Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a physicist who was born in Germany on 14 March 1879 and died in the United States on 18 April 1955. He is best known for his theory of relativity, which includes the equation "E=mc2". As a Jew, he was persecuted under the Nazis and later had the opportunity to become president of Israel. He is known as one of the greatest geniuses of all time, and was a probable autistic.
Education and citizenship[edit]
He moved to Switzerland to complete secondary school in 1896 and was made a Swiss citizen in 1901. He moved back to Germany in 1911 and became a German citizen again in 1914. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921, but for his work on photoelectricity, not relativity. Appalled at the rise of Nazism (he wrote a book "Why War?" jointly with Sigmund Freud), Albert Einstein moved to USA in 1933 and narrowly avoided the Holocaust through this move. Albert Einstein became a US citizen in 1937 after briefly moving to Bermuda in order to apply for citizenship. Albert Einstein died in 1955 from an aortic aneurysm.
Major inventions and theories[edit]
Albert Einstein's first major invention (jointly with Leo Szilard) was the invention of the "Einstein refrigerator" in 1926, which was an alternative design of the 1922 version of the refrigerator. [1] The Einstein refrigerator was very popular. The Einstein refrigerator used ammonia, butane and water to operate, had no moving parts, and did not require electricity to operate. It was, however, very smelly. It was the standard of refrigerators until 1930 when the invention of Freon made all previous models obsolete. Einstein continued to work on his refrigerator until 1933, however, when he moved to USA.
Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, including the equation E=mc2 was used to describe how to split the atom and, after he moved to USA in 1933, it was then used to create the first atomic bomb. Whilst Einstein himself was not a part of the creation process of the bomb, he is often credited with its creation. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, shortly followed by a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, to finally end World War II.
Amongst Einstein's other major inventions is his theories that led to the concept of the worm hole, based on his 1916 theories to help to explain the mysteries of the Bermuda triangle. Einstein's theories were given a name, the Einstein-Rosen bridge, in 1935 by Karl Schwarzschild, which described the gateway that Einstein theorised to exist between two linked parts of space, the worm hole. The term "worm hole" was not used until after Einstein's death, in 1957, when the term was coined by John Archibald Wheeler, who also described an alternative theory, which he called "black holes". Since Einstein's death, his theories in relation to the worm hole theories have been constantly rubbished in popular theories, although they have continued to be promoted in the Science Fiction community.
Einstein is well known for refuting Newton. As early as 1911 Einstein had questioned the traditional concept that light rays pass through space in a straight line, and predicted that observations would prove that they were affected by the modification of space (or more precisely, of space-time) that results from the masses found in it. Einstein received a lot of negative press for daring to dispute Newton, which he did throughout his career. In addition to his relativity theory refuting Newton, he also greatly contributed to quantum mechanics (for which he is known as a founder), which also greatly opposes many aspects of Newton's laws of motion (and extends other aspects). Analysis of the 1916 solar eclipse proved Einstein correct, which is what made him a global celebrity.
Whilst Einstein supported quantum theory in his youth, he rejected it as an adult. Many physicists to this day support both quantum theory and general relativity, yet the two in many ways oppose each other. The quest for a unifying theory is ongoing, and as yet no theory that supports both has ever been formulated.
Myths[edit]
A popular myth concerning Einstein is that he failed high school and was not allowed entrance to university, a myth which is often used to inspire students who are failing. In actual fact, Einstein never failed high school or any subject or course at any point in his career. The myth probably refers to when Einstein was criticised by German teachers, who told him that his very presence (being a Jew) in the school made the school look bad. This was undoubtedly a part of the reason why he moved to Switzerland to complete secondary school, and likely also motivated him to move to USA in 1933.
Another popular myth is that Einstein is responsible for first describing the concept of a black hole. In actual fact, it was John Archibald Wheeler who first described the concept of a black hole, in a presentation to NASA in 1967. Wheeler's theories were based on his understanding of Einstein's theories of 1916, which in 1957 he described as worm holes. In other words, Einstein is actually responsible for describing a worm hole, not a black hole; however the concept of a black hole was first created as an alternative to a worm hole. Fundamentally, the difference was that whilst a worm hole has 2 ends (and a bridge, called an Einstein-Rosen bridge, that connects the two places), a black hole is a one-way street, sucking everything in and letting nothing out. In short, while worm holes obey the known laws of physics, black holes require for new laws to be created, laws which have not yet been theorised. In 2006, Stephen Hawking described that black holes could have a way out, and also should shrink and vanish after a period of time, which means that today's understanding of what a black hole could possibly be could be simply a traditional worm hole, but one without an Einstein-Rosen bridge to protect each end, and the two terms could today be at least partially used interchangeably.
Factoids[edit]
The concept of autism did not exist during Albert Einstein's lifetime; therefore he cannot be described as an autistic, or not an autistic. However, his mannerisms, extreme highs and lows and his lack of basic communication skills make him a stereotypical autistic person, and it is highly likely that, had the diagnosis existed in his lifetime, that he would have been diagnosed as an autistic. Albert Einstein is often described by people promoting the autistic condition as an example that autism is not a disability.
A pipe smoker (he was a life member of the Montreal Pipe Smokers Club), Einstein claimed that "Pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgement of human affairs". [2]. Throughout his life, Einstein was one of the greatest supporters of tobacco smoking in the world.