Einstein Essay, Research Paper

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. His parents initially thought he was moronic as he was late in starting to talk. He entered school at the age of six and did very well. At the age of 12, he was given a geometry book. In 1905, Einstein received his doctorate from the University of Zurich for a theoretical dissertation on the Dimensions of Molecules, and he published three theoretical papers important to the development of 20th century physics. The first of these, on Brownian Motion, made significant predictions about the motion of particles that are randomly distributed in a fluid. This theory was later proven by experiment. The second paper, on the Photoelectric Effect, presented a hypothesis on the Nature of light. He not only proposed that under certain circumstances light could be considered as consisting of particles, but also stated that the energy carried by a photon is proportional to the frequency of the radiation. No one accepted this theory.

In 1915, Einstein published his third paper on the General theory of Relativity, his theory of Gravity. In this theory, Einstein made his statement on equivalence, in which it is impossible to distinguish between whether the force acting on a body is caused by the body accelerating or whether it is gravity.

The General Theory of Relativity describes gravity as being the result of a four-dimensional continuum and that matter produces curves in this space-time with the measure of the curvature being a measure of the strength of gravity. In this perspective, bodies of matter follow the path of shortest distance or least resistance and in the curved space-time around a star, a planetary body would follow an elliptical orbit. Einstein’s theory was able to explain anomalies in the Mercury’s orbit that had confused many physicists. In 1920, Einstein’s theory was put to the test by measuring whether, during a solar eclipse, stars that were very close to the line of sight of the sun would appear to shift in position. Not only did the stars shift in position, they moved by the amount that Einstein had predicted. Einstein won the noble prize for physics in 1921, he did not win it for his famous Theory of Relativity, but for his theory on the Photon Nature of Light.”In 1932 Einstein left Germany due to the Nazi’s forcing him to work for them or to be kicked out of Germany. He gave up his German citizenship and moved to America in 1933 and took up a post at the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey. He eventually became an American citizen. He died in a local Princeton hospital on April 15, 1955.