he opened. In 1914, he was
appointed as a director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and the Professor in the University of
Berlin. During the World War I, Einstein was asked to help the United States Navy evaluate designs for
future weapons systems. He was the first one to give the idea about the atomic bomb. However, he did
not want the bomb to be used in a purpose to kill people. Therefore, when he heard the news that the
atomic bombs were launched in Japan, he immediately formed the Emergency Committee of Atomic
Scientist in order to get the bomb under control. After World War II, for being a leading person in the
World Government Movement, he was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel; however he declined
the offer. Then, he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. He won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921, and is known as a most influential scientist of the
20th century.²

‍Major Contributions

Einstein accomplished significant amount of new ideas and contributed to the world largely. He majorly
contributed to the four areas of the science; Light, Time, Energy, and Gravity. For example, one of
Einstein's theories states that time is not as constant as the light is; the time goes slower as the one goes
faster, even though the one does not feel anything. In addition, Albert Einstein accomplished a famous
equation, E=MC2. It explains the links between the energy and mass. As Isac Newton invented the theory
of gravitational pull, Einstein added to that idea, stating that not only does the object fall to the ground
because of the gravity, but also earth's orbit attracts asteroids. Not only that, he also came up with the
special theory of the relativity, stating that light is constant, and that it is impossible to go faster than the
speed of light. Without Einstein's achievements, it would be hard to believe that the world would be the
same place as it is right now.³

‍Affect & Effect

When Albert Einstein was young, his parents business was the manufacture of electrical parts. Because
he did not pass the examination, which would have led him to the course of studying electrical
engineering at the Swill Federal Institute of Technology, he spent the next year at the cantonal secondary
school in order to return to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. After a successful studying from the
Institution, he completed an astonishing range of publications in theoretical physics. In 1905, after he
earned his Ph. D., Einstein wrote a paper on what is now known as the special theory of relativity. This
paper contained two hypotheses. The first stated that the laws of physics had to have the same form in
any frame of reference. The second hypothesis stated that the speed of light was a constant. In addition,
he wrote numerous momentous papers to help the science world to be more easily understood. Einstein
was not only a phenomenal scientist, but also a social activist and a humanitarian. He spoke out against
the German involvement in World War I. Albert married his first wife, Mileya Maric in Berne, with whome
he had three children : Lieserl, Hans Albert, and Eduard. But Mileya and Albert divorced in Februry 1919
and a few months later, he married his cousin, Elsa Einstein. After Hitler’s rise to power, Life for Jews in
Germany became extremely uncomfortable. Therefore, he and his wife, Elsa, moved to the United States
and settled in Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein, after the settlement, sent a letter to President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in order to suggest that the United States must develop an atomic bomb before Germany did.
The letter later contributed to Roosevelt’s decision to fund what became the Manhattan Project.

‍The Things he Left Behind

Although he was regarded as one of the most brilliant physicists in the past, Albert Einstein thought of
himself as much as a philosopher as a scientist. Out of tremendous amount of experiments he had done,
he had discovered that the clocks run slower or faster depending on the speed of travel or location in the
universe, and the actual distances are stretched or shrunk by gravity. In addition, his invention of the
atomic bomb eventually led to the end of the World War II, when the United States dropped the bomb on
Japan. However, Einstein deeply regretted for putting the universe at risk, and also realized that the bomb
he had created could bring enormous problems to the future world. He summarized his feeling about the
bomb saying that “[He] made one great mistake in [his] life... when [he] signed the letter to
President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some
justification - the danger that the Germans would make them.” ⁴ Therefore, he decided to destroy
the monster by campaigning for the abolition of the atomic bomb. Although his invention put the world at
risk once, without Einstein, the world currently would not be the same place.

Achievements

 Einstein showed that absolute time had to be replaced by a new absolute: the speed of light.
Einstein went against the grain and totally dismissed the "Old Physics." He envisioned a
world where space and time are relative and the speed of light is absolute (at the time, it was
believed that space and time were absolute and the speed of light was relative).
 He asserted the equivalence of mass and energy, which would lead to the famous formula
E=mc2
 Einstein challenged the wave theory of light, suggesting that light could also be regarded as a collection of
particles. This helped to open the door to a whole new world--that of quantum physics. For ideas in this paper, he
won the Nobel Prize in 1921.
 His paper concerning the Brownian motion of particles. With profound insight, Einstein blended ideas from kinetic
theory and classical hydrodynamics to derive an equation for the mean free path of such particles as a function of
the time.

 Einstein showed how to calculate Avogadro's number and the size of molecules.

 In 1910, Einstein answered a basic question: 'Why is the sky blue?' His paper on the phenomenon called critical
opalescence solved the problem by examining the cumulative effect of the scattering of light by individual
molecules in the atmosphere.
 Einstein later published a paper in 1915 called "General Relativity." General Relativity took over when Special
Relativity started to fail. Controversy started to rise when Einstein released his second paper called "General
Relativity."
 In 1917, Einstein published a paper which uses general relativity to model the behavior of an entire universe.
General relativity has spawned some of the weirdest, and most important results in modern astronomy.
 Einstein recognized that there might be a problem with the classical notion of cause and effect. Given the peculiar,
dual nature of quanta as both waves and particles, it might be impossible, he warns, to definitively tie effects to
their causes.
 Between 1905 and 1925, Einstein transformed humankind's understanding of nature on every scale, from the
smallest to that of the cosmos as a whole. Now, nearly a century after he began to make his mark, we are still
exploring Einstein's universe.
 In 1924, Einstein received a short paper from a young Indian physicist named Satyendra Nath Bose, describing
light as a gas of photons, and asking for Einstein's assistance in publication. Einstein realised that the same
statistics could be applied to atoms, and published an article in German (then the lingua franca of physics) which
described Bose's model and explained its implications. Bose Einstein statistics now describes any assembly of
these indistinguishable particles known as bosons.

 Einstein and de Sitter in 1932 proposed a simple solution of the field equations of general
relativity for an expanding universe. They argued that there might be large amounts of matter
which does not emit light and has not been detected. This matter, now called 'dark matter', has
since been shown to exist by observing is gravitational effects.
 (born March 14, 1879, Ulm, Württemberg, Ger.—died April 18, 1955, Princeton, N.J., U.S.) German-born
physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics
in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Einstein is generally considered the most influential
physicist of the 20th century.
 Education
 Einstein's parents were secular, middle-class Jews. His father, Hermann Einstein, was originally a
featherbed salesman and later ran an electrochemical factory with moderate success. His mother, the
former Pauline Koch, ran the family household. He had one sister, Maja, born two years after Albert.
 Einstein would write that two “wonders” deeply affected his early years. The first was his encounter with a
compass at age five. He was mystified that invisible forces could deflect the needle. This would lead to a
lifelong fascination with invisible forces. The second wonder came at age 12 when he discovered a book of
geometry, which he devoured, calling it his “sacred little geometry book.”
 Einstein became deeply religious at age 12, even composing several songs in praise of God and chanting
religious songs on the way to school. This began to change, however, after he read science books that
contradicted his religious beliefs. This challenge to established authority left a deep and lasting impression.
At the Luitpold Gymnasium, Einstein often felt out of place and victimized by a Prussian-style educational
 system that seemed to stifle originality and creativity. One teacher even told him that he would never
amount to anything.
 Yet another important influence on Einstein was a young medical student, Max Talmud (later Max Talmey),
who often had dinner at the Einstein home. Talmud became an informal tutor, introducing Einstein to higher
mathematics and philosophy. A pivotal turning point occurred when Einstein was 16. Talmud had earlier
introduced him to a children's science series by Aaron Bernstein, Naturwissenschaftliche Volksbucher
(1867–68; Popular Books on Physical Science), in which the author imagined riding alongside electricity
that was traveling inside a telegraph wire. Einstein then asked himself the question that would dominate his
thinking for the next 10 years: What would a light beam look like if you could run alongside it? If light were a
wave, then the light beam should appear stationary, like a frozen wave. Even as a child, though, he knew
that stationary light waves had never been seen, so there was a paradox. Einstein also wrote his first
“scientific paper” at that time (“The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields”).
 Einstein's education was disrupted by his father's repeated failures at business. In 1894, after his company
failed to get an important contract to electrify the city of Munich, Hermann Einstein moved to Milan, Italy, to
work with a relative. Einstein was left at a boarding house in Munich and expected to finish his education.
Alone, miserable, and repelled by the looming prospect of military duty when he turned 16, Einstein ran
away six months later and landed on the doorstep of his surprised parents. His parents realized the
enormous problems that he faced as a school dropout and draft dodger with no employable skills. His
prospects did not look promising
 Albert Einstein has often been called "father of the atomic bomb" and blamed for its creation, but
historically this is not true and this fact should be set straight. The only push in that direction was
a letter to then president Franklyn Roosevelt in which he encouraged the US to seek to build the
atomic bomb before the German’s did. He only did this because he thought they were at a point
where they would succeed at it. He later stated that if he knew they would not succeed, he would
have said nothing to the president. His major accomplishments have given present day scientists
enough information about our universe to assist us in getting men into space and knowing more
about the earth and our immediate sun as well as the stars millions of miles away.

The Accomplishments of Albert Einstein

The four major areas of science that Albert Einstein contributed to are Light, Time, Energy and
Gravity.

Light
Einstein’s fascination with light began at an early age. When he was 16 years old he wondered
what it would be like to ride his bike on a beam of light. Almost 10 years later, in 1905 he had
what he called his first "Thought Experiment" and came up with the special theory of relativity in
which he stated that light is constant, unlike the wavelike picture that the scientists of the time had
thought it was. Not only that, it is not possible to travel faster than the speed of light 186,000
miles/second (300,000 Km/second). Light always travels at the same speed whether it be on the
headlight of a train speeding down the tracks or the light on the lantern shining on the tracks. The
light itself, always travels at the same speed.

Time/Space
Einstein’s theory states that time is not constant as is light, the faster one goes, the slower time
is, even though that person does not feel it as being different.

One practical use for this is knowing that there is a time difference the closer you get to the speed
of light. This is generally not noticable to people here on earth (walking vs. driving a car), but it is
of utmost importance when considering space travel.

There was a Russian cosmonaut that spent 748 days in space (roughly 2 years). That man is
 now 0.02 seconds younger than he would have been had he never gone to space, because of the
slower time in space aboard the MIR space station. For him it doesn’t make that much of a
difference, but lets say that someone wanted to travel to alpha centauri, our nearest star. It would
take them 5.7 earth years, however they would only age 3.8 years and return at a younger than
expected age. So time itself is relative, while light is constant.

Energy
Most everyone has heard of E=MC2, This is the famous equation that shows the relationship
between Energy and Mass (at rest, the equation is different for moving mass). It was once
thought that Energy and mass were different, however Einstein’s theory states that Energy and
Mass are merely different forms of the same thing, similar to Ice, water and gas, all are forms of
liquid.

Not only that Mass and Energy can be destroyed and changed into one another, as stated in the
light theory above. Speed up enough and you will have a gain of mass because energy has
turned into Mass. Our sun is burning up hydrogen, turning it into energy that we perceive as light.
Since the source of hydrogen is not infinite, the source of light is not finite. However, we have
nothing to fear for several million years.

Gravity
Einstein added to Newton’s theory of gravitational pull, stating that not only does the apple fall to
the ground because of gravity, but earth’s orbit attracts asteroids (and other space objects)
because of the "dent" the earth makes in the "fabric" of space. Thus, giving us the power to our
advantage as a "parking space" for satellites in our orbit to use for our technological advantages.
It has also been used to get men to and from the moon.

Conclusion
These are just the major accomplishments of Albert Einstein, after World War II he was influential
in the idea of dropping the Atomic bomb on Japan (which he immediately regretted), He also has
been influential in promoting the Israeli state and actively promoted freedom of thought and liberty
in a time of hate and racism.
March 14th, 2005 marks the 126th birthday of the great physicist and
peace champion Albert Einstein. Born in Germany on March 14th, 1879,
Einstein is known for the general theory of relativity. His work
dramatically altered the world’s conception of space, time, and energy. In
his quest to understand the universe, Einstein laid the theoretical
foundations for nuclear energy and, ultimately, the atomic bomb.
Although Einstein helped to usher in the Nuclear Age, he was not a
scientist detached from social responsibility. He continues to be honored
for his ceaseless struggle to achieve peace, world order, and international
cooperation.

Einstein's Early Years

After receiving a Doctorate degree in 1905 from Eidgenossische Technishe Hockshule, a

technical university in Zurich, Switzerland, Einstein worked as a technical assistant at the
Swiss Patent Office. During his spare time he produced much of his remarkable scientific
work. Einstein found Newtonian mechanics to be inadequate and, using his idea of
relativity, attempted to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of electromagnetic
fields. Einstein believed that a unified theory was possible to explain the seemingly
contradictory laws of the movement in large objects to the laws governing subatomic
particles. In 1921, Einstein received a Nobel Prize for his 1905 work on photoelectric effects.

Einstein's Contributions and Legacy

Albert Einstein’s political activism began during World War I. After the war, he participated
in the League of Nations (the predecessor to the United Nations) and in other disarmament
groups. He soon became a leader and advocate for pacifism and non-violent conflict
resolution. In December 1932, Einstein accepted an offer of a post at Princeton University
and left Germany for the United States. The following month the Nazis came to power in
Germany and Einstein was never to return there.

With the onset World War II in 1939, Europe was further destabilized and Einstein feared
that the Nazi regime would be victorious. At the urging of fellow scientist Leo Szilard ,
Einstein wrote a letter to US President Roosevelt warning that the US must develop the
atomic bomb before the Germans did. As a result, President Roosevelt initiated a research
project to create an atomic bomb, and the Nuclear Age was set in motion. However, as the
realization of nuclear weapons drew near, Einstein looked beyond World War II to future
problems that such weapons could bring. In December 1944, Einstein wrote to physicist
Niels Bohr, “When the war is over, then there will be in all countries a pursuit of secret
war preparations with technological means which will lead inevitably to preventative
wars and to destruction even more terrible than the present destruction of life.”

While Einstein’s recommendation led to the Manhattan Project, after the devastation of
Japan by the atomic bomb – which occurred three months after the surrender of Germany
– Einstein deeply regretted his role in encouraging the project. In November 1954, five
months before his death, Einstein summarized his feelings about his role in the creation of
the atomic bomb: “I made one great mistake in my life... when I signed the letter to
President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some
justification - the danger that the Germans would make them.”

Following World War II, Einstein became even more outspoken. He was a leading figure in
the World Government Movement and continued to work for peace and world order,
campaigning for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. When asked what kind of weapons
World War III would be fought with, Einstein responded, “I know not with what weapons
World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

On July 9, 1955, Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell issued the Russell-Einstein Manifesto
warning of the peril of nuclear weapons and the dangers of continuing an arms race and
called upon Congress, scientists and the general public to join in a resolution. The Russell
Einstein Manifesto resolved: “In view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear
weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued
existence of mankind, we urge the Governments of the world to realize, and to
acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war, and we
urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of
dispute between them.”
What Would Einstein Say To Scientists Today?

“Today, the physicists who participate in watching the most formidable and dangerous
weapon of all time...cannot desist from warning and warning again: we cannot and
should not slacken in our efforts to make the nations of the world and especially their
governments aware of the unspeakable disaster they are certain to provoke unless they
change their attitude towards each other and towards the task of shaping the future.”

Despite Einstein’s call for the complete abolition of all nuclear weapons, scientists today are
researching and developing a new generation of these indiscriminate weapons of mass
murder. As world citizens, we must follow Einstein’s example and assume our paramount
responsibility of calling upon all scientists, elected officials and world leaders to publicly
renounce nuclear weapons, immediately negotiate a treaty for their complete elimination
and instead find a peaceful means for settling all matters of conflict.

Celebrating Einstein

Below are ideas for celebrating Einstein’s legacy on his birthday.

1. One of Einstein’s most important observations was that we need to think in a different
mode than the one which produced our problems. Read and discuss the Russell-Einstein
Manifesto or quotes from Einstein (see below) and then brainstorm one page of ideas,
considering: In what new ways can we think about resolving conflict? Who or what
organization is thinking differently about how to accomplish peace? Follow up the
brainstorming activity with one action inspired by your thinking. Consider doing this with
family and friends.

2. Learn more about leading scientists and scientific organizations who are speaking out for
world peace:

 International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility

 International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation
 Pugwash

3. Consider where you might be able to raise peace consciousness in your life.

Einstein Quotes on Peace & War

“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”

“ Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“ I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be
fought with sticks and stones.”

“ Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by
the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!”

“ The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the
solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have
become a watchmaker.”

“ He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He
has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely
suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at
command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather
be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under
the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

“ We must inoculate our children against militarism, by educating them in the spirit of
pacifism... Our schoolbooks glorify war and conceal its horrors. They indoctrinate
children with hatred. I would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate.”

“ Concern for man himself and his fate must always be the chief interest of all technical
endeavors... In order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to
mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.”