Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist and mathematician considered one of the greatest scientists of all time and one of the most influential figures in history. Einstein is known for his special and general theories of relativity that redefine society's understanding of space, time, and gravity.

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879, to Jewish parents Hermann Einstein (1847-1902) and Pauline Koch (1858-1920). Hermann Einstein was a joint partner in a bed feathers company in Ulm. In the summer of 1880, the family moved to Munich, where Hermann and his brother Jakob started an electrical engineering company. Einstein's younger sister, Maria (1881-1951), was born in Munich on November 18, 1881. Einstein began his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. When his family moved to Italy, Einstein continued his education in Aarau, Switzerland.

In 1896, he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, he gained his diploma and acquired Swiss citizenship. After receiving his diploma, Einstein was unable to find a teaching position and began working as a technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. It was while working at the Swiss Patent Office that Einstein developed his theory of special relativity and worked on other areas of physics.

In 1905, Einstein had four papers published in the Annalen der Physik, one of the best-known physics journals of the era. These papers were the following:

• "On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light"—This is the first of his four papers describing the photoelectric effect: the process by which electrons are released from a material when exposed to light. Einstein proposed that light consists of "discrete packets" of energy in opposition to the wave theory of light.
• "On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat"—This second paper focuses on Brownian motion, the erratic random movement of particles colliding in a fluid. The paper progressed the theory of atoms, providing scientists with a method of counting and observing the behavior of particles during experiments.
• "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"—In his third paper, Einstein presents his special theory of relativity, stating that the speed of light is fixed to the observer; therefore, light travels at the same speed regardless of whether the source is moving or stationary. The paper goes on to theorize what happens to objects traveling near the speed of light, i.e., time dilation and space contraction.
• "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon its Energy Content?"—His final paper of 1905 is on mass-energy equivalence, introducing the famous equation "E = mc²" to show that the energy of a body at rest equals its mass multiplied by the speed of light squared.

The four papers had a tremendous impact on the scientific world, and 1905 is described as Einstein's "Annus Mirabilis" (miracle year).

After publishing his special theory of relativity, Einstein began working on a more generalized version of the theory that included gravity and how it affects space-time. In November 1915, he completed his general theory of relativity, offering a more expansive and nuanced explanation of gravity. His theory was confirmed by observations and measurements by British astronomers Frank Dyson and Arthur Eddington during the 1919 solar eclipse.

In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect (not his theory of relativity), which was still the subject of debate in scientific circles. Einstein was not given the award until the following year, due to a bureaucratic ruling. During his acceptance speech, he chose to speak about relativity rather than the photoelectric effect.