Albert Einstein
By Kayla Reynolds
Albert Einstein’s time was during the 20th century. He was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879 and was 76 years old when he passed away in Princeton, New Jersey on April 18, 1955. He had one younger sister named Maria who passed some time before Einstein. Albert Einstein was a genius although he didn’t start to talk until he was the age of 3. Einstein would practice speaking and perfect it before he would let anyone hear him. Einstein is known for his theory of Relativity and hypothesis of the particle nature of light and also had a big part in helping make the then called atomic bomb, later called the hydrogen bomb, and now called the nuclear bomb. Einstein was raised in Munich, Germany. He grew up in a Totalitarian government. The Totalitarian government is similar to a Communistic government. The Totalitarian government meant that the government had control over all aspects of the people’s lives. Einstein, although very smart, didn’t do well with his schoolwork and was often known to be a poor student by his teachers, only because the work was too easy for him though. Einstein taught himself Euclidean Geometry at the age of 12. Einstein took his opportunity at 16 years old to get his medical certificate to be able to leave school and Germany to avoid being forced into the military. At 26 years old in 1905, Einstein, a now scientist in the physics field, wrote his third major paper on, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.” This famous paper included what became known as the Special Theory of Relativity. Einstein thought that the problem with this theory wasn’t in the “theory” itself, but it was the theory of measurement. Einstein’s theory of relativity stated that the gravity force that pulls us isn’t magnetic, but instead a distortion of space. His theory of relativity, for the most part, was just describing Frame of Reference. For example, in your frame of reference if you were on a train that was moving and you dropped a coin, you would look at the coin as if it was falling over to the side, but to another person standing still outside watching the coin drop, from their frame of reference, the coin falls straight down in a straight line. The coin dropping to the side was a statement relative to the person on the moving train. The coin falling down in a straight line was relative to the person standing still watching it fall from the train. Who is right, the person on the train, or the person standing still watching? If the two people were to dispute about the way it actually dropped, you would both be correct in your statement because the coin fell relative to you according to both of your own different frame of references. Albert’s theory included that gravitational fields are equivalent to acceleration. An example of this would be a roller coaster starting. It’s because of acceleration but also because of the gravitational force pulling it. With out a gravitational force pulling or lifting something up or causing it to move in any way, there wouldn’t be any gravitational energy helping an object to accelerate. The general theory of relativity wasn’t published until 1916. In 1921 his theory won him a Nobel Prize in Physics from many different scientific societies. Einstein’s new fame spread and he became know all over. His fame is what used to help support Pacifism and Zionism in Germany. Albert’s decision in including the support of Pacifism and Zionism in his goals got him a lot of negative feedback from the people and other scientists. His theories became mocked and criticized and he was discriminated against by the anti-Semitic (anti-Jews) because of his Jewish beliefs. When Adolph Hitler came into power of Germany, Einstein moved to the U.S. He made his home in Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein gathered with other physicists and wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This letter said to F.D.R., there might be an ability to make an atomic bomb for WW11. Roosevelt took them up on it. Einstein later regretted the atomic bomb after seeing it used in war to destroy so many people and things in Japan after two a-bombs were dropped on Japan giving U.S. the official win of WW11. The Israel leaders were so impressed they offered him the opportunity of being their President. Einstein declined the offer. Einstein’s discoveries had a major impact in the world in which he lived in at the time and now. His help with the A-bomb had a major effect on the turn out of WW11. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Einstein spoke of how the nation’s intellectuals needed to make ant sacrifices necessary to get their political freedom. Einstein died shortly after this in Princeton, NJ, April 18, 1955 at the age of 76. If not for his atomic bomb, we probably would have lost the war. His theory on the particles of light did and does have a lot of impact on our world today. If not for him and his theories, there probably wouldn’t be all of the advantages we have in things such as electronics and engineering. With out him we probably wouldn’t have our television or computers. There is still much of Einstein’s work that has not yet been figured out that could still help make more of an impact on the world in the future. Einstein’s theories have given us entertainment and they’ve also helped us quite a bit in the physics field of science. They gave us our television screen and computer screen. Without his theories on the speed of light, we wouldn’t have those. The human race today takes advantage of Einstein’s theories and takes the things that we have today, because of him, for granted. They don’t consider nor do they probably realize how this one man has made such a difference in their everyday lives. Einstein was a genius and should always be remembered.