Theoretical physicist, one of the founders of modern theoretical physics, Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm (Germany). His father, Hermann Einstein, was the owner of a company that sold electrical equipment, and his mother, Paulina Einstein, was a housewife. In 1880, the Einstein family moved to Munich, where in 1885 Albert became a student of the Catholic primary school. In 1888 he entered the Luitpold Gymnasium.
In 1894, Einstein's parents moved to Italy, and Albert, without receiving his matriculation certificate, soon reunited with them. He continued his education in Switzerland, where from 1895 to 1896 he was a student at a school in Aarau. In 1896, Einstein entered the Higher Technical School (Polytechnic) in Zurich, after which he was to become a teacher of physics and mathematics. In 1901, he received a diploma, as well as Swiss citizenship (Einstein renounced German citizenship in 1896). For a long time Einstein could not find a teaching position and ended up taking a position as a technical assistant at the Swiss patent office.
In 1905, three of the most important scientific works of Albert Einstein were published, devoted to the special theory of relativity, quantum theory and Brownian motion. In the article “Does the inertia of a body depend on the energy content in it?” Einstein first introduced into physics the formula for the relationship between mass and energy, and in 1906 he wrote it down as the formula E=mc2. It underlies the relativistic principle of energy conservation, all nuclear energy.
In early 1906, Einstein received his PhD from the University of Zurich. However, until 1909 he remained an employee of the patent office, until he was appointed extraordinary professor of theoretical physics at the University of Zurich. In 1911, Einstein became a professor at the German University in Prague, and in 1914 he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and a professor at the University of Berlin. He also became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
In 1916, Einstein predicted the phenomenon of induced (stimulated) emission of atoms, which lies at the basis of quantum electronics. Einstein's theory of stimulated, ordered (coherent) radiation led to the discovery of lasers.
In 1917, Einstein completed the general theory of relativity, a concept that justifies the extension of the principle of relativity to systems moving with acceleration and curvilinearity relative to each other. For the first time in science, Einstein's theory substantiated the connection between the geometry of space-time and the distribution of mass in the Universe. New theory based on Newton's theory of gravity.
Although both the special and general theories of relativity were too revolutionary to gain immediate recognition, they soon received a number of confirmations. One of the first was the explanation of the precession of the orbit of Mercury, which could not be fully understood within the framework Newtonian mechanics. During a total solar eclipse in 1919, astronomers were able to observe a star hidden behind the edge of the Sun. This indicated that light rays are bent under the influence of gravitational field Sun. Einstein gained worldwide fame when reports of the 1919 solar eclipse spread throughout the world. In 1920, Einstein became a visiting professor at Leiden University, and in 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the laws of the photoelectric effect and works on theoretical physics. In 1924-1925, Einstein made major contributions to the development of Bose quantum statistics, now called Bose-Einstein statistics.
In the 1920s and 1930s, anti-Semitism was gaining strength in Germany, and the theory of relativity was subjected to scientifically unfounded attacks. In an environment of slander and threats scientific creativity It was impossible, and Einstein left Germany.
In 1932, Einstein lectured at the California Institute of Technology, and in April 1933 he received a professorship at the Princeton Institute higher studies(USA), where he worked until the end of his life.
For the last 20 years of his life, Einstein developed a “unified field theory”, trying to bring together the theories of gravitational and electromagnetic fields. Although Einstein did not solve the problem of the unity of physics, mainly due to the undeveloped concepts at that time elementary particles, subatomic structures and reactions, the very methodology of the formation of the “unified field theory” clearly demonstrated its significance in the creation of modern concepts of the unification of physics.
Einstein paid much attention to the problems of ethics, humanism and pacifism. He developed the concept of the scientist's ethics, his responsibility to humanity for the fate of his discovery. Einstein's ethical and humanistic ideals were realized in his social activities. In 1914, Einstein opposed the German “patriots” and, during the First World War, signed the anti-war manifesto of German pacifist professors. In 1919, Einstein signed the pacifist manifesto of Romain Rolland and, in order to prevent wars, put forward the idea of creating a world government.
When Einstein received information about the German uranium project during World War II, he, despite his pacifist beliefs, together with Leo Szilard, sent a letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt describing possible consequences Nazi creation of the atomic bomb. The letter had a significant impact on the US government's decision to speed up development atomic weapons.
After the collapse of Nazi Germany, Einstein, along with other scientists, appealed to the US President not to use the atomic bomb in the war with Japan.
This appeal did not prevent the tragedy of Hiroshima, and Einstein intensified his pacifist activities and became the spiritual leader of campaigns for peace, disarmament, a ban on atomic weapons, and an end to the Cold War.
Shortly before his death, he signed the appeal of the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, addressed to the governments of all countries, warning them about the dangers of using hydrogen bomb and calling for a ban on nuclear weapons. Einstein advocated the free exchange of ideas and the responsible use of science for the benefit of humanity.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, he was awarded many other awards, including the Copley Medal of London Royal Society(1925), the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain and the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute (1935). Einstein was an honorary doctor of many universities and a member of the world's leading academies of science.
Among the many honors bestowed upon Einstein was an offer to become President of Israel in 1952. The scientist refused this offer.
In 1999 Time magazine named Einstein the man of the century.
Einstein's first wife was Mileva Maric, his fellow student at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. They married in 1903, despite the fierce opposition of his parents. From this marriage, Einstein had two sons: Hans-Albert (1904-1973) and Eduard (1910-1965). In 1919, the couple divorced. That same year, Einstein married his cousin Elsa, a widow with two children. Elsa Einstein died in 1936.
In his leisure hours, Einstein loved to play music. He began studying the violin when he was six years old and continued to play throughout his life, sometimes in ensembles with other physicists such as Max Planck, who was a superb pianist. Einstein was also fond of sailing.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
A great humanist, author of the famous and intricate theory of relativity, founder of the foundations of the development of modern physics and famous scientist Albert Einstein always knew how big he was. Despite dozens of published materials, personal letters, photographs and memoirs, he remains to this day one of the most mysterious persons in the scientific world. The truth of many of his facts difficult biography can be easily questioned, but there is still a rational grain in hundreds and even thousands of documents. Let's figure out together what he was like and how his life turned out.
Amazing Einstein: biography of a peculiar man
As a child, no one would have thought that young Albert, who began talking at the age of seven, had a great scientific future ahead of him. He was considered a lazy bumpkin, always distracted by something outside the window. He became interested in physics and mathematics only after he came across a volume of the famous philosopher Immanuel Kant, who stood on the verge of the Enlightenment and romanticism. His writings shocked the young man so much that he decided to understand the philosopher’s ideas with the help of universal language mathematics.
IN early childhood Albert Einstein was trained in a strict Catholic school in his native Munich. According to his personal memoirs, he experienced deep religious awe during this period and positioned himself as a man of faith. All this lost all meaning for him at the age of twelve, when popular science literature forced him to look critically at the plausibility of the facts described in the Bible.
Characteristics of a historical person
He was a cheerful person, confident that any problem would “solve” on its own if you ridiculed it long enough. Close friends and acquaintances described him as a friendly, sociable and always cheerful guy. He was quite tall (1.75 m), broad-shouldered and stooped, with a shock of completely unruly hair and huge dark brown eyes. Einstein spent years of his life thinking, but he also found time for other aspects of existence. He literally adored music, especially Mozart and Bach, knew how to play the violin and often practiced it. Albert smoked a pipe and was even in the company of its admirers. They say he had many mistresses, as well as several illegitimate children.
The Nobel Committee found more than five dozen nominations for Einstein for his newest revolutionary theory. His name consistently appeared on lists of candidates for the award for twelve years. However, it was possible to get what was due only in 1922, and only on the topic of the theory of the photoelectric effect. During his life, he managed to collect many titles and awards from prestigious universities in different cities. But from an outstanding scientist, he also turned into a hero of various novels, films and theatrical productions. In adulthood, the appearance of the professor with disheveled shaggy hair and a half-mad look became the basis for the inspiration of many figures in popular culture.
Albert's birth and childhood
Hermann Einstein, the father of the future luminary of science, was a poor Jew in the town of Ulm. He prepared feathers and down for the production of pillows and mattresses. He married Paulina Koch, whose father was a corn farmer. On March 14, 1879, the wife gave birth to a tiny boy with a large head, who was named Albert. Paulina's parents were wealthy enough to help Herman move from the provincial province to Munich within a year. There I managed to open a very small company and start selling electrical equipment. A year later, the sister of the future genius, Maria, was born.
The boy grew up calm, almost never cried, but his mother was worried about his overly large head, and she even suggested hydrocephalus. On top of everything, the child stubbornly refused to speak. At the age of six, his mother arranged for him to take violin lessons. This liberated the boy, he literally blossomed and carried his love for music throughout his life.
While studying at parochial school, where he was sent at the age of seven, Einstein’s name made teachers frown with disgust. They considered him lazy and often punished him, causing him to withdraw and withdraw into himself. The religiosity instilled at this time crumbled to dust when Albert fell into the hands of Euclid’s Elements and the works of Kant.
At the age of twelve he entered the gymnasium, which now bears his name, but did not achieve great success. The boy's diary had excellent marks only in Latin, which he knew perfectly well from school. Mathematics was also easy for Albert; he understood it and felt it intuitively. Subsequently, he will say that the education system, based on the authoritarianism of teachers and mechanical learning of material, has exhausted itself and only harms the very spirit of learning, killing creative thinking at the root. In 1994, the family moved to Italy, but the young man remained in Munich with relatives to finish his studies. However, it was not possible to obtain a certificate of education then.
Becoming a scientist
After spending a little time with his family, he headed to Zurich, where he expected to enter the Higher Technical School (Polytechnic). Having passed mathematics brilliantly, he failed French, which he did not know at all, and botany, which he simply was not interested in. The director of the school, himself a professor of mathematics, even then understanding who Albert Einstein was for science, gave good advice. He recommended that he enroll in his senior year at a school in northern Switzerland and come again the following year. In September '96, he finally passed everything necessary items, and by October he had already enrolled in the Polytechnic, which he successfully graduated at the dawn of the new century.
Interesting
In 1986, the idea came to renounce German citizenship. Albert wanted to obtain Swiss citizenship, but for this he had to pay a huge sum - a thousand francs of duty. The future great physicist Einstein did not have that kind of money, and by that time his father was completely bankrupt. Therefore, it was possible to do this only after five long years.
Despite the fact that he had received Swiss citizenship, he could not find a place for himself. I had to starve, that’s what started it serious illness liver, which went with him until his death. Everyday difficulties did not become a reason to give up science, which he became interested in at the technical school. Already in 1901, he printed and published an article in the Annals of Physics.
A fellow student named Marcel Grossman helped him cope with the plight. He gave excellent recommendations and the physicist was accepted into the FBP (Federal Bureau of Patents) as a third-class expert. The salary was three and a half thousand, which seemed like a fabulous sum for a poor scientist.
"Year of Miracles" of the beginning of the scientific revolution
In the history of world science, 1905 turned out to be a special year, for which it received the figurative name Annus Mirabilis. Three original papers by Einstein marked the beginning of a real revolution. They were also published in the above-mentioned “Annals” in Berlin.
- “Towards the electrodynamics of moving bodies”, with which the notorious technical theory actually began.
- “On the motion of particles suspended in a fluid at rest,” which was entirely devoted to the Brownian motion of particles. She did a static flip.
- “On one heuristic point of view concerning the appearance and transformation of light”, which laid the basis for the whole quantum mechanics.
During this period, Albert was often asked the question: how did he manage to create his more than strange theory? Half-jokingly, and maybe half-seriously, he answered that it was all to blame for his slow development, which allowed him to remain a child with sufficient education.
The flourishing career of a brilliant physicist and scientific discoveries that turned the world upside down
Even if not at one moment, the physicist Einstein became famous precisely after the publication of his works in 1905. In April, he submitted his own dissertation to the University of Zurich, which he successfully defended in January. So a simple Jew from a German province became a real doctor of science in physics. The famous scientists with whom Albert actively corresponded called him a professor, but he officially received the title only after four years at the same educational institution.
Unfortunately, the remuneration for the professorship was meager, even compared to the Patent Office. Therefore, when he was offered a chair at the German University in Prague, he agreed without hesitation. Here he could freely engage in science and came close to eliminating Newtonian long-range action from the theory of gravity, which his colleagues struggled with long time. In the eleventh year he attended the congress, where he met Poincaré for the only time. Three years later he became a real professor at the University of Berlin, and in the fourteenth he was invited to St. Petersburg. Fearing Jewish pogroms, the scientist refused to go to Russia.
Since his 10th work, Einstein has been nominated for a Nobel Prize every year. The theory of relativity (TR) turned out to be so complex and revolutionary that the committee members could not bring themselves to admit its validity. Albert still received the award, but only in 1922 and not for what he expected. It was awarded for the photoelectric effect, an experimental and well-tested work. The scientist did not argue, took the money (32 thousand dollars) and immediately gave it to his ex-wife.
Scientific discoveries that changed the world
It was not for nothing that the scientist Einstein was considered in the world of science to be a real ascetic, a revolutionary, who turned the worldview of humanity as a whole upside down. He strove for maximum “logical simplicity” and managed to see something new in the familiar.
- General theory relativity is the main brainchild of physics. It is based on the denial of the ether and is based on experiments carried out. This work has long become a working tool for astronomers and physicists. It is the basis for time corrections in the GLONASS and GPS systems, and is used to calculate the acceleration parameters of elementary particles. TO also turned out to be indispensable for obtaining nuclear energy and space flights. Within the framework of this theory, the law of interaction between energy and mass (E = mc2) was discovered.
- Einstein made a huge contribution to the development of quantum mechanics. Even Schrödinger wrote that Albert's thoughts had a strong influence on him. Man has not yet learned to fully apply this discovery, but full swing A new quantum computer is being developed, the data processing speed of which will be beyond all our imaginations.
- Albert Einstein discovered that there are four types of particle interactions. By combining them, he created a unified field theory. He admitted that in addition to four dimensions (length, width, height, time), there is also a fifth, but due to its small size it is invisible. It was from these considerations that the notorious TO subsequently grew.
In nineteen hundred and five, the scientist discovered that the photoelectric effect, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize, is possible when a substance (medium) consists of individual particles (photons). When they strike electrons, they tear them out of the atoms. Thanks to the knowledge of this principle, it was possible to build an atomic bomb, but most importantly, numerous power plants of this type.
Moving a physicist to the USA
Beginning in the thirties of the twentieth century, an economic crisis began to brew in Weimar Germany, and with it, more and more frequent reports of unrest and anti-Semitism appeared, like mushrooms after rain. Radical nationalist sentiments in society led to serious threats and direct insults to Einstein as a Jew. The Nazis, who came to power, quickly took credit for all the physicist’s discoveries, and even offered a fifty thousand reward for his life and head. Racial cleansing could affect anyone, so in 1933 the scientist finally left Germany with its progressive Nazism and moved to the United States.
In the town of Princeton, he took a position as a professor in the physics department at the Institute for Advanced Study. A year later, he was summoned and honored with a personal meeting with President Franklin Roosevelt. During World War II, it was Einstein who was entrusted with the responsible task of advising the US Navy. The renowned scientist also signed the petition written by Leo Siladra. It talked about the danger of the Nazis creating an atomic bomb. Roosevelt took the paper seriously and created his own agency to develop such weapons.
Personal life of a genius: what Einstein did
The great physicist was not handsome, but he had a special approach to women. Contemporaries considered Albert a real “womanizer, trailing every skirt.” Fleeting romances did not always end calmly, without tears, hysterics and other accompanying “charms” that Einstein himself could not stand.
Wives and children
The physicist's first passion was Maria Winteler, whom he met at the Zurich Polytechnic. It didn’t get any further than violent passions, although the parents were already preparing a dowry. In 1998, while working on the theory of gravity, he met a Serbian woman, Mileva Maric, and fell in love again. What he found in this rude woman, limping on one leg and completely devoid of charm, no one understood. Albert's mother, Paulina, opposed this marriage and for several years the couple lived just like that. Their first-born daughter, Liesel or Lieserl, was also born out of wedlock, but the young father was in no hurry to acknowledge paternity. No one knows what happened to the baby afterwards, her trace is lost, and her fate is unknown.
After that, he agreed to marry Mileva, but set a number of conditions that clearly infringed on the woman’s rights (not entering the room when he was working and leaving it on demand, taking care of her husband, not discussing the decisions he made, and so on). But if you want to get married, then you won’t dance like that, and she agreed. They got married, and a year later (May 14, 1904) their son Hans Albert was born, who later became an engineer in hydraulic systems. The second son, Edward, was born (1910) mentally disabled, and in the thirties he was finally given a terrible diagnosis - schizophrenia. He died in a mental hospital in '65, having never left there after twenty years.
After marriage, it was very difficult to persuade Mileva to get a divorce, but Albert succeeded. He promised to give her all the money after receiving the Nobel Prize, the award of which there was no doubt, and it worked. He kept his word and transferred the funds to his ex-wife. His second wife was his second cousin Elsa Lowenthal, who turned a blind eye to all his adventures and oddities. She was previously married and had two lovely daughters, whom Albert not only adopted, but also considered the closest people in the world.
A series of mistresses followed, starting with secretary Betty Neiman. The man offered her to live together, but the young girl, twenty years younger than the professor, could not agree to this. Pretty Toni Mendel was next in line and lived next door. Ethel Mikhanovskaya, a friend of her adopted daughter, turned out to be too young, naive and romantic. She had to be abandoned because of Elsa's howling and tears. Margaret Lebach almost took him away from the family, but his wife survived. He did not want to exchange her for anyone: she was his wife, mother and even more. They say that in his declining years Einstein had an affair with Margarita Konenkova, the wife of a famous Soviet sculptor.
The scientist's political beliefs and Einstein's philosophy
Albert learned early on the injustice of the social system. That’s why he forever remained a convinced pacifist, socialist, humanist and anti-fascist. He fiercely condemned the alienation of man, the opposition of himself to others under capitalism.
He considered it a high goal to build a socialist system, but without signs of totalitarianism in the management of society. For him, coercion, violence, and even more so the murder of a person was extremely unacceptable due to his pacifist thinking. In 1927, he even actively participated in the Brussels Congress of the Anti-Imperialist League. During the outbreak of anti-Semitic pogroms in Germany, he actively supported Zionist groups.
The scientist Einstein was always keenly interested in the philosophical aspect of science. The main authority, in his own words, was Spinoza, whose ideas were so close to the physicist. He did not accept the explicitly positivist positions of Poincaré and Mach. Regarding religion, Albert’s position was also not unambiguous; at different periods of his life he expressed himself differently. As a result, the closest thing to him was agnosticism. That is, he did not deny the possibility of the existence of deities, but he also did not take for granted what was not (could not be) proven experimentally.
Public recognition of scientific discoveries: in memory of the genius Einstein
Einstein received public recognition during his lifetime, which was reflected in many titles and awards. Doctorates from various universities, not to mention the notorious “Nobel Prize”, which he still received, despite the skepticism of his colleagues - all this can be safely attributed to his incredible intellect.
- In the 21st year of the twentieth century, he became an honorary citizen of New York, and two years later of Tel Aviv.
- In the thirty-first he was awarded the Jules Jansen Prize from the French Society of Astronomers.
- In 1923, in Germany, Einstein was awarded the Order of Merit, which he himself refused ten years later due to the rampant Nazism in the country.
- For his, incomprehensible to many, theory of relativity and his most powerful contribution to quantum theory, he was awarded the Copley Medal from the Royal Society of London.
This is only a small fraction of the titles, titles and awards that this amazing scientist deserved and received. Many monuments have been erected in his honor, and avenues, squares and streets are named after him. different cities peace. There is an asteroid named after him, and in Philadelphia there is even medical Center called Einsteinian. His image was portrayed in a number of computer games (Civilization IV, Command & Conquer: Red Alert), as well as feature and documentary films (Einstein's Great Idea, IQ, Genius). Thanks to the unusual appearance and habits, he became the hero of many novels, stories and short stories.
Death of a Scientist: Myths and Legends Around the Person of a Research Theorist
In the fifty-fifth year, the health of the great physicist noticeably deteriorated. Then he wrote a will and even told his friends that he had already completed his mission on Earth. On April 18, 1955, world-famous scientist Albert Einstein died of an aortic aneurysm at Princeton Hospital. The nurse testified that he tried to speak German, but did not have time to identify what exactly he said. They didn’t bury him - he forbade it. The body was burned in the crematorium and the ashes were scattered to the wind.
The physicist’s versatile personality, which did not fit into a standard framework, gave rise to the emergence of many myths and legends after his death, which he so much did not want during his lifetime. Firstly, they said that the first wife “had a hand” in the maintenance, but there was no evidence of this. Secondly, many doubt that the ideas of this theory came to his mind, and were not actually “suggested” by Poincaré or Hilbert. In addition, today he is positioned as a vegetarian. However, the truth is that he began to hold such views only in the last year before his death.
Interesting facts about the unusual life of the smartest man
As a child, Albert was considered inferior due to the fact that he was not distinguished by the usual childish talkativeness. In addition, he had a large head, which even his mother was worried about.
Einstein never liked sports or any physical exercise perceived as violence against a person. He liked to repeat that when returning from work, he “wants to do nothing.”
The scientist didn't like science fiction. He believed that all sorts of assumptions could significantly distort the results of real research and influence them.
Einstein allowed his own brain to be studied after his death.
Like famous literary character Sherlock Holmes, Albert loved to smoke a pipe and play the violin in the kitchen.
It is believed that it was this physicist, together with his friend Leo Szilard, who invented a refrigerator that could work without consuming electricity.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation considered him a Soviet spy. From thirty-three until his death, he was under surveillance.
Einstein's apt and witty quotes
How much we know, but how little we understand.
Nationalism is a common childhood disease. This is a kind of measles of humanity.
God doesn't play dice.
I managed to survive two wars, two wives and even Hitler.
I don't tend to think about the future. It will come too soon.
Albert Einstein (German: Albert Einstein; March 14, 1879, Ulm, Württemberg, Germany - April 18, 1955, Princeton, New Jersey, USA) - theoretical physicist, one of the founders of modern theoretical physics, winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics , public figure and humanist. Lived in Germany (1879-1893, 1914-1933), Switzerland (1893-1914) and the USA (1933-1955). Honorary doctor of about 20 leading universities in the world, member of many Academies of Sciences, including foreign honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1926).
Albert Einstein 1920
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in the southern German city of Ulm, into a poor Jewish family. His parents married three years before their son was born, on August 8, 1876. Father, Hermann Einstein (1847-1902), was at that time a co-owner of a small enterprise producing feather stuffing for mattresses and featherbeds.
Herman Einstein
Mother, Pauline Einstein (née Koch, 1858–1920), came from the family of wealthy corn merchant Julius Derzbacher (changed his surname to Koch in 1842) and Yetta Bernheimer.
Paulina Einstein
In the summer of 1880, the family moved to Munich, where Hermann Einstein, together with his brother Jacob, founded a small company selling electrical equipment.
Albert Einstein at the age of three. 1882
Albert's younger sister Maria (Maya, 1881-1951) was born in Munich.
Albert Einstein with his sister
Albert Einstein received his primary education at a local Catholic school. For about 12 years he experienced a state of deep religiosity, but soon reading popular science books made him a freethinker and forever gave rise to a skeptical attitude towards authorities. Of his childhood experiences, Einstein later recalled as the most powerful: the compass, Euclid's Principia, and (around 1889) Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. In addition, on the initiative of his mother, he began playing the violin at the age of six. Einstein's passion for music continued throughout his life. Already in the USA in Princeton, in 1934 Albert Einstein gave a charity concert, where he performed Mozart’s works on the violin for the benefit of scientists and cultural figures who emigrated from Nazi Germany.
Albert Einstein is 14 years old, 1893
At the gymnasium, he was not among the first students (with the exception of mathematics and Latin). The entrenched system of rote memorization of material by students (which, as he believed, harms the very spirit of learning and creative thinking), as well as the authoritarian attitude of teachers towards students, aroused rejection in Albert Einstein, so he often entered into disputes with his teachers.
In 1894, the Einsteins moved from Munich to the Italian city of Pavia, near Milan, where the brothers Hermann and Jacob moved their company. Albert himself remained with relatives in Munich for some time to complete all six classes of the gymnasium. Having never received his matriculation certificate, he joined his family in Pavia in 1895.
In the fall of 1895, Albert Einstein arrived in Switzerland to take the entrance exams to the Higher Technical School (Polytechnic) in Zurich and become a physics teacher. Having shown himself brilliantly in the mathematics exam, he at the same time failed the exams in botany and French, which did not allow him to enter the Zurich Polytechnic. However, the school director advised young man enter the final year of school in Aarau (Switzerland) to receive a certificate and repeat admission.
At the cantonal school of Aarau, Albert Einstein devoted his free time to studying Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. In September 1896, he successfully passed all the school leaving exams, with the exception of the French language exam, and received a certificate
A matriculation certificate issued to Albert Einstein in 1896, at the age of 17, after attending the cantonal high school in Aarau, Switzerland. 
In October 1896 he was admitted to the Polytechnic at the Faculty of Pedagogy. Here he became friends with a fellow student, mathematician Marcel Grossman (1878-1936), and also met a Serbian medical student, Mileva Maric (4 years older than him), who later became his wife. That same year, Einstein renounced his German citizenship. To obtain Swiss citizenship, he was required to pay 1,000 Swiss francs, but the poor financial situation of the family allowed him to do this only after 5 years. This year, his father’s enterprise finally went bankrupt; Einstein’s parents moved to Milan, where Herman Einstein, already without his brother, opened a company selling electrical equipment.
The teaching style and methodology at the Polytechnic differed significantly from the ossified and authoritarian Prussian school, so further education was easier for the young man. He had first-class teachers, including the wonderful geometer Hermann Minkowski (Einstein often missed his lectures, which he later sincerely regretted) and the analyst Adolf Hurwitz.
In 1900, Einstein graduated from the Polytechnic with a diploma in teaching mathematics and physics. He passed the exams successfully, but not brilliantly. Many professors highly appreciated the abilities of the student Einstein, but no one wanted to help him continue scientific career. Einstein himself later recalled: I was bullied by my professors, who did not like me because of my independence and closed my path to science.
Although the following year, 1901, Einstein received Swiss citizenship, but until the spring of 1902 he could not find permanent place work - even as a school teacher. Due to lack of income, he literally starved, not eating for several days in a row. This became the cause of liver disease, from which the scientist suffered for the rest of his life. Despite the hardships that plagued him from 1900 to 1902, Einstein found time to further study physics.
Albert Einstein with friends. 1903
In 1901, the Berlin Annals of Physics published his first article, “Consequences of the theory of capillarity” (Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen), devoted to the analysis of the forces of attraction between atoms of liquids based on the theory of capillarity. Former classmate Marcel Grossman helped overcome the difficulties, recommending Einstein for the position of third-class expert at the Federal Patent Office for Inventions (Bern) with a salary of 3,500 francs per year (during his student years he lived on 100 francs per month).
Einstein worked at the Patent Office from July 1902 to October 1909, working primarily expert assessment applications for inventions. In 1903 he became a permanent employee of the Bureau. The nature of the work allowed Einstein to devote his free time to research in the field of theoretical physics.
Albert Einstein is 25 years old. 1904
In October 1902, Einstein received news from Italy that his father was ill; Hermann Einstein died a few days after his son's arrival.
On January 6, 1903, Einstein married twenty-seven-year-old Mileva Maric. They had three children.
Mileva Maric
The year 1905 went down in the history of physics as the “Year of Miracles” (Latin: Annus Mirabilis). This year, the Annals of Physics, Germany's leading physics journal, published three outstanding papers by Einstein, ushering in a new scientific revolution.
Many prominent physicists remained faithful classical mechanics and concepts of the ether, among them Lorenz, J. J. Thomson, Lenard, Lodge, Nernst, Wien. At the same time, some of them (for example, Lorentz himself) did not reject the results of the special theory of relativity, but interpreted them in the spirit of Lorentz’s theory, preferring to look at the space-time concept of Einstein-Minkowski as a purely mathematical technique.
In 1907, Einstein published the quantum theory of heat capacity ( old theory at low temperatures strongly diverged from experiment. At the same time, Smoluchowski, whose article was published several months later than Einstein, came to similar conclusions. Einstein presented his work on statistical mechanics, entitled “A New Determination of the Size of Molecules,” to the Polytechnic as a dissertation and in the same 1905 received the title of Doctor of Philosophy (equivalent to a candidate natural sciences) in physics. IN next year Einstein developed his theory into new article"Towards the theory of Brownian motion". Soon (1908), Perrin's measurements completely confirmed the adequacy of Einstein's model, which became the first experimental proof of the molecular kinetic theory, which was subject to active attacks from positivists in those years.
The work of 1905 brought Einstein, although not immediately, worldwide fame. On April 30, 1905, he sent the text of his doctoral dissertation on the topic “A New Determination of the Size of Molecules” to the University of Zurich. On January 15, 1906, he received his doctorate in physics. He corresponds and meets with the most famous physicists in the world, and Planck in Berlin includes the theory of relativity in his curriculum. In letters he is called “Mr. Professor,” but for another four years (until October 1909) Einstein continued to serve in the Patent Office; in 1906 he was promoted (he became an expert of class II) and his salary was increased. In October 1908, Einstein was invited to read an elective course at the University of Bern, however, without any payment. In 1909, he attended a congress of naturalists in Salzburg, where the elite of German physics gathered, and met Planck for the first time; over 3 years of correspondence, they quickly became close friends and maintained this friendship until the end of their lives. After the congress, Einstein finally received a paid position as an extraordinary professor at the University of Zurich (December 1909), where he taught geometry old friend Marcel Grossman. The pay was small, especially for a family with two children, and in 1911 Einstein without hesitation accepted an invitation to head the department of physics at the German University in Prague. During this period, Einstein continued to publish a series of papers on thermodynamics, relativity and quantum theory. In Prague, he intensifies research on the theory of gravity, setting the goal of creating a relativistic theory of gravity and fulfilling the long-standing dream of physicists - to exclude Newtonian long-range action from this area.
In 1911, Einstein participated in the First Solvay Congress (Brussels), dedicated to quantum physics. There his only meeting took place with Poincaré, who continued to reject the theory of relativity, although he personally had great respect for Einstein
Photos of participants of the first Solvay Congress in 1911 Brussels, Belgium.
The Solvay Congresses are a series of congresses that began on the visionary initiative of Ernest Solvay and continued under the leadership of the founder International Institute physics, was unique opportunity for physicists to discuss fundamental problems that have been the focus of their attention at various periods.
Seated (from left to right): Walter Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay, Hendrik Lorenz, Emil Warburg, Wilhelm Wien, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Marie Curie, Henri Poincaré.
Standing (from left to right): Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld, Frederic Lindmann, Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenorl, Georg Hostlet, Eduard Herzen, James Jeans, Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Albert Einstein , Paul Langevin. 
A year later, Einstein returned to Zurich, where he became a professor at his native Polytechnic and lectured there on physics. In 1913, he attended the Congress of Naturalists in Vienna, visiting 75-year-old Ernst Mach there; Once upon a time, Mach's criticism of Newtonian mechanics made a huge impression on Einstein and ideologically prepared him for the innovations of the theory of relativity.
Second Solvay Congress (1913)
Seated (from left to right): Walter Nernst, Ernest Rutherford, Wilhelm Wien, Joseph John Thomson, Emil Warburg, Hendrik Lorenz, Marcel Brillouin, William Barlow, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Robert Williams Wood, Louis Georg Gouy, Pierre Weiss.
Standing (from left to right): Friedrich Hasenorl, Jules Emile Verschafelt, James Hopwood Jeans, William Henry Bragg, Max von Laue, Heinrich Rubens, Marie Curie, Robert Goldschmidt, Arnold Sommerfeld, Eduard Herzen, Albert Einstein, Frederick Lindmann, Maurice de Broglie, William Pope, Edward Grüneisen, Martin Knudsen, Georg Hostlet, Paul Langevin. 
At the end of 1913, on the recommendation of Planck and Nernst, Einstein received an invitation to head the physics center being created in Berlin. Research institute; He is also enrolled as a professor at the University of Berlin. In addition to being close to his friend Planck, this position had the advantage that it did not oblige him to be distracted by teaching. He accepted the invitation, and in pre-war 1914, the convinced pacifist Einstein arrived in Berlin. Mileva and her children remained in Zurich; their family broke up. In February 1919 they officially divorced
Albert Einstein with Fritz Haber, 1914
In 1915, in a conversation with the Dutch physicist Vander de Haas, Einstein proposed a scheme and calculation of the experiment, which after successful implementation called the “Einstein-de Haas effect”. The result of the experiment inspired Niels Bohr, who two years earlier had created a planetary model of the atom, since it confirmed that circular electron currents exist inside atoms, and electrons in their orbits do not emit. It was these provisions that Bohr based his model on. In addition, it was found that the total magnetic moment it turns out twice as much as expected; the reason for this became clear when spin, the electron's own angular momentum, was discovered.
In June 1919, Einstein married his maternal cousin Elsa Leventhal (née Einstein, 1876–1936) and adopted her two children. At the end of the year, his seriously ill mother Paulina moved in with them; she died in February 1920. Judging by the letters, Einstein took her death seriously. 
Albert and Elsa Einstein meet with reporters
After the end of the war, Einstein continued to work in the previous areas of physics, and also studied new areas - relativistic cosmology and the “Unified Field Theory”, which, according to his plan, was supposed to combine gravity, electromagnetism and (preferably) the theory of the microworld. The first paper on cosmology, "Cosmological Considerations on the General Theory of Relativity", appeared in 1917. After this, Einstein experienced a mysterious “invasion of diseases” - except serious problems with the liver, a stomach ulcer was discovered, then jaundice and general weakness. He did not get out of bed for several months, but continued to work actively. Only in 1920 did the diseases recede.
Photo of Albert Einstein in his office at the University of Berlin in 1920.
Einstein in the house of Leiden University physics professor Paul Ehrenfest 1920.
Einstein visiting Amsterdam with experimental physicist Peter Zeman (left) and his friend Paul Ehrenfest. (Circa 1920) 
In May 1920, Einstein, along with other members of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, was sworn in as a civil servant and legally considered a German citizen. However, he retained Swiss citizenship until the end of his life. In the 1920s, receiving invitations from everywhere, he traveled extensively throughout Europe (using a Swiss passport),
Albert Einstein in Barcelona, 1923
He lectured for scientists, students and the inquisitive public.
Albert Einstein during a lecture in Vienna in 1921
Einstein speaking in Gothenburg, Sweden.1923
He also visited the United States, where a special welcoming resolution of Congress was adopted in honor of the eminent guest (1921).
Albert Einstein and observatory staff near the 40-inch refractor of the Yerkes Observatory. 1921
Tour of Marconi Station in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Famous scientists are present in the photograph, including Tesla, 1921 
At the end of 1922, he visited India, where he had long contact with Tagore, and China. Einstein met winter in Japan.
Albert Einstein's visit to Tohoku University. From left to right: Kotaro Honda, Albert Einstein, Keichi Aichi, Shirouta Kusakabe.1922 
In 1923 he spoke in Jerusalem, where it was planned to open the Hebrew University soon (1925).
Einstein has been nominated several times Nobel Prize in physics, but members of the Nobel Committee for a long time did not dare to award the prize to the author of such revolutionary theories. In the end, a diplomatic solution was found: the prize for 1921 was awarded to Einstein (at the very end of 1922) for the theory of the photoelectric effect, that is, for the most indisputable and well-tested experimental work; however, the text of the decision contained a neutral addition: “... and for other work in the field of theoretical physics.”
On November 10, 1922, the Secretary of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, Christopher Aurvillius, wrote to Einstein:
Albert Einstein in Berlin. 1922
As I have already informed you by telegram, the Royal Academy of Sciences, at its meeting yesterday, decided to award you the Prize in Physics for the past year (1921), thereby noting your work in theoretical physics, in particular the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, without taking into account your work on the theory of relativity and the theory of gravity, which will be evaluated after their confirmation in the future.
Naturally, Einstein dedicated his traditional Nobel speech (1923) to the theory of relativity.
Albert Einstein. Official photograph of the 1921 Nobel Prize winner in physics.
In 1924, the young Indian physicist Shatyendranath Bose short letter turned to Einstein with a request for help in publishing an article in which he put forward the assumption that formed the basis of modern quantum statistics. Bose proposed to consider light as a gas of photons. Einstein concluded that the same statistics could be used for atoms and molecules in general. In 1925, Einstein published Bose's paper in German translation, and then own article, in which he outlined a generalized Bose model applicable to systems of identical particles with integer spin, called bosons. Based on this quantum statistics, now known as Bose-Einstein statistics, both physicists in the mid-1920s theoretically substantiated the existence of a fifth state of matter - the Bose-Einstein condensate.
Portrait of Albert Einstein. 1925
In 1927, at the Fifth Solvay Congress, Einstein decisively opposed the “Copenhagen interpretation” of Max Born and Niels Bohr, which interpreted the mathematical model of quantum mechanics as essentially probabilistic. Einstein said that supporters of this interpretation “make a virtue out of necessity,” and the probabilistic nature only indicates that our knowledge of the physical essence of microprocesses is incomplete. He sarcastically remarked: “God does not play dice” (German: Der Herrgott würfelt nicht), to which Niels Bohr objected: “Einstein, don’t tell God what to do.” Einstein accepted the “Copenhagen interpretation” only as a temporary, unfinished version, which should be replaced as physics progressed complete theory microworld. He himself made attempts to create a deterministic nonlinear theory, an approximate consequence of which would be quantum mechanics.
1927 Solvay Congress on Quantum Mechanics.
1st row (from left to right): Irving Langmuir, Max Planck, Marie Curie, Henrik Lorenz, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin, Charles Guy, Charles Wilson, Owen Richardson.
2nd row (from left to right): Peter Debye, Martin Knudsen, William Bragg, Hendrik Kramers, Paul Dirac, Arthur Compton, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Niels Bohr.
Standing (from left to right): Auguste Picard, Emile Henriot, Paul Ehrenfest, Eduard Herzen, Théophile de Donder, Erwin Schrödinger, Jules Emile Verschafelt, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Ralph Fowler, Léon Brillouin. 
In 1928, Einstein conducted last way Lorenza, with whom he became very friendly in his last years. It was Lorentz who nominated Einstein for the Nobel Prize in 1920 and supported it the following year.
Albert Einstein and Hendrik Anton Lorenz in Leiden in 1921.
In 1929, the world noisily celebrated Einstein's 50th birthday. The hero of the day did not take part in the celebrations and hid in his villa near Potsdam, where he enthusiastically grew roses. Here he received friends - scientists, Tagore, Emmanuel Lasker, Charlie Chaplin and others.
Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore
Albert Einstein received an honorary doctorate from the Sorbonne University in Paris in November 1929.
Albert Einstein plays the violin during a benefit concert at the New Synagogue in Berlin, January 29, 1930. 
Portrait of Albert Einstein taken by clairvoyant Madame Silvia in Berlin in 1930. For a long time it hung in the visitors' room in her office. 
Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein at the 1930 Solvay Congress in Brussels
Einstein opens a radio show. Berlin, August 1930
Einstein on a radio show Berlin, August 1930
In 1931, Einstein visited the USA again.
Einstein's departure to America. December 1930
Albert Einstein in 1931 was amazed by the enthusiasm of journalists in the United States who wanted him to explain his theory of relativity. Einstein said that this would take at least three days 
In Pasadena he was very warmly received by Michelson, who had four months to live.
Albert Einstein, Albert Abraham Michelson, Robert Andrews Millikan.1931
Returning to Berlin in the summer, Einstein, in a speech to the Physical Society, paid tribute to the memory of the remarkable experimenter who laid the first stone of the foundation of the theory of relativity.
Until about 1926, Einstein worked in many areas of physics, from cosmological models to research into the causes of river meanders. Further, with rare exceptions, he focuses his efforts on quantum problems and the Unified Field Theory.
Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. December 1925
As the economic crisis in Weimar Germany grew, political instability intensified, contributing to the strengthening of radical nationalist and anti-Semitic sentiments. Insults and threats against Einstein became more frequent; one of the leaflets even offered a large reward (50,000 marks) for his head. After the Nazis came to power, all of Einstein’s works were either attributed to “Aryan” physicists or declared a distortion of true science. Lenard, who led the group " German physics", proclaimed: "The most important example The dangerous influence of Jewish circles on the study of nature is represented by Einstein with his theories and mathematical chatter, composed of old information and arbitrary additions... We must understand that it is unworthy for a German to be the spiritual follower of a Jew.” An uncompromising racial cleansing unfolded in all scientific circles in Germany.
In 1933, Einstein had to leave Germany, to which he was very attached, forever.
Albert Einstein and his wife after exile in Belgium, where they lived at the Villa Savoyarde in Haan. 1933
Villa Savoyarde in Haan (Belgium), where Einstein lived briefly after his expulsion from Germany. 1933
Einstein gives an interview to journalists at the Villa Savoyarde in Belgium. 1933
Albert Einstein with his wife in 1933 at a villa in Savoyarde.
He and his family traveled to the United States of America with visitor visas.
Albert Einstein in Santa Barbara, 1933
Soon, in protest against the crimes of Nazism, he renounced German citizenship and membership in the Prussian and Bavarian academies of sciences.
After moving to the United States, Albert Einstein received a position as professor of physics at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, New Jersey). The eldest son, Hans-Albert (1904–1973), soon followed him (1938); he subsequently became a recognized expert in hydraulics and a professor at the University of California (1947). Younger son Einstein, Eduard (1910-1965), around 1930, fell ill with a severe form of schizophrenia and ended his days in a Zurich psychiatric hospital. Einstein's cousin, Lina, died in Auschwitz; another sister, Bertha Dreyfuss, died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Albert Einstein with his daughter and son. November 1930
In the USA, Einstein instantly became one of the most famous and respected people in the country, gaining a reputation as the most brilliant scientist in history, as well as the personification of the image of the “absent-minded professor” and the intellectual capabilities of man in general. In January of the following year, 1934, he was invited to The White house to President Franklin Roosevelt, had a cordial conversation with him and even spent the night there. Every day Einstein received hundreds of letters of various contents, which (even children’s ones) he tried to answer. Being a world-renowned natural scientist, he remained an approachable, modest, undemanding and affable person.
Portrait of Albert Einstein. 1934
In December 1936, Elsa died of heart disease; three months earlier, Marcel Grossmann died in Zurich. Einstein's loneliness was brightened up by his sister Maya,
Sister Maya
stepdaughter Margot (Elsa's daughter from her first marriage), secretary Ellen Dukas and cat Tiger. To the surprise of Americans, Einstein never acquired a car or a television. Maya was partially paralyzed after a stroke in 1946, and every evening Einstein read books to his beloved sister.
In August 1939, Einstein signed a letter written on the initiative of Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard addressed to US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The letter alerted the President to the possibility that Nazi Germany will acquire an atomic bomb.
Albert Einstein receives a certificate of American citizenship from Judge Philip Forman. October 1, 1940
After months of deliberation, Roosevelt decided to take this threat seriously and launched his own atomic weapons project. Einstein himself did not take part in this work. He later regretted the letter he signed, realizing that for the new US leader Harry Truman nuclear power serves as a tool of intimidation. Subsequently, he criticized the development of nuclear weapons, their use in Japan and tests at Bikini Atoll (1954), and his involvement in accelerating work on the American nuclear program considered it the greatest tragedy of his life. His aphorisms became widely known: “We won the war, but not the peace”; “If the third world war will be fought with atomic bombs, then the fourth will be fought with stones and sticks.”
Celebrating the 70th anniversary. 1949
In the post-war years, Einstein became one of the founders of the Pugwash Peace Scientists' Movement. Although its first conference was held after Einstein’s death (1957), the initiative to create such a movement was expressed in the widely known Russell-Einstein Manifesto (written jointly with Bertrand Russell), which also warned about the dangers of the creation and use of the hydrogen bomb. As part of this movement, Einstein, who was its chairman, together with Albert Schweitzer, Bertrand Russell, Frederic Joliot-Curie and others worldwide famous figures science led the fight against the arms race, the creation of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. Einstein also called for the creation of world government, for which he received sharp criticism in the Soviet press (1947)
Niels Bohr, James Frank, Albert Einstein, October 3, 1954
Until the end of his life, Einstein continued to work on the study of cosmological problems, but he directed his main efforts to the creation of a unified field theory.
In 1955, Einstein's health deteriorated sharply. He wrote a will and told his friends: “I have fulfilled my task on earth.” His last work was an unfinished appeal calling for the prevention of nuclear war.
His stepdaughter Margot recalled her last meeting with Einstein in the hospital: He spoke with deep calm, even with slight humor about doctors, and awaited his death as an upcoming “natural phenomenon.” As fearless as he was during life, he met death so calmly and peacefully. Without any sentimentality and without regrets, he left this world.
Albert Einstein in the last years of his life (probably 1950)
The scientist who revolutionized mankind's understanding of the Universe, Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955 at 1 hour 25 minutes, at the age of 77 in Princeton from a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Before his death, he spoke a few words in German, but the American nurse could not reproduce them later.
On April 19, 1955, the funeral of the great scientist took place without wide publicity, attended by only 12 of his closest friends. His body was burned at Ewing Cemetery and his ashes were scattered to the wind.
Newspaper headlines with obituaries. 1955
Einstein was passionate about music, especially works XVIII century. Over the years, his favorite composers have included Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Haydn and Schubert, and in recent years, Brahms. He played the violin well, which he never parted with.
Albert Einstein plays the violin. 1921
Violin Concerto by Albert Einstein. 1941
Served on the advisory board of the First Humanist Society of New York with Julian Huxley, Thomas Mann, and John Dewey.
Thomas Mann with Albert Einstein at Princeton, 1938
He strongly condemned the “case of Oppenheimer,” who in 1953 was accused of “communist sympathies” and removed from secret work.
Physicist Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein talk at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. 1940s 
Alarmed rapid growth anti-Semitism in Germany, Einstein supported the call of the Zionist movement to create a Jewish national home in Palestine and spoke on this topic with a number of articles and speeches. The idea of opening the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1925) received especially active support on his part.
Upon arrival in New York, the leaders of the World Zionist Organization met with Albert Einstein. In the photograph are Mossinson, Einstein, Chaim Weizmann, Dr. Ussishkin.1921 
He explained his position:
Until recently I lived in Switzerland, and while I was there I was not aware of my Jewishness...
When I arrived in Germany, I first learned that I was a Jew, and more non-Jews than Jews helped me make this discovery... Then I realized that only a joint cause, which would be dear to all Jews in the world, could lead to the revival of the people... If If only we didn't have to live among the intolerant, soulless and cruel people, I would be the first to reject nationalism in favor of universal humanity.
Dr. Albert Einstein and Meyer Weisgal arrived at the Anglo-American Committee on Palestine. 1946
Albert Einstein testifies on behalf of the UN about the illegal restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine.
In 1947, Einstein welcomed the creation of the State of Israel, hoping for a binational Arab-Jewish solution to the Palestinian problem. He wrote to Paul Ehrenfest in 1921: “Zionism represents a truly new Jewish ideal and can restore to the Jewish people the joy of existence." After the Holocaust, he noted: “Zionism did not protect German Jewry from destruction. But for those who survived, Zionism gave internal forces endure disaster with dignity without losing healthy self-esteem.” In 1952, Einstein even received an offer to become the second president of Israel, which the scientist politely refused, citing a lack of experience in such work. All your letters and manuscripts (and even copyright on commercial use his image and name) Einstein bequeathed to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Albert Einstein with Ben Gurion, 1951
In addition
Albert Einstein on the Portland, December 1931
Albert Einstein arrives at Newark Airport in April 1939.
Albert Einstein lectures at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. 1940s
Albert Einstein 1947
Scientist Albert Einstein became famous for his scientific work, which allowed him to become one of the founders of theoretical physics. One of his most famous works is the general and special theories of relativity. This scientist and thinker has more than 600 works on a variety of topics.
Nobel Prize
In 1921, Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He received the prize for discovery of the photoelectric effect.
At the presentation, other works of the physicist were also discussed. In particular, the theory of relativity and gravity was supposed to be evaluated after their confirmation in the future.
Einstein's theory of relativity
It is curious that Einstein himself explained his theory of relativity with humor:
If you hold your hand over the fire for one minute, it will seem like an hour, but an hour spent with your beloved girl will seem like one minute.
That is, time flows differently in different circumstances. The physicist also spoke in a unique way about other scientific discoveries. For example, everyone can be sure that it is impossible to do something definite until there is an "ignoramus" who will do it only because he does not know about the opinion of the majority.
Albert Einstein said that he discovered his theory of relativity completely by accident. One day he noticed that a car moving relative to another car with same speed and in one direction, remains motionless.
These 2 cars, moving relative to the Earth and other objects on it, are at rest relative to each other.
The famous formula E=mc 2
Einstein argued that if a body generates energy in video radiation, then the decrease in its mass is proportional to the amount of energy released by it.
This is how I was born famous formula: the amount of energy is equal to the product of the mass of the body and the square of the speed of light (E=mc 2). The speed of light is 300 thousand kilometers per second.
Even an insignificantly small mass accelerated to the speed of light will emit enormous amounts of energy. The invention of the atomic bomb confirmed the correctness of this theory.
short biography
Albert Einstein was born March 14, 1879 in the small German town of Ulm. He spent his childhood in Munich. Albert's father was an entrepreneur, his mother a housewife.
The future scientist was born weak, with a large head. His parents were afraid that he would not survive. However, he survived and grew, showing increased curiosity about everything. At the same time, he was very persistent.
Study period
Einstein was bored studying at the gymnasium. In his free time, he read popular science books. Astronomy aroused his greatest interest at that time.
After graduating from high school, Einstein went to Zurich and went to study at polytechnic school. Upon completion, he receives a diploma physics and mathematics teachers. Alas, 2 whole years of searching for a job did not yield any results.
During this period, Albert had a hard time, and due to constant hunger, he developed liver disease, which tormented him for the rest of his life. But even these difficulties did not discourage him from studying physics.
Career and first successes
IN 1902 year, Albert gets a job at the Berne Patent Office as a technical expert with a small salary.
By 1905, Einstein already had 5 scientific papers. In 1909 he became professor of theoretical physics at the University of Zurich. In 1911 he became a professor at the German University in Prague, from 1914 to 1933 he was a professor at the University of Berlin and director of the Institute of Physics in Berlin.
He worked on his theory of relativity for 10 years and only completed it in 1916. In 1919 there was solar eclipse. It was observed by scientists from the Royal Society of London. They also confirmed the probable correctness of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Emigration to the USA
IN 1933 The Nazis came to power in Germany. All scientific works and other works were burned. The Einstein family immigrated to the USA. Albert became a professor of physics at the Institute basic research in Princeton. IN 1940 year he renounces German citizenship and officially becomes an American citizen.
Last years scientist lived at Princeton, worked on a unified field theory, played the violin in moments of relaxation, and rode a boat on the lake.
Albert Einstein died April 18, 1955. After his death, his brain was studied for genius, but nothing exceptional was found.
Biography and episodes of life Albert Einstein. When born and died Albert Einstein, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Quotes from a theoretical physicist, Photo and video.
Years of life of Albert Einstein:
born March 14, 1879, died April 18, 1955
Epitaph
“You are the god of the most paradoxical theories!
I want to find something wonderful too...
Let there be death - let us believe a priori! -
The beginning of the highest form of being."
From a poem by Vadim Rozov in memory of Einstein
Biography
Albert Einstein is one of the most famous physicists last centuries. In his biography, Einstein made a number of great discoveries and revolutionized scientific thinking. His scientific path was not simple, just as it was not simple personal life Albert Einstein, but he left behind a huge legacy that still gives food for thought to modern scientists.
He was born into a simple, poor Jewish family. As a child, Einstein did not like school, so he preferred to study at home, which gave rise to some gaps in his education (for example, he wrote with errors), as well as many myths that Einstein was a stupid student. Thus, when Einstein entered the Polytechnic in Zurich, he received excellent marks in mathematics, but failed exams in botany and French, so he had to study at school for some more time before enrolling again. Studying at the Polytechnic was easy for him, and there he met his future wife Mileva, to whom some biographers attributed Einstein’s merits. Their first child was born before marriage; what happened to the girl next is unknown. She may have died in infancy or been given away to foster care. However, Einstein could not be called a man suited for marriage. All his life he devoted himself entirely to science.
After graduating from university, Einstein got a job at a patent office in Bern, writing many works during his work. scientific publications- and in his free time, since he coped with his work responsibilities very quickly. In 1905, Einstein first put down on paper his thoughts about his future theory relativity, which says that the laws of physics must have same shape in any reference system.
For many years in a row, Einstein taught at European universities and worked on his scientific ideas. He stopped conducting regular classes at universities in 1914, and a year later he published the final version of the theory of relativity. But, contrary to popular belief, Einstein received the Nobel Prize not for it, but for the “photoelectric effect.” Einstein lived in Germany from 1914 to 1933, but with the rise of fascism in the country he was forced to immigrate to America, where he remained until his death - he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study, searching for a theory about a single equation from which the phenomena of gravity could be extracted and electromagnetism, but these studies were unsuccessful. He spent the last years of his life with his wife Elsa Löwenthal, his cousin, and the children from his wife’s first marriage, whom he adopted.
Einstein's death occurred on the night of April 18, 1955 in Princeton. The cause of Einstein's death was an aortic aneurysm. Before his death, Einstein forbade any pompous farewells to his body and asked that the time and place of his burial not be disclosed. Therefore, Albert Einstein's funeral took place without any publicity, only his close friends were present. Einstein's grave does not exist, as his body was burned in a crematorium and his ashes were scattered.
Life line
March 14, 1879 Date of birth of Albert Einstein.
1880 Moving to Munich.
1893 Moving to Switzerland.
1895 Studying at school in Aarau.
1896 Admission to the Zurich Polytechnic (now the Swiss Higher technical school Zurich).
1902 Entering the Federal Patent Office for Inventions in Bern, father's death.
January 6, 1903 Marriage to Mileva Maric, birth of daughter Lieserl, whose fate is unknown.
1904 Birth of Einstein's son, Hans Albert.
1905 First discoveries.
1906 Obtaining a Doctor of Science degree in physics.
1909 Obtaining a position as a professor at the University of Zurich.
1910 Birth of Eduard Einstein's son.
1911 Einstein headed the department of physics at the German University of Prague (now Charles University).
1914 Return to Germany.
February 1919 Divorce from Mileva Maric.
June 1919 Marriage to Else Löwenthal.
1921 Receiving the Nobel Prize.
1933 Moving to the USA.
December 20, 1936 Date of death of Einstein's wife, Elsa Löwenthal.
April 18, 1955 Date of death of Einstein.
April 19, 1955 Einstein's funeral.
Memorable places
1. Monument to Einstein in Ulm on the site of the house in which he was born.
2. Albert Einstein House Museum in Bern, in the house where the scientist lived in 1903-1905. and where his theory of relativity was born.
3. Einstein's house in 1909-1911. in Zurich.
4. Einstein's house in 1912-1914. in Zurich.
5. Einstein's house in 1918-1933. in Berlin.
6. Einstein's house in 1933-1955. in Princeton.
7. ETH Zurich (formerly Zurich Polytechnic), where Einstein studied.
8. University of Zurich, where Einstein taught in 1909-1911.
9. Charles University (formerly German university), where Einstein taught.
10. Memorial plaque to Einstein in Prague, on the house in which he visited while teaching at the German University of Prague.
11. Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where Einstein worked after immigrating to the United States.
12. Monument to Albert Einstein in Washington, USA.
13. The crematorium of the Ewing Cemetery Cemetery, where Einstein's body was burned.
Episodes of life
Once, at a social reception, Einstein met Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. Flirtingly, she said: “If we had a child, he would inherit my beauty and your intelligence. It would be fantastic". To which the scientist ironically remarked: “What if he turns out to be handsome, like me, and smart, like you?” Nevertheless, the scientist and the actress were bound by mutual sympathy and respect for a long time, which even gave rise to many rumors about their love affair.
Einstein was a fan of Chaplin and adored his films. One day he wrote a letter to his idol with the words: “Your film “Gold Rush” is understood by everyone in the world, and I am sure that you will become a great man! Einstein." To which the great actor and director replied: “I admire you even more. Nobody in the world understands your theory of relativity, but you still became a great man! Chaplin." Chaplin and Einstein became close friends; the scientist often hosted the actor at his home.
Einstein once said, “If two percent of the young people in a country give up military service, then the government will not be able to resist them, and there simply won’t be enough space in prisons.” This spawned an entire anti-war movement among young Americans who wore badges on their chests that read “2%.”
Dying, Einstein spoke a few words in German, but the American nurse could not understand or remember them. Despite the fact that Einstein lived for many years in America, he claimed that he did not speak English well, and German remained his native language.
Covenant
“Caring for man and his fate should be the main goal in science. Never forget this among your drawings and equations.”
“Only life that is lived for people is valuable.”
Documentary about Albert Einstein
Condolences
“Humanity will always be indebted to Einstein for eliminating the limitations of our worldview that were associated with primitive ideas of absolute space and time.”
Niels Bohr, Danish theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize winner
“If Einstein had not existed, physics of the 20th century would have been different. This cannot be said about any other scientist... He occupied a position in public life that is unlikely to be occupied by another scientist in the future. No one really knows why, but he entered public consciousness the whole world, becoming a living symbol of science and the ruler of the thoughts of the twentieth century. Einstein was the most noble man the likes of which we have ever met."
Charles Percy Snow English writer, physicist
“There was always a kind of magical purity about him, at once childlike and infinitely stubborn.”
Robert Oppenheimer, American theoretical physicist