On March 14, we wish a happy 142nd birthday to Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), one of the most famous physicists and scientists in history. Born in Germany, Einstein showed an incredible aptitude for math and physics at a young age, and taught himself calculus at age 12. But after completing university, he was unable to find a teaching position, and instead took a post as a patent examiner in Switzerland.
While working at the patent office, in 1905 Einstein produced four important papers on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity and mass-energy equivalency (including the famous equation E=mc2). These papers were hugely influential to the foundations of modern physics and our understanding of space and time in ways the author of this blog is not smart enough to neither understand nor explain!
In 1916, now a professor at the University of Berlin, Einstein published his famous Theory of Relativity, which attempted to explain the effects of gravity on space and time. Though seemingly esoteric, relativity makes countless modern innovations possible, from nuclear power plants to GPS to space travel. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 for his contributions to theoretical physics and the discovery of the photoelectric effect.
Einstein left Germany for the US in 1933 for political reasons. A pacifist, in 1939 he wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging that the US begin developing atomic weapons, as Hitler had already begun their atomic program. Later in life, he would say: “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.”
A global celebrity to this day, Einstein has been featured in numerous films, books and television programs. Perhaps his most lasting legacy—outside the realm of physics—is his name, which has become synonymous with “genius.”
Not surprisingly, biographies of Einstein abound, including books for children and young adults. Einstein: His Life and Genius, by Walter Isaacson, is available from the Library in both ebook and print format. In Einstein Relatively Simple: Our Universe Revealed in Everyday Language, author Ira Mark Egdall uses everyday language to explain Einstein’s theories and their impacts in ways those of us without Nobel Prizes can understand. For the full list of our items on Albert Einstein, click here
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