Aleta chappelle biography of albert einstein
His groundbreaking work in the early 20th century encompassed the theory of relativity, the photoelectric effect, and significant contributions to quantum mechanics. Beyond his scientific achievements, Einstein was a passionate advocate for peace and civil rights, leaving an indelible mark on both science and society. In this overview, we will delve into the life and accomplishments of this iconic figure in the world of physics and humanitarianism.
This theory revolutionized our understanding of space and time by proposing that the laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion. In the same year as his special theory of relativity, Einstein published another groundbreaking paper on the photoelectric effect. This phenomenon occurs when light, typically in the form of photons, strikes a material surface and liberates electrons from it.
Also Read: Timeline of Albert Einstein. Einstein explained the photoelectric effect by proposing that light energy is quantized into discrete packets of energy, now known as photons. He suggested that the energy of these photons is directly related to their frequency, and this insight provided crucial support for the emerging field of quantum mechanics.
For his work on the photoelectric effect, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in Building on his special theory of relativity, Einstein developed the general theory of relativity, which is a theory of gravitation. But he also spoke highly of the meritocracy in American society and the value of being able to speak freely. On the outbreak of war inEinstein wrote to President Roosevelt about the prospect of Germany developing an atomic bomb.
He warned Roosevelt that the Germans were working on a bomb with a devastating potential. Roosevelt headed his advice and started the Manhattan project to develop the US atom bomb. But, after the war ended, Einstein reverted to his pacifist views. Einstein said after the war. In the post-war McCarthyite era, Einstein was scrutinised closely for potential Communist links.
He was also a strong critic of the arms race. Einstein remarked:. Einstein was feted as a scientist, but he was a polymath with interests in aleta chappelle biographies of albert einstein fields. In particular, he loved music. He wrote that if he had not been a scientist, he would have been a musician. Einstein played the violin to a high standard.
I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music… I get most joy in life out of music. Einstein died inat his request his brain and vital organs were removed for scientific study. Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. Updated 2nd March Albert Einstein — His Life at Amazon. Quotes by Albert Einstein. Including mathematicians, biologists, physicists and chemists.
Famous pacifists — People who refused to fight and people who supported different forms of pacifism. Thank you so much, This biography really motivates me a lot. Sooo inspiring thanks Albert E. You helped me in my report in school I love you Albert E. Albert Einstein with wife Elsa. Einstein was very particular about his sleep schedule, claiming he needed 10 hours of sleep per day to function well.
His theory of relativity allegedly came to him in a dream about cows being electrocuted. He was also known to take regular naps. He is said to have held objects like a spoon or pencil in his hand while falling asleep. That way, he could wake up before hitting the second stage of sleep—a hypnagogic process believed to boost creativity and capture sleep-inspired ideas.
Although sleep was important to Einstein, socks were not. He was famous for refusing to wear them. According to a letter he wrote to future wife Elsa, he stopped wearing them because he was annoyed by his big toe pushing through the material and creating a hole. One of the most recognizable photos of the 20 th century shows Einstein sticking out his tongue while leaving his 72 nd birthday party on March 14, According to Discovery.
Tired from doing so all night, he refused and rebelliously stuck his tongue out at the crowd for a moment before turning away. UPI photographer Arthur Sasse captured the shot. Einstein was amused by the picture and ordered several prints to give to his friends. He was taken to the hospital for treatment but refused surgery, believing that he had lived his life and was content to accept his fate.
I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly. He was able to photograph the office just as Einstein left it. However, during his life, Einstein participated in brain studies, and at least one biography claimed he hoped researchers would study his brain after he died. In keeping with his wishes, the rest of his body was cremated and the ashes scattered in a secret location.
According to The New York Timesthe researchers believe it might help explain why Einstein was so intelligent. Rorke-Adams said she received the brain slides from Harvey. Einstein has also been portrayed on screen. Walter Matthau portrayed Einstein in the fictional comedy I. A much more historically accurate depiction of Einstein came inwhen he was the subject of the first season of Geniusa part scripted miniseries by National Geographic.
Johnny Flynn played a younger version of the scientist, while Geoffrey Rush portrayed Einstein in his later years after he had fled Germany. Ron Howard was the director. Robert Oppenheimer during his involvement with the Manhattan Project. The Biography. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications.
For much of the last phase of his academic life, Einstein worked on two endeavors that ultimately proved unsuccessful. First, he advocated against quantum theory's introduction of fundamental randomness into science's picture of the world, objecting that God does not play dice. As a result, he became increasingly isolated from mainstream modern physics.
Inhe was named Time 's Person of the Century. Inthe family moved to Munich 's borough of Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadtwhere Einstein's father and his uncle Jakob founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. This sparked his lifelong fascination with electromagnetism. He realized that "Something deeply hidden had to be behind things. Albert attended St.
Peter's Catholic elementary school in Munich from the age of five. When he was eight, he was transferred to the Luitpold Gymnasiumwhere he received advanced primary and then secondary school education. InHermann and Jakob's company tendered for a contract to install electric lighting in Munich, but without success—they lacked the capital that would have been required to update their technology from direct current to the more efficient, alternating current alternative.
The Einstein family moved to Italy, first to Milan and a few months later to Paviawhere they settled in Palazzo Cornazzani.
Aleta chappelle biography of albert einstein: Albert Einstein was a German-born
His father wanted him to study electrical engineeringbut he was a fractious pupil who found the Gymnasium's regimen and teaching methods far from congenial. He later wrote that the school's policy of strict rote learning was harmful to creativity. At the end of Decembera letter from a doctor persuaded the Luitpold's authorities to release him from its care, and he joined his family in Pavia.
Einstein excelled at physics and mathematics from an early age, and soon acquired the mathematical expertise normally only found in a child several years his senior. He began teaching himself algebra, calculus and Euclidean geometry when he was twelve; he made such rapid progress that he discovered an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem before his thirteenth birthday.
He thereupon devoted himself to higher mathematics Soon the flight of his mathematical genius was so high I could not follow. At thirteen, when his range of enthusiasms had broadened to include music and philosophy, [ 30 ] Talmud introduced Einstein to Kant 's Critique of Pure Reason. Kant became his favorite philosopher; according to Talmud, At the aleta chappelle biography of albert einstein he was still a child, only thirteen years old, yet Kant's works, incomprehensible to ordinary mortals, seemed to be clear to him.
He failed to reach the required standard in the general part of the test, [ 31 ] but performed with distinction in physics and mathematics. His sister, Majalater married Winteler's son Paul. Marie Winteler, a year older than him, took up a teaching post in OlsbergSwitzerland. Over the next few years, the pair spent many hours discussing their shared interests and learning about topics in physics that the polytechnic school's lectures did not cover.
Eventually the two students became not only friends but also lovers. There is at least some evidence that he was influenced by her scientific ideas, [ 37 ] [ 38 ] [ 39 ] but there are scholars who doubt whether her impact on his thought was of any great significance at all. A letter of Einstein's that he wrote in September suggests that the girl was either given up for adoption or died of scarlet fever in infancy.
Their son Eduard was born in Zurich in July In letters that Einstein wrote to Marie Winteler in the months before Eduard's arrival, he described his love for his wife as "misguided" and mourned the "missed life" that he imagined he would have enjoyed if he had married Winteler instead: "I think of you in heartfelt love every spare minute and am so unhappy as only a man can be.
Inshe was diagnosed with heart and kidney problems. She died in December A volume of Einstein's letters released by Hebrew University of Jerusalem in [ 60 ] added some other women with whom he was romantically involved. Following an episode of acute mental illness at about the age of twenty, Einstein's son Eduard was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Einstein graduated from the Federal Polytechnic School induly certified as competent to teach mathematics and physics. He found that Swiss schools too appeared to have no use for him, failing to offer him a teaching position despite the almost two years that he spent applying for one. Eventually it was with the help of Marcel Grossmann 's father that he secured a post in Bern at the Swiss Patent Office[ 70 ] [ 71 ] as an assistant examiner — level III.
Patent applications that landed on Einstein's desk for his evaluation included ideas for a gravel sorter and an electric typewriter. He arrived at his revolutionary ideas about space, time and light through thought experiments about the transmission of signals and the synchronization of clocks, matters which also figured in some of the inventions submitted to him for assessment.
InEinstein and some friends whom he had met in Bern formed a group that held regular meetings to discuss science and philosophy. Their choice of a name for their club, the Olympia Academywas an ironic comment upon its far from Olympian status. Einstein was formally awarded his PhD on 15 January The publications deeply impressed Einstein's contemporaries.
Einstein's sabbatical as a civil servant approached its end inwhen he secured a junior teaching position at the University of Bern. Ina lecture on relativistic electrodynamics that he gave at the University of Zurich, much admired by Alfred Kleiner, led to Zurich's luring him away from Bern with a newly created associate professorship.
In Julyhe returned to his alma materthe ETH Zurichto take up a chair in theoretical physics. His teaching activities there centred on aleta chappelle biography of albert einstein and analytical mechanics, and his research interests included the molecular theory of heat, continuum mechanics and the development of a relativistic theory of gravitation.
In his work on the latter topic, he was assisted by his friend, Marcel Grossmann, whose knowledge of the kind of mathematics required was greater than his own. In the spring oftwo German visitors, Max Planck and Walther Nernstcalled upon Einstein in Zurich in the hope of persuading him to relocate to Berlin. The outbreak of the First World War in July marked the beginning of Einstein's gradual estrangement from the nation of his birth.
When the " Manifesto of the Ninety-Three " was published in October —a document signed by a host of prominent German thinkers that justified Germany's belligerence—Einstein was one of the few German intellectuals to distance himself from it and sign the alternative, eirenic " Manifesto to the Europeans " instead. Inhe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".
Bose derived the Planck spectrum in Einstein resigned from the Prussian Academy in March His accomplishments in Berlin had included the completion of the general theory of relativity, proving the Einstein—de Haas effectcontributing to the quantum theory of radiation, and the development of Bose—Einstein statistics. InEinstein reached a milestone on his long journey from his special theory of relativity to a new idea of gravitation with the formulation of his equivalence principlewhich asserts that an observer in an infinitesimally small box falling freely in a gravitational field would be unable to find any evidence that the field exists.
Inhe used the principle to estimate the amount by which a ray of light from a distant star would be bent by the gravitational pull of the Sun as it passed close to the Sun's photosphere that is, the Sun's apparent surface. He reworked his calculation inhaving now found a way to model gravitation with the Riemann curvature tensor of a non-Euclidean four-dimensional spacetime.
By the fall ofhis reimagining of the mathematics of gravitation in terms of Riemannian geometry was complete, and he applied his new theory not just to the behavior of the Sun as a gravitational lens but also to another astronomical phenomenon, the precession of the perihelion of Mercury a slow drift in the point in Mercury's elliptical orbit at which it approaches the Sun most closely.
Eddington's work was reported at length in newspapers around the world. With Eddington's eclipse observations widely reported not just in academic journals but by the popular press as well, Einstein became perhaps the world's first celebrity scientista genius who had shattered a paradigm that had been basic to physicists' understanding of the universe since the seventeenth century.
Einstein began his new life as an intellectual icon in America, where he arrived on 2 April He returned to Europe via London, where he was the guest of the philosopher and statesman Viscount Haldane. He used his time in the British capital to meet several people prominent in British scientific, political or intellectual life, and to deliver a lecture at King's College.
The American is friendly, self-confident, optimistic, and without envy. InEinstein's travels were to the old world rather than the new. After his first public lecture in Tokyo, he met Emperor Yoshihito and his wife at the Imperial Palacewith thousands of spectators thronging the streets in the hope of catching a glimpse of him. In a letter to his sons, he wrote that Japanese people seemed to him to be generally modest, intelligent and considerate, and to have a true appreciation of art.
His journal also contains views of China and India which were uncomplimentary. Of Chinese people, he wrote that even the children are spiritless and look obtuse It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary. Sir Herbert Samuelthe British High Commissioner, welcomed him with a degree of ceremony normally only accorded to a visiting head of state, including a cannon salute.
One reception held in his honor was stormed by people determined to hear him speak: he told them that he was happy that Jews were beginning to be recognized as a force in the world. Einstein's decision to tour the eastern hemisphere in meant that he was unable to go to Stockholm in the December of that year to participate in the Nobel prize ceremony.
His place at the traditional Nobel banquet was taken by a German diplomat, who gave a speech praising him not only as a physicist but also as a campaigner for peace. From untilwith the exception of a few months in andEinstein was a member of the Geneva-based International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nationsa group set up by the League to encourage scientists, artists, scholars, teachers and other people engaged in the life of the mind to work more closely with their counterparts in other countries.
By persuading Secretary General Eric Drummond to deny Einstein the place on the committee reserved for a Swiss thinker, they created an opening for Gonzague de Reynoldwho used his League of Nations position as a platform from which to promote traditional Catholic doctrine. In March and AprilEinstein and his wife visited South America, where they spent about a week in Brazil, a week in Uruguay and a month in Argentina.
In DecemberEinstein began another significant sojourn in the United States, drawn back to the US by the offer of a two month research fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. Caltech supported him in his wish that he should not be exposed to quite as much attention from the media as he had experienced when visiting the US inand he therefore declined all the invitations to receive prizes or make speeches that his admirers poured down upon him.
But he remained willing to allow his fans at least some of the time with him that they requested. After arriving in New York City, Einstein was taken to various places and events, including Chinatowna lunch with the editors of The New York Timesand a performance of Carmen at the Metropolitan Operawhere he was cheered by the audience on his arrival.
During the days following, he was given the keys to the city by Mayor Jimmy Walker and met Nicholas Murray Butlerthe president of Columbia Universitywho described Einstein as "the ruling monarch of the mind". His friendship with Millikan was awkwardas Millikan had a penchant for patriotic militarismwhere Einstein was a pronounced pacifist. This aversion to war also led Einstein to befriend author Upton Sinclair and film star Charlie Chaplinboth noted for their pacifism.
Carl Laemmlehead of Universal Studiosgave Einstein a tour of his studio and introduced him to Chaplin. They had an instant rapport, with Chaplin inviting Einstein and his wife, Elsa, to his home for dinner. Chaplin said Einstein's outward persona, calm and gentle, seemed to conceal a "highly emotional temperament", from which came his "extraordinary intellectual energy".
Chaplin's film City Lights was to premiere a few days later in Hollywood, and Chaplin invited Einstein and Elsa to join him as his special guests. Walter IsaacsonEinstein's biographer, described this as one of the most memorable scenes in the new era of celebrity. Chaplin speculated that it was possibly used as kindling wood by the Nazis.
In Februarywhile on a visit to the United States, Einstein knew he could not aleta chappelle biography of albert einstein
to Germany with the rise to power of the Nazis under Germany's new chancellor, Adolf Hitler. While at American universities in earlyhe undertook his third two-month visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
In February and Marchthe Gestapo repeatedly raided his family's apartment in Berlin. Later on, they heard that their cottage had been raided by the Nazis and Einstein's personal sailboat confiscated. Upon landing in AntwerpBelgium on 28 March, Einstein immediately went to the German consulate and surrendered his passport, formally renouncing his German citizenship.
In AprilEinstein discovered that the new German government had passed laws barring Jews from holding any official positionsincluding teaching at universities. A month later, Einstein's works were among those targeted by the German Student Union in the Nazi book burningswith Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels proclaiming, "Jewish intellectualism is dead.
I must confess that the degree of their brutality and cowardice came as something of a surprise. Einstein was now without a permanent home, unsure where he would live and work, and equally worried about the fate of countless other scientists still in Germany. In late Julyhe visited England for about six weeks at the invitation of the British Member of Parliament Commander Oliver Locker-Lampsonwho had become friends with him in the preceding years.
To protect Einstein, Locker-Lampson had two bodyguards watch over him; a photo of them carrying shotguns and guarding Einstein was published in the Daily Herald on 24 July British historian Martin Gilbert notes that Churchill responded immediately, and sent his friend, physicist Frederick Lindemannto Germany to seek out Jewish scientists and place them in British universities.
As a result of Einstein's letter, Jewish invitees to Turkey eventually totaled over "1, saved individuals". Locker-Lampson also submitted a bill to parliament to extend British citizenship to Einstein, during which period Einstein made a number of public appearances describing the crisis brewing in Europe. On 3 OctoberEinstein delivered a speech on the importance of academic freedom before a packed audience at the Royal Albert Hall in London, with The Times reporting he was wildly cheered throughout.
Einstein was still undecided about his future. He had offers from several European universities, including Christ Church, Oxfordwhere he stayed for three short periods between May and June [ ] and was offered a five-year research fellowship called a " studentship " at Christ Church[ ] [ ] but inhe arrived at the decision to remain permanently in the United States and apply for citizenship.
Einstein's affiliation with the Institute for Advanced Study would last until his death in Bruria Kaufmanhis assistant, later became a physicist. During this period, Einstein tried to develop a unified field theory and to refute the accepted interpretation of quantum physicsboth unsuccessfully. He lived in Princeton at his home from onwards.
The group's warnings were discounted. The letter is believed to be arguably the key stimulus for the U. Some say that as a result of Einstein's letter and his meetings with Roosevelt, the US entered the "race" to develop the bomb, drawing on its "immense material, financial, and scientific resources" to initiate the Manhattan Project. For Einstein, war was a disease By signing the letter to Roosevelt, some argue he went against his pacifist principles.
Einstein became an American citizen in Not long after settling into his career at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he expressed his appreciation of the meritocracy in American culture compared to Europe. He recognized the "right of individuals to say and think what they pleased" without social barriers. As a result, individuals were encouraged, he said, to be more creative, a trait he valued from his early education.
He considered racism America's "worst disease", [ ] [ ] seeing it as handed down from one generation to the next. Du Bois and was prepared to testify on his behalf during his trial as an alleged foreign agent in InEinstein visited Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a historically black collegewhere he was awarded an honorary degree.
Lincoln was the first university in the United States to grant college degrees to African Americans; alumni include Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall. Einstein gave a speech about racism in America, adding, I do not intend to be quiet about it. InEinstein was one of the signatories of the founding proclamation of the German Democratic Partya liberal party.
Inhe criticized them for not having a "well-regulated system of government" and called their rule a "regime of terror and a tragedy in human history". He later adopted a more moderated view, criticizing their methods but praising them, which is shown by his remark on Vladimir Lenin :. In Lenin I honor a man, who in total sacrifice of his own person has committed his entire energy to realizing social justice.
I do not find his methods advisable. One thing is certain, however: men like him are the guardians and renewers of mankind's conscience.
Aleta chappelle biography of albert einstein: City & State's Health
Einstein offered and was called on to give judgments and opinions on matters often unrelated to theoretical physics or mathematics. Einstein was deeply impressed by Mahatma Gandhiwith whom he corresponded. He described Gandhi as a role model for the generations to come. Sundaram to meet his friend Einstein at his summer home in the town of Caputh. Sundaram was Gandhi's disciple and special envoy, whom Wilfrid Israel met while visiting India and visiting the Indian leader's home in During the visit, Einstein wrote a short letter to Gandhi that was delivered to him through his envoy, and Gandhi responded quickly with his own letter.
Although in the end Einstein and Gandhi were unable to meet as they had hoped, the direct connection between them was established through Wilfrid Israel. Einstein was a figurehead leader in the establishment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem[ ] which opened in Einstein was not a nationalist and opposed the creation of an independent Jewish state.
The state of Israel was established without his help in ; Einstein was limited to a marginal role in the Zionist movement. Per Lee SmolinI believe what allowed Einstein to achieve so much was primarily a moral quality. He simply cared far more than most of his colleagues that the laws of physics have to explain everything in nature coherently and consistently.
In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort. He served on the advisory board of the First Humanist Society of New York[ ] and was an honorary associate of the Rationalist Associationwhich publishes New Humanist in Britain. For the 75th anniversary of the New York Society for Ethical Culturehe stated that the idea of Ethical Culture embodied his personal conception of what is most valuable and enduring in religious idealism.
He observed, Without 'ethical culture' there is no salvation for humanity. The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can for me change this. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions.
And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. I cannot see anything ' chosen ' about them. Einstein had been sympathetic toward aleta chappelle biography of albert einstein for a long time. Although I have been prevented by outward circumstances from observing a strictly vegetarian diet, I have long been an adherent to the cause in principle.
Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind. He became a vegetarian himself only during the last part of his life. In March he wrote in a letter: So I am living without fats, without meat, without fish, but am feeling quite well this way.
It almost seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore. If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music I get most joy in life out of music. His mother played the piano reasonably well and wanted her son to learn the violin, not only to instill in him a love of music but also to help him assimilate into German culture.
According to conductor Leon BotsteinEinstein began playing when he was 5. However, he did not enjoy it at that age. When he turned 13, he discovered Mozart 's violin sonataswhereupon he became enamored of Mozart's compositions and studied music more willingly. Einstein taught himself to play without "ever practicing systematically". He said that love is a better teacher than a sense of duty.
The examiner stated afterward that his playing was remarkable and revealing of 'great insight'. What struck the examiner, writes Botstein, was that Einstein displayed a deep love of the music, a quality that was and remains in short supply. Music possessed an unusual meaning for this student. Music took on a pivotal and permanent role in Einstein's life from that period on.
Although the idea of becoming a professional musician himself was not on his mind at any time, among those with whom Einstein played chamber music were a few professionals, including Kurt Appelbaum, and he performed for private audiences and friends. Chamber music had also become a regular part of his social life while living in Bern, Zurich, and Berlin, where he played with Max Planck and his son, among others.
Inwhile engaged in research at the California Institute of Technology, he visited the Zoellner family conservatory in Los Angeles, where he played some of Beethoven and Mozart's works with members of the Zoellner Quartet. On 17 AprilEinstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysmwhich had previously been reinforced surgically by Rudolph Nissen in Einstein refused surgery, saying, I want to go when I want.
It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly. During the autopsy, the pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed Einstein's brain for preservation without the permission of his family, in the hope that the neuroscience of the future would be able to discover what made Einstein so intelligent.
Robert Oppenheimer summarized his impression of Einstein as a person: He was almost wholly without sophistication and wholly without worldliness There was always with him a wonderful purity at once childlike and profoundly stubborn. Einstein bequeathed his personal archives, library, and intellectual assets to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.
Throughout his life, Einstein published hundreds of books and articles. Einstein's first paper [ 77 ] [ ] submitted in to Annalen der Physik was on capillary attraction. Two papers he published in — thermodynamics attempted to interpret atomic phenomena from a statistical point of view. These papers were the foundation for the paper on Brownian motion, which showed that Brownian movement can be construed as firm evidence that molecules exist.
His research in and was mainly concerned with the effect of finite atomic size on diffusion phenomena. Einstein returned to the problem of thermodynamic fluctuations, giving a treatment of the density variations in a fluid at its critical point. Ordinarily the density fluctuations are controlled by the second derivative of the free energy with respect to the density.
At the critical point, this derivative is zero, leading to large fluctuations. The effect of density fluctuations is that light of all wavelengths is scattered, making the fluid look milky white. Einstein relates this to Rayleigh scatteringwhich is what happens when the fluctuation size is much smaller than the wavelength, and which explains why the sky is blue.
These four works contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed views on spacetime, and matter. The four papers are:. It reconciled conflicts between Maxwell's equations the laws of electricity and magnetism and the laws of Newtonian mechanics by introducing changes to the laws of mechanics. The theory developed in this paper later became known as Einstein's special theory of relativity.
This paper predicted that, when measured in the frame of a relatively moving observer, a clock carried by a moving body would appear to slow downand the body itself would contract in its direction of motion. This paper also argued that the idea of a luminiferous aether —one of the leading theoretical entities in physics at the time—was superfluous.
Einstein originally framed special relativity in terms of kinematics the study of moving bodies. InHermann Minkowski reinterpreted special relativity in geometric terms as a theory of spacetime. Einstein adopted Minkowski's formalism in his general theory of relativity. General relativity GR is a theory of gravitation that was developed by Einstein between and According to it, the observed gravitational attraction between masses results from the warping of spacetime by those masses.
General relativity has developed into an essential tool in modern astrophysics ; it provides the foundation for the current understanding of black holesregions of space where gravitational attraction is so strong that not even light can escape. As Einstein later said, the reason for the development of general relativity was that the preference of inertial motions within special relativity was unsatisfactory, while a theory which from the outset prefers no state of motion even accelerated ones should appear more satisfactory.
In that article titled "On the Relativity Principle and the Conclusions Drawn from It", he argued that free fall is really inertial motion, and that for a free-falling observer the rules of special relativity must apply. This argument is called the equivalence principle. In the same article, Einstein also predicted the phenomena of gravitational time dilationgravitational redshift and gravitational lensing.
InEinstein published another article "On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light" expanding on the article, in which he estimated the amount of deflection of light by massive bodies. Thus, the theoretical prediction of general relativity could for the first time be tested experimentally. InEinstein predicted gravitational waves[ ] [ ] ripples in the curvature of spacetime which propagate as wavestraveling outward from the source, transporting energy as gravitational radiation.
The existence of gravitational waves is possible under general relativity due to its Lorentz invariance which brings the concept of a finite speed of propagation of the physical interactions of gravity with it. By contrast, gravitational waves cannot exist in the Newtonian theory of gravitationwhich postulates that the physical interactions of gravity propagate at infinite speed.
While developing general relativity, Einstein became confused about the gauge invariance in the theory. He formulated an argument that led him to conclude that a general relativistic field theory is impossible. He gave up looking for fully generally covariant tensor equations and searched for equations that would be invariant under general linear transformations only.
In Junethe Entwurf 'draft' theory was the result of these investigations. As its name suggests, it was a sketch of a theory, less elegant and more difficult than general relativity, with the equations of motion supplemented by additional gauge fixing conditions. After more than two aleta chappelle biographies of albert einstein of intensive work, Einstein realized that the hole argument was mistaken [ ] and abandoned the theory in November InEinstein applied the general theory of relativity to the structure of the universe as a whole.
As observational evidence for a dynamic universe was lacking at the time, Einstein introduced a new term, the cosmological constantinto the field equations, in order to allow the theory to predict a static universe. The modified field equations predicted a static universe of closed curvature, in accordance with Einstein's understanding of Mach's principle in these years.
This model became known as the Einstein World or Einstein's static universe. Following the discovery of the recession of the galaxies by Edwin Hubble inEinstein abandoned his static model of the universe, and proposed two dynamic models of the cosmos, the Friedmann—Einstein universe of [ ] [ ] and the Einstein—de Sitter universe of In many Einstein biographies, it is claimed that Einstein referred to the cosmological constant in later years as his "biggest blunder", based on a letter George Gamow claimed to have received from him.
The astrophysicist Mario Livio has cast doubt on this claim.
Aleta chappelle biography of albert einstein: Albert Gerard Chappelle was born
In latea team led by the Irish physicist Cormac O'Raifeartaigh discovered evidence that, shortly after learning of Hubble's observations of the recession of the galaxies, Einstein considered a steady-state model of the universe. For the density to remain constant, new particles of matter must be continually formed in the volume from space.
It thus appears that Einstein considered a steady-state model of the expanding universe many years before Hoyle, Bondi and Gold. General relativity includes a dynamical spacetime, so it is difficult to see how to identify the conserved energy and momentum. Noether's theorem allows these quantities to be determined from a Lagrangian with translation invariancebut general covariance makes translation invariance into something of a gauge symmetry.
The energy and momentum derived within general relativity by Noether 's prescriptions do not make a real tensor for this reason. Einstein argued that this is true for a fundamental reason: the gravitational field could be made to vanish by a choice of coordinates. He maintained that the non-covariant energy momentum pseudotensor was, in fact, the best description of the energy momentum distribution in a gravitational field.
InEinstein collaborated with Nathan Rosen to produce a model of a wormholeoften called Einstein—Rosen bridges. These solutions cut and pasted Schwarzschild black holes to make a bridge between two patches. Because these solutions included spacetime curvature without the presence of a physical body, Einstein and Rosen suggested that they could provide the beginnings of a theory that avoided the notion of point particles.
However, it was later found that Einstein—Rosen bridges are not stable. In order to incorporate spinning point particles into general relativity, the affine connection needed to be generalized to include an antisymmetric part, called the torsion. This modification was made by Einstein and Cartan in the s. In general relativity, gravitational force is reimagined as curvature of spacetime.
A curved path like an orbit is not the result of a force deflecting a body from an ideal straight-line path, but rather the body's attempt to fall freely through a background that is itself curved by the presence of other masses. A remark by John Archibald Wheeler that has become proverbial among physicists summarizes the theory: Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve.
The geodesic equation covers the former aspect, stating that freely falling bodies follow lines that are as straight as possible in a curved spacetime. Einstein regarded this as an "independent fundamental assumption" that had to be postulated in addition to the field equations in order to complete the theory.