Kelly Shriner
Ellsworth High School
Calculus Class
December 5, 2000
Albert Einstein
Throughout the history of mathematics, the genius of Albert Einstein has been unparalleled. He is considered one of the smartest men to ever live and few would disagree. His accomplishments have ranged from creating the Special Theory of Relativity to being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1921. Clearly there is justification in regarding him as one of the world’s masterminds.
Einstein was born on March 17, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. He spent most of his life in Munich where his family owned a small shop that manufactured electric machinery. The family business began to fail in 1894 so the family moved to Milan, Italy. Einstein stayed behind to finish school. In 1985, Einstein failed an examination that would have allowed him to become an electrical engineer. Einstein then renounced German citizenship in 1986. He began attending a secondary school in Aarau, Switzerland. After finishing from this school he entered the Swiss National Polytechnic school in Zurich. He also then applied for Swiss citizenship that was finally granted in 1901. Due to his lack of satisfaction while attending Swiss Polytechnic, he began to skip classes on a regular basis. Upon his graduation in 1900, Einstein was unable to get a recommendation for a position in the university by his professors, due to the fact that they disliked him.
For two years Einstein worked as both a tutor and a substitute teacher until 1902. He then began work as a examiner in a Swiss patent office. In 1905, Einstein received a doctorate for a theoretical dissertation on the dimensions of molecules from the University of Zurich. He also published three theoretical papers on Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect in which he hypothesized that the energy carried by a photon is proportional to the frequency of radiation, and the electrodynamics of moving bodies. These works shaped 20th century physics. Later on in 1905, Einstein showed how mass and energy were equivalent, which began his special theory of relativity. In 1908, Einstein became a lecturer at the University of Bern. Later on that year he resigned from that position and began work as a professor of physics at the University of Zurich.
By 1911, Einstein was regarded as a leading scientist and was appointed as a full professor at the Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague. A year later he began a new phase of gravitational research. He named this the general theory of relativity. In 1921, Einstein made his first trip to the United States to raise funds for the planned Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He lectured several times on relativity while here and received the Barnard medal during his visit. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect. Other awards he received were the Copley Medal of the Royal Society and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1928 Einstein collapsed due to the stress of overworking himself. However, he made a full recovery. Shortly after, Princeton offered him a full time position as a professor, thus Einstein moved to the United States. By 1949 Einstein was unwell. Albert Einstein passed away at 4pm on April 18, 1955 in Trenton, New Jersey. He was cremated the day of his death and his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed place.
While Einstein was widely recognized for all he donated to the research and even foundation of physics, perhaps his most famous discovery came about through an extension of his special relativity theory. In this theory Einstein proved that energy and matter are linked by formulating the equation E=mc2. This equation was created on the basis that "the energy content of a body is equal to the mass of the body times the speed of light squared."
Even as the century came to a close no scientist was regarded higher than Albert Einstein. He was not only a physics and mathematics teacher, but he transformed mankind’s understanding of nature. Whether it be dealing with relativity or explaining what actually makes the sky blue, Einstein made his mark in history.
Website Bibliography
http://-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Einstein.html