Albert Einstein1879-1955

By Alyssa Evans, Chemistry Outreach, Spring 2001

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

Life of Albert Einstein1879: March 14, Albert Einstein is born to Hermann and Pauline Einstein in Ulm, Germany

1885: Albert begins taking violin lessons

1896: Albert graduated from high school and enrolls at the Federal Polytechnic (ETH) in Zurich.

1898: Einstein falls in love with Mileva Maric, a Hungarian classmate at the ETH

1900: Albert graduates from the ETH

1901: Einstein becomes a Swiss citizen and Mileva becomes pregnant

1902: Mileva gives birth to a daughter Lieserl, she is put up for adoption and all records of her disappear. Albert takes a job at the Swiss Patent Office

1903: Albert and Mileva marry

1904: Mileva gives birth to a son, Hans Albert, who eventually becomes a professor of hydraulics at the University of CA, Berkeley

1905: Einstein’s “Miracle Year”. Einstein publishes five papers which would change the view of science

1910: Son Eduard is born, although he excelled in music and literature he would die in a Swiss psychiatric hospital

1911: Albert is the youngest to attend the invitation-only Solvay Conference in Brussels, the first world physics conference

1914: Mileva and Albert divorce

1915: Einstein completes the General Theory of Relativity

1919: Albert marries his cousin, Elsa

1922: Albert is awarded the Nobel Prize of 1921 in Chemistry for his work on the Photoelectric effect

1927: Attends the fifth Solvay Conference and begins developing the foundation of quantum mechanics with Bohr

1933: Albert, identified as a Jew, leaves Germany and with his wife Elsa come to the US. He assumes a post at Princeton, New Jersey

1936: Elsa dies after a brief illness

1939: WWII begins. Einstein writes a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of the possibility of Germany building an atomic bomb and urging nuclear research

1940: Einstein becomes an American citizen

1952: Einstein was offered the position of president of the state of Israel. He turned it down

1955: A week before his death, Einstein signs a letter agreeing that his name should go on a letter urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons – his last act for international peace. On April 18, Albert Einstein dies of heart failure. Beside his bed lay the pages of an unfinished calculation on the unified field theory.

Solvay Conference of 1927

Major contributions to the SciencesIn one year, Einstein published five research papers. These publications would change mankind’s view of the universe forever

In March, Einstein used Max Planck’s quantum theory of light to explain the photoelectric effect. He proposed that light is composed of individual packets of energy, known as photons. These photons have properties of both waves and particles

Figure: The photoelectric effect. When photons of high energy strike a metal surface, electrons are emitted from the metal (a).The emitted electrons are drawn toward the positive terminal. The result: current will flow through the circuit (b).

Source: Brown, T.L., LeMay, H.E., Bursten,B.E, Chemistry: The Central Science, Seventh Edition. (Prentice Hall: NJ 1997) 187.

April and May brings about the publication of two papers. In one, Einstein discusses a new method of counting and determining the size of atoms or molecules in a given space. In the other, he explains the phenomenon of Brownian motion. The result of these papers is proof that atoms actually exist

June, Einstein publishes what is known today as the special theory of relativity. In it, he shows that time and motion are relative to the observer. If the speed is constant, the natural laws are the same everywhere in the universe

The last paper was a mathematical addition to the special theory of relativity. Here Einstein presents the formula E=mc2. This formula proved that a small particle of matter is the equivalent to an enormous quantity of energy.

Ten years later Einstein published his general theory of relativity. In it, he proposes that gravity is not a force, but a curved field that is created by the presence of mass.

Einstein’s colleagues – How many names do you recognize? Front row, left to right: I. Langmuir, M. Planck, M. Curie, H.A. Lorentz, A. Einstein, P. Langevin, C.E. Guye, C.T.R. Wilson, O.W. Richardson. Second row: P.Debye, M. Knudsen, W.L. Bragg, H.A. Kramers, P.A.M. Dirac, A.H. Compton, L.V. deBroglie, M.Born, N. Bohr. Standing: A. Piccard, E. Henriot, P. Ehrenfest, E. Herzen, T. De Donder, E. Schroedinger, E. Verschaffelt,W. Pauli, W. Heisenberg, R.H. Fowler, L. BrillouinReferences:

Brian, Denis. Einstein: A Life (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: NY, 1996)

Levenson, Thomas. “How smart was he?” 1996.www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/genius/index.html. (1/30/01)

“Time Line of Einstein’s Life” www.humboldt1.com/~gralsto/einstein/timeline.html. (1/23/01)