Albert Einstein 1879-1955
Einstein as child. Wikipedia 2004.
Einstein was born March 14, 1879 to Jewish parents living in Ulm Germany. His father was a feather bed salesman
and his mother was an heiress to a fortune from her father’s side. He was a shy child who disliked authority and the
acceptance of conventional ideas. His rejection of the widely accepted is most likely what drove him to peer into
the physical world that so many had overlooked. His first observation of a magnetic compass which was given to
him by his father spurred his curiosity in the physical sciences and its mysterious forces. He began studying math at
age 12 and quickly found himself absorbed in study. He began studying Euclidean Plane Geometry and taught
himself Calculus. He applied for admission to the Zurich Polytechnic Institute in Switzerland in 1984 which involved
taking a tough entrance exam (Wikipedia, Albert Einstein 1). Though failing the French, chemistry and biology
portion, he did so well on the math and physics portions that he convinced the principle of the school to admit
him the following year at the age of 16 (Kaku 40). He met his love, Mileva Mirac, and graduated from the university.
Upon graduation, Einstein could not find work as an instructor because he had irritated many staff members with his
disregard for authority. He began work at the Swiss Patent Office in 1902, where he had time to ponder science
while performing his duties, evaluating patent designs. Three short years later, the genius of Einstein would be
revealed in four articles he submitted to the “Annalen der Physik.” These papers, published in the year 1905, are
now commonly referred to as the “Annus Mirabilus Papers” or “The Miracle Year Papers” (Wikipedia, Albert Einstein
1). Contained within one of these papers were Einstein’s theories about Special Relativity which would
revolutionize Physical thought for the next century. The last 50 years of his life would be consumed in the
development of his General Theory of Relativity and the unsuccessful pursuit of a Unifying General Field Theory.
Einstein as a Patent Clerk. Wikipedia 2004.
This page was created by George S. Walker V. (2004)
Wikipedia 2004.