Key facts about the life of Albert Einstein. Brief biography of albert einstein

Albert Einstein was born 130 years ago.

The German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in the city of Ulema (Württemberg, Germany) in the family of a small businessman. From the age of six, at the insistence of his mother, he began to play the violin. His passion for music continued throughout his life. At the age of 10 he entered the gymnasium in the city of Munich. School lessons preferred self-study.

In 1895 the Einstein family moved to Switzerland. Albert Einstein, without graduating from the gymnasium, went to Zurich to his family, where he tried to pass the exams at the Federal Higher Polytechnic School (Zurich Polytechnic), which enjoyed a high reputation. Failing in exams modern languages and history, entered the senior class of the cantonal school in Aarau. After leaving school, in 1896, Einstein became a student at the Zurich Polytechnic.

In 1900, Einstein graduated from the Polytechnic with a degree in teaching mathematics and physics. After that, he did not have a permanent job for two years. For a short time he taught physics in Schaffhausen in a boarding house for foreigners entering higher educational institutions in Switzerland, gave private lessons, and then, on the recommendation of friends, got a job as a technical examiner at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. Einstein worked in the bureau from 1902 to 1907 and considered this time the happiest and most fruitful period in his life. The nature of the work allowed Einstein to devote his free time to research in the field of theoretical physics.

His first work was on the forces of interaction between molecules and applications of statistical thermodynamics. One of them - "A new definition of the size of molecules" was accepted as a doctoral dissertation by the University of Zurich, and in 1905 Einstein became a doctor of science.

He created the theory of relativity, carried out research on statistical physics, radiation theory, Brownian motion, and wrote a number of scientific articles. At the same time, he discovered the law of the relationship between mass and energy. Einstein's work was widely known, and in 1909 he was elected a professor at the University of Zurich.

In 1911-1912, Einstein was a professor at the German University in Prague. In 1912 he returned to Zurich, where he became a professor at the Zurich Polytechnic. The following year he was elected a member of the Prussian and Bavarian Academy of Sciences and in 1914 moved to Berlin, where until 1933 he was both director of the Physics Institute and professor at the University of Berlin. During this period of his life, Albert Einstein completed the creation of the general theory of relativity, and also developed quantum theory radiation. Einstein also established the basic law of photochemistry. For the discovery of the laws of the photoelectric effect and for work in the field of theoretical physics, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921.

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the physicist left Germany forever, leaving for the United States of America. Soon, in protest against the crimes of fascism, he renounced German citizenship and membership in the Prussian and Bavarian Academies of Sciences. After moving to the US, Albert Einstein was appointed professor of physics at the newly established Institute for Basic Research in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1940 he received American citizenship. At Princeton, Einstein continued to work on the study of problems of cosmology and the creation of a unified field theory, designed to combine the theory of gravity and electromagnetism.

In 1955, Einstein signed a letter written by the English public figure Bertrand Russell to the governments of those countries where the production of atomic weapons was actively developing (later the document was called the "Russell-Einstein Manifesto"). Einstein warned of the fatal consequences of the use of such weapons for all mankind.

In the last years of his life, Einstein worked on the creation of the Unified Field Theory.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Albert Einstein was awarded many other awards, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London (1925) 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 given to Einstein was an offer to become the President of Israel, which followed in 1952. He refused this offer.

Einstein's first wife was Mileva Marich, his classmate at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. They married in 1903. From this marriage, Einstein had two sons, Hans Albert and Edward. His eldest son Hans-Albert became a recognized hydraulics specialist and professor at the University of California. Einstein's youngest son Eduard fell ill with a severe form of schizophrenia and spent most of his life in various medical institutions. The couple divorced in 1919. That same year, Einstein married his cousin Elsa, a widow with two children. Elsa Einstein died in 1936.

Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955 in Princeton from an aortic aneurysm. In the presence of only those closest to him, his body was cremated near Trenton, New Jersey. At the request of Einstein himself, he was buried in secret from everyone.

In honor of Einstein are named: a unit of energy used in photochemistry (einstein), chemical element einsteinium (No. 99 in the Periodic Table of the Elements), Asteroid 2001 Einstein, Albert Einstein Prize, Albert Einstein Peace Prize, College of Medicine. Albert Einstein at Yeshiva University, Medical Center. Albert Einstein in Philadelphia, Albert Einstein House Museum at Kramgasse in Bern.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

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 Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 , public figure-humanist. He 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, a member of many Academies of Sciences, including a foreign honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1926).
Albert Einstein 1920


Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in the South German city of Ulm, into a poor Jewish family. His parents married three years before their son was born, on August 8, 1876. Her father, Hermann Einstein (1847-1902), was at that time co-owner of a small enterprise for the production of feather stuffing for mattresses and featherbeds.
Hermann Einstein

Mother, Paulina Einstein (nee Koch, 1858-1920), came from the family of a wealthy corn merchant Julius Derzbacher (changed his surname to Koch in 1842) and Jetta Bernheimer.
Paulina Einstein

In the summer of 1880, the family moved to Munich, where Hermann Einstein, together with his brother Jakob, founded a small company selling electrical equipment.
Albert Einstein at the age of three. 1882

Born in Munich younger sister Alberta Maria (Maya, 1881-1951).
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 childhood impressions, Einstein later recalled as the most powerful: the compass, Euclid's Elements, and (circa 1889) Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. In addition, at 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 United States in Princeton, in 1934, Albert Einstein gave a charity concert, where he played the works of Mozart on the violin in favor of scientists and cultural figures who emigrated from Nazi Germany.
Albert Einstein is 14 years old.1893

In the gymnasium, he was not among the first students (the exception was mathematics and Latin). The ingrained system of rote learning by students (which, he believed, was harmful to the very spirit of learning and creative thinking), as well as the authoritarian attitude of teachers towards students, caused Albert Einstein's rejection, 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 firm. Albert himself stayed with relatives in Munich for some time to complete all six classes of the gymnasium. Never having received his Abitur, in 1895 he joined his family in Pavia.
In the autumn of 1895, Albert Einstein arrived in Switzerland to take the entrance exams to the Higher Technical School (Polytechnic) in Zurich and become a teacher of physics. Having brilliantly proved himself 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 director of the school advised young man enter the final class of the school in Aarau (Switzerland) in order to receive a certificate and repeat the 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 final exams at school, with the exception of the French language exam, and received a certificate
Abitur given to Albert Einstein in 1896, at the age of 17, after attending a cantonal high school in Aarau, Switzerland.

In October 1896 he was admitted to the Polytechnical Faculty of Education. Here he became friends with a classmate, mathematician Marcel Grossman (1878-1936), and also met a Serbian student of the Faculty of Medicine Mileva Marich (4 years older than him), who later became his wife. In the same year, Einstein renounced German citizenship. To obtain Swiss citizenship, it was required to pay 1,000 Swiss francs, but the family's poor financial situation allowed him to do this only after 5 years. The father's enterprise completely went bankrupt this year, Einstein's parents moved to Milan, where Hermann Einstein, already without a brother, opened an electrical equipment trading company.
The style and methodology of teaching 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 remarkable geometer Hermann Minkowski (Einstein often missed his lectures, which he later sincerely regretted) and the analyst Adolf Hurwitz.
Einstein graduated from the Polytechnic in 1900 with a degree in 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 his 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 a permanent job - even as a school teacher. Due to the lack of earnings, he literally starved, not taking food for several days in a row. This caused liver disease, from which the scientist suffered until the end of his life. Despite the hardships that plagued him in 1900-1902, 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 the atoms of liquids based on the theory of capillarity. A former classmate Marcel Grossman helped to overcome the difficulties, recommending Einstein for the position of an expert of III class in the Federal Office for Patenting Inventions (Bern) with a salary of 3,500 francs a year (during his student years he lived on 100 francs a month).
Einstein worked at the Patent Office from July 1902 to October 1909, mainly doing peer review of invention applications. 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 Marich. They had three children.
Mileva Marić


The year 1905 entered the history of physics as the "Year of Miracles" (lat. Annus Mirabilis). This year, the Annals of Physics, Germany's leading physics journal, published three of Einstein's seminal papers that ushered in a new scientific revolution.
Many eminent physicists have remained true classical mechanics and concepts of aether, among them Lorentz, J. J. Thomson, Lenard, Lodge, Nernst, Win. At the same time, some of them (for example, Lorentz himself) did not reject the results of the special theory of relativity, however, they interpreted them in the spirit of Lorentz's theory, preferring to look at the space-time concept of Einstein-Minkowski as a purely mathematical device.
In 1907, Einstein published the quantum theory of heat capacity (the old theory at low temperatures diverged greatly from experiment. At the same time, Smoluchowski came to similar conclusions, whose article was published a few months later than Einstein. His work on statistical mechanics, entitled "A new definition of dimensions molecules", Einstein submitted to the Polytechnic as a dissertation and in the same 1905 received the title of Doctor of Philosophy (the equivalent of a candidate of natural sciences) in physics. The following year, Einstein developed his theory in a new article "On the theory of Brownian motion". Soon (1908) Perrin's measurements fully confirmed the adequacy of Einstein's model, which was the first experimental proof of the molecular-kinetic theory, which was under active attack from the positivists in those years.
The work of 1905 brought Einstein, although not immediately, worldwide fame. On April 30, 1905, he sent to the University of Zurich the text of his doctoral dissertation on the topic "A new determination of the size of molecules." On January 15, 1906, he received his Ph.D. in physics. He texts and meets with the most famous physicists world, and Planck in Berlin includes the theory of relativity in his curriculum. In the letters he is called "Mr. Professor", but for another four years (until October 1909), Einstein continues to serve in the Patent Office; in 1906 he was promoted (he became an expert of the II class) 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 his old friend Marcel Grossmann taught geometry. The pay was small, especially for a family with two children, and in 1911 Einstein accepted without hesitation 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 activates research on the theory of gravitation, aiming to create a relativistic theory of gravity and to fulfill the old 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 he had his only meeting with Poincaré, who continued to reject the theory of relativity, although he personally treated Einstein with great respect.
Photos of the participants of the first Solvay Congress in 1911 Brussels, Belgium.
The Solvay Congresses, a series of congresses that began at the visionary initiative of Ernest Solvay and continued under the direction of the International Institute of Physics he founded, provided a unique opportunity for physicists to discuss the fundamental problems that had been at the center of their attention at various times.
Seated (left to right): Walter Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay, Hendrik Lorenz, Emil Warburg, Wilhelm Wien, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Marie Curie, Henri Poincaré.
Standing (left to right): Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld, Frederick Lindmann, Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenorl, Georg Hostlet, Eduard Herzen, James Jeans, Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerling-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, where he visited the 75-year-old Ernst Mach; Once Mach's criticism of Newtonian mechanics made a great impression on Einstein and ideologically prepared him for the innovations of the theory of relativity.
Second Solvay Congress (1913)
Seated (left to right): Walter Nernst, Ernest Rutherford, Wilhelm Wien, Joseph John Thomson, Emil Warburg, Hendrik Lorenz, Marcel Brillouin, William Barlow, Heike Kamerling-Onnes, Robert Williams Wood, Louis Georg Gouy, Pierre Weiss.
Standing (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 Gruneisen, 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 department being created in Berlin. Research institute; he is also enrolled as a professor at the University of Berlin. In addition to being close to a friend Planck, this position had the advantage of not obliging him to be distracted by teaching. He accepted the invitation, and in the pre-war year of 1914, a staunch pacifist Einstein arrived in Berlin. Mileva stayed with her children 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 Wander de Haas, Einstein proposed a scheme and calculation of the experiment, which, after successful implementation, was called the "Einstein-de Haas effect". The result of the experiment inspired Niels Bohr, who created the planetary model of the atom two years earlier, because he confirmed that circular electron currents exist inside atoms, and electrons do not radiate in their orbits. It is these assumptions that Bohr made the basis of his model. In addition, it was found that the total magnetic moment is twice as large as expected; the reason for this was clarified when the spin was discovered - the intrinsic angular momentum of the electron.
In June 1919, Einstein married his maternal cousin Else Löwenthal (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 was very upset by her death.


Albert and Elsa Einstein meet reporters


After the end of the war, Einstein continued to work in the old areas of physics, and also engaged in 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 microcosm. The first paper on cosmology, "Cosmological Considerations to the General Theory of Relativity", appeared in 1917. After that, Einstein experienced a mysterious "invasion of diseases" - in addition to serious problems with the liver, a stomach ulcer was discovered, then jaundice and general weakness. For several months he did not get out of bed, but continued to work actively. Only in 1920, the disease receded.
Photograph of Albert Einstein in his office at the University of Berlin in 1920.

Einstein in the home of Leiden University physics professor Paul Ehrenfest in 1920.


Einstein visiting Amsterdam with experimental physicist Peter Zeman (left) and with 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 was 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 in Europe (on a Swiss passport),
Albert Einstein in Barcelona, ​​1923

lectured for scientists, students and for 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 the Congress (1921) was adopted in honor of the eminent guest.
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 photo, including Tesla, 1921


At the end of 1922 he visited India, where he had a long association with Tagore, and China. Einstein met winter in Japan.
Visit of Albert Einstein 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 soon (1925) to open the Hebrew University.
Einstein was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics, but the 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 work in the experiment; however, the text of the decision contained a neutral addition: "... and for other work in the field of theoretical physics."
On November 10, 1922, Christopher Aurvillius, secretary of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, wrote to Einstein:
Albert Einstein in Berlin. 1922

As I already informed you by telegram, the Royal Academy of Sciences at its yesterday's meeting decided to award you the prize in physics for the past (1921) year, thus acknowledging 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 devoted the 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 to help in the publication of an article in which he put forward an assumption on 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 an article by Bose in German translation, and then his own article, in which he set out a generalized Bose model applicable to systems of identical particles with integer spin, called bosons. Based on this quantum statistics, now known as the Bose-Einstein statistics, both physicists back in the mid-1920s theoretically substantiated the existence of the fifth state of aggregation of matter - the Bose-Einstein condensate.
Portrait of Albert Einstein. 1925


In 1927, at the Fifth Solvay Congress, Einstein strongly opposed the "Copenhagen interpretation" of Max Born and Niels Bohr, which treats the mathematical model quantum mechanics as essentially probabilistic. Einstein stated that the supporters of this interpretation “make virtue out of need”, 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, incomplete version, which, as physics progresses, should be replaced by a complete theory of the microworld. He himself made attempts to create a deterministic non-linear theory, the approximate consequence of which would be quantum mechanics.
Solvay Congress of 1927 on quantum mechanics.
1st row (left to right): Irving Langmuir, Max Planck, Marie Curie, Henrik Lorentz, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin, Charles Guy, Charles Wilson, Owen Richardson.
2nd row (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 Hanrio, Paul Ehrenfest, Eduard Herzen, Theophile de Donder, Erwin Schrödinger, Jules Emile Verschafelt, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Ralph Fowler, Leon Brillouin.


In 1928, Einstein saw off Lorentz on his last journey, with whom he became very friendly in his last years. It was Lorentz who nominated Einstein for the Nobel Prize in 1920 and endorsed it the following year.
Albert Einstein and Hendrik Anton Lorenz in Leiden in 1921.


In 1929, the world celebrated Einstein's 50th birthday with a bang. The hero of the day did not take part in the celebrations and hid in his villa near Potsdam, where he grew roses with enthusiasm. 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 charity concert at the New Synagogue in Berlin, January 29, 1930.

Portrait of Albert Einstein taken by the clairvoyant Madame Sylvia 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 the radio show. Berlin, August 1930


Einstein on a radio show Berlin, August 1930


In 1931, Einstein again visited the United States.
Einstein's departure to America. December 1930


Albert Einstein in 1931 was struck by the enthusiasm of journalists in the United States who wanted him to explain his theory of relativity to them. Einstein said it 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 Milliken.1931


Returning to Berlin in the summer, Einstein, in a speech before the Physical Society, paid tribute to the memory of the remarkable experimenter who laid the foundation stone of the theory of relativity.
Until about 1926, Einstein worked in very many areas of physics, from cosmological models to the study of the causes of meanders in rivers. 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 grew in Weimar Germany, 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) on his head. After the Nazis came to power, all the works of Einstein were either attributed to "Aryan" physicists, or declared a distortion of true science. Lenard, who headed the German Physics group, proclaimed: “The most important example The dangerous influence of Jewish circles on the study of nature is presented by Einstein with his theories and mathematical chatter, made up of old information and arbitrary additions ... We must understand that it is unworthy of a German to be a spiritual follower of a Jew. An uncompromising racial purge 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 their exile in Belgium, where they lived in the Villa Savoyarde in Haan. 1933


Villa Savoyarde in Haan (Belgium), where Einstein briefly lived after being expelled from Germany. 1933


Einstein gives an interview to journalists at Villa Savoyarde in Belgium. 1933


Albert Einstein with his wife in 1933 at a villa in Savoyarde.


Together with his family, he left for 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 US, Albert Einstein was appointed professor of physics at the newly established Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. The eldest son, Hans-Albert (1904-1973), soon followed him (1938); he subsequently became a recognized specialist in hydraulics and a professor at the University of California (1947). Einstein's youngest son, Eduard (1910-1965), fell ill with a severe form of schizophrenia around 1930 and ended his days in a Zurich psychiatric hospital. Einstein's cousin, Lina, died in Auschwitz, another sister, Bertha Dreyfus, died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp
Albert Einstein with his daughter and son. November 1930


In the United States, 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 an "absent-minded professor" and the intellectual capabilities of a person in general. In January of the following year, 1934, he was invited to the White House to see President Franklin Roosevelt, had a cordial conversation with him, and even spent the night there. Every day, Einstein received hundreds of letters of various content, to which (even children's ones) he tried to answer. Being a naturalist with a worldwide reputation, he remained an accessible, modest, undemanding and affable person.
Portrait of Albert Einstein. 1934


In December 1936, Elsa died of heart disease; Marcel Grossmann had died three months earlier in Zurich. Einstein's loneliness was brightened up by sister Maya,
Sister Maya

Margo's stepdaughter (Elsa's daughter from her first marriage), Ellen Dukas's secretary, and Tiger the cat. To the surprise of the Americans, Einstein never got a car and a TV. 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 at the initiative of Leo Szilard, an immigrant physicist from Hungary, addressed to US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The letter drew the president's attention to the possibility that Nazi Germany get an atomic bomb.
Albert Einstein receives a certificate of American citizenship from Judge Philip Foreman. October 1, 1940


After several months of deliberation, Roosevelt decided to take this threat seriously and opened his own project to create an atomic weapon. Einstein himself did not take part in these works. Later, he regretted the letter he signed, realizing that for the new US leader Harry Truman, nuclear energy serves as a tool of intimidation. He later criticized the development nuclear weapons, its use in Japan and tests on the Bikini Atoll (1954), and considered his involvement in accelerating work on the American nuclear program the greatest tragedy of his life. Widely known were his aphorisms: "We won the war, but not the peace"; "If the third World War will be fought with atomic bombs, then the fourth - with stones and sticks.
70th anniversary celebration. 1949


In the postwar years, Einstein became one of the founders of the Pugwash Peace Movement. Although his 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 of the dangers of creating and using 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 well-known figures science led the fight against the arms race, the creation of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. Einstein also called, in the name of preventing new war, to the creation of a 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 the problems of cosmology, but he directed his main efforts to the creation of a unified field theory.
In 1955, Einstein's health deteriorated rapidly. 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 Margo recalled her last meeting with Einstein in the hospital: He spoke with deep calm, about doctors even with a touch of humor, and waited for his death as a forthcoming "phenomenon of nature." How fearless he was in life, so quiet and peaceful he met death. Without any sentimentality and without regrets, he left this world.
Albert Einstein in the last years of his life (probably 1950)

The scientist who turned mankind's ideas about the Universe upside down, Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955 at 1:25 a.m., 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 was unable to reproduce them later.
On April 19, 1955, the funeral of the great scientist took place without wide publicity, at which only 12 of his closest friends were present. His body was burned in the Ewing Cemetery crematorium and the ashes scattered to the wind.
Newspaper headlines with obituaries. 1955


Einstein had a passion for music, especially 18th-century compositions. AT different years among his preferred composers were Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Haydn and Schubert, and in recent years Brahms. He played the violin well, with which he never parted.
Albert Einstein plays the violin. 1921

Violin Concerto by Albert Einstein. 1941


He 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 "Oppenheimer case", who in 1953 was accused of "communist sympathies" and removed from secret work.
Physicist Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein talk at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. 1940s

uptight rapid growth anti-Semitism in Germany, Einstein supported the call of the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine and spoke on this subject with a number of articles and speeches. The idea of ​​opening the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1925) received especially active assistance from him.
The leaders of the World Zionist Organization, upon their arrival in New York, met with Albert Einstein. In the photo Mossinson, Einstein, Chaim Weizmann, Dr. Ussyshkin. 1921


He explained his position:
Until recently, I lived in Switzerland, and while I was there, I did not realize my Jewishness ...
When I arrived in Germany, I first learned that I was a Jew, and it was more non-Jews than Jews who helped me make this discovery ... Then I realized that only a common cause, which would be dear to all Jews in the world, could lead to the revival of the people ... If If we did not have to live among 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 restriction of Jewish immigration to Palestine.


In 1947, Einstein welcomed the establishment of the State of Israel, hoping for a binational Arab-Jewish solution to the Palestine problem. He wrote to Paul Ehrenfest in 1921: "Zionism is truly a new Jewish ideal and can restore the joy of existence to the Jewish people." Already after the Holocaust, he remarked: “Zionism did not protect German Jewry from destruction. But for those who survived, Zionism gave inner strength to endure the disaster with dignity, without losing healthy self-respect.” 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. Einstein bequeathed all his letters and manuscripts (and even the copyright for the commercial use of his image and name) to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Albert Einstein with Ben Gurion, 1951


In addition
Albert Einstein on the steamship Portland, December 1931


Albert Einstein arriving at Newark Airport in April 1939.


Albert Einstein lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.1940s


Albert Einstein 1947

Albert Einstein gave the world the most revolutionary scientific ideas of the 20th century, including the famous theory of relativity. Einstein is an internationally recognized genius of science.

Albert Einstein was born in the city of Ulm in southern Germany on March 14, 1879. A year after his birth, the Einstein family moved to Munich. Einstein's father, along with his brother, owned a small firm selling electrical equipment, but in 1894 the brothers decided to move their firm to the small Italian town of Pavia near Milan, hoping that things would go better there. Albert's father and mother moved to Italy, but he himself continued to study for some time in one of the Munich gymnasiums, remaining in the care of relatives.

Nothing in Albert Einstein's childhood foretold that he would become a scientific genius. He did not speak until the age of 3, and during his studies he hated the strict school discipline. He only enjoyed playing the violin. In 1895, Albert moved to Italy to live with his father and mother.

Einstein completed his education in the Swiss city of Zurich. In 1896, he entered the Higher Technical School - the most prestigious institution of higher education in Switzerland. Albert developed his own system of education and. instead of attending lectures, he independently studied the works of great physicists. Because of this, he was disliked by professors. In 1900, Einstein received a diploma as a teacher of physics and mathematics, but for a long time he could not find a permanent job - at least a school teacher. Finally, in 1902, he was admitted to the Berne Federal Office for Patenting Inventions as an examiner of the third class.

wonderful year

Einstein was not very interested in working in the patent office, but it gave him the opportunity to improve his financial situation and marry his ex.

Fellow student Mileva Marich. In addition, Albert had enough free time to engage in his own scientific developments. Nothing, however, foreshadowed what happened in 1905. Then Einstein submitted several articles to the leading German scientific journal Annals of Physics at once, each of which became a turning point in the history of science. One of them was devoted to the phenomenon, which was later called the photoelectric effect. In it, Einstein outlined his own ideas about the phenomenon when exposure to bright light knocks electrons out of atoms, resulting in the production of a small electric charge. Then it remained a mystery why this effect depends only on the color of the light exposure, and not on its intensity. This seemed surprising, since larger waves were supposed to cause a larger effect.

particles of light

The young Einstein solved the problem by going against the scientific notions developed throughout the 19th century. Light was thought to travel in the form of waves.

And Einstein realized that the photoelectric effect can be easily explained by considering light as particles, since particles of the same size always cause the same effect. The particles of light were later called photons, and they are indeed tiny particles of energy. In 1900, the German physicist Max Planck discovered that heat is not emitted in a uniform stream, but in portions, which he called quanta. But it was Einstein who realized that everything spreads in this way. electromagnetic radiation, and that portions of energy are particles, like electrons and photons. In other words, portions of energy and tiny particles are one and the same.

The second paper written by Einstein in 1905 was devoted to measuring the size of molecules. The third explained in detail Brownian motion - the erratic movement of tiny particles, such as dust particles, in water, which can be seen under a microscope.

Einstein suggested that the movement of dust particles is caused by collisions with moving atoms, and presented mathematical calculations confirming this. This was an important proof of the reality of atoms and molecules, which was then still disputed by some scientists. But the main work of Albert Einstein in 1905 was the special theory of relativity.

Special theory of relativity

In 1887, the famous experiment by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley showed that light always travels at the same speed, no matter how it is measured. This disappointed scientists because it destroyed one of the theories about light waves.
But Einstein had his own opinion on this matter.

Usually speed is measured in relation to something. For example, if you need to determine the speed at which you run, then you measure it relative to the ground under your feet, which seems to be stationary, but rotates with the Earth. But light travels at the same speed regardless of anything else. And there is only one speed.

Albert Einstein argued this way. Speed ​​is the distance traveled in a given amount of time. If the speed of light is constant, then time and distance must change. This meant that time and distance are relative concepts and may not be constant. This is called Einstein's special theory of relativity.

World of Relativity

The significance of this statement by Einstein can hardly be overestimated. It overturned all previous ideas about space and time, distance and speed and forced scientists to look at them in a completely new way. How important this turned out to be, it became especially clear when astronomy, which was adopted by radio telescopes, further pushed scientists' ideas about space.

True to events Everyday life Einstein's special theory of relativity is practically inapplicable, but amazing things must happen to objects moving at the speed of light.

Einstein showed, from Newton's laws of motion, that for objects moving at or near the speed of light, time seems to expand - it stretches and goes slower - and distances shrink. And the objects themselves become heavier. Einstein called this fact relativity.

Miraculous Equation

Proposing the special theory of relativity. Einstein continued to think about the problem. He had already shown that as soon as the speed of an object approaches the speed of light, the mass of that object increases. To “gain” this additional mass without slowing down, additional energy would be required. Any other change would mean a change in the speed of light, which, according to Einstein's evidence, cannot happen.

In this way. Einstein realized that mass and energy are interchangeable. And he deduced a simple but famous equation that defines this relationship: E = ms2. It shows that E (energy) is equal to the product of mass (m) and the speed of light (c) squared. It was an outstanding idea, easily explaining, for example, how radiation works - simply by converting mass into energy. She demonstrated the possibility of a large number energy from a small amount of radioactive material. Increasing mass with the speed of light implied that there was enormous potential energy in the mass of the tiniest atom. This theory was used 40 years later when the first atomic bomb.
At first, Einstein's outstanding theories did not attract much attention from the scientific world, and he continued to work in the Patent Office. Gradually, however, his fame grew, and in 1909 Einstein was offered a position as assistant professor at the Polytechnic University of Zurich. By that time he was already working on the general theory of relativity.

General theory

When developing the general theory of relativity, Einstein figuratively imagined a beam of light penetrating a falling elevator. The beam reaches the far wall of the elevator a little higher than the front because the elevator descends as the beam crosses it and the light beam curves up a bit. Based on the special theory of relativity. Einstein suggested that the beam is not actually bent, but only appears to be, because space and time are distorted by the force that pulls the elevator down.

With this assumption, Einstein built a great scientific theory. When Newton deduced the law of universal gravitation, he could only show a mathematical reality - that objects of a certain mass accelerate at a certain, predictable speed. But he didn't show how it works. Einstein did this clearly. The scientist showed that gravity is just a distortion in space and time. Mass creates an effect known as gravity by distorting space and time around it.

And the more mass, the more distortion. This means that the planets revolve around the sun, not because some mysterious force acts on them, but simply because space and time around the sun are distorted, and the planets revolve around it like a ball inside a funnel.

Einstein's theories prove that space travel is impossible at faster speeds than the speed of light. But science fiction writers suggest that spaceships of the future will be able to "break" the speed of light record by stretching time and space with the help of imaginary "hyperspace" engines.

Einstein was right

When Einstein published his general theory of relativity in 1915, many did not really understand his proof. There were those who considered them an absurd fiction. Was there a way to prove Einstein's claims in practice? He himself suggested such a way to prove his theory.

Astronomers had to detect a slight shift in the true position of a distant star as it passed in front of it relative to our Sun's observer. Such a shift would show that the rays of light from the star were bent due to the distortion of space and time near the Sun. Therefore, in May 1919, special expeditions went to Guinea and Brazil to observe a solar eclipse - this is the only time when stars can be seen near the Sun. The English astrophysicist Arthur Eddington, who led these expeditions, was a staunch supporter of Einstein's theories that were so difficult to understand. One day, the scientist Ludwig Silverstein told him, "You must be one of the three people on Earth who understands general relativity," referring to Einstein, himself, and Eddington. To which Eddington replied: “I wonder who is the third?”

During the eclipse, astronomers did manage to take pictures of the star, which showed how it apparently moved relative to the Sun - almost as predicted by Einstein. The results of the observations were published all over the world, and soon Einstein became the most famous of the scientists. Even his appearance was now famous - unruly tousled hair and a mustache lowered down.

Einstein himself was very surprised by such attention to his person, but it did not prevent him from continuing his work.

Einstein wanted to find a way to combine the nature of electromagnetism and gravity into one big theory that could explain how absolutely everything works - from stellar galaxies to the smallest subatomic particles. Until the end of his life, the scientist continued to work on such a "unified theory".

Ironically, Einstein was at the origin of the beginning of quantum theory, which had the same scientific importance as the theory of relativity. It suggests that at the subatomic level one must operate in terms of portions or quanta of energy. She also proves that particles and waves are interchangeable: every particle can behave like a wave, and every wave can behave like a particle. Above all, quantum theory shows that researchers cannot determine exactly where a particle is, but only predict its possible location. Therefore, sooner or later, the particle may end up in an unexpected place.

God does not play dice

And although it was thanks to Einstein's ideas regarding the relationship between light and atoms that quantum theory developed, he himself did not accept it. It was not only because, as it turned out. The universe obeyed not one set of laws, but two: one for the subatomic world, and the other for everything else. Albert Einstein rejected the very unstable nature of quantum theory in general.

Einstein's theories of relativity may have seemed extraordinary, but they always proceeded from the assumption that the universe behaves in a certain way. He simply could not accept the idea that the universe is governed by probability. "God does not play dice" - this famous phrase of Einstein is often quoted. In fact, he said this: “It seems difficult to look into the cards of God. But the fact that he plays dice and uses "telepathic" methods ... I do not believe for a minute. Einstein's attempts to disprove the quantum theory increasingly seemed to scientists to be erroneous, but in fact they led to the main evidence that ... quantum effects are real.

In the 1920s Einstein became increasingly interested in political issues. In 1933 he moved to the USA, where he began working at Princeton. There he met prominent thinkers such as the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud and the Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore. Einstein was horrified that his ideas were used in the development of nuclear weapons, and after World War II he became a strong supporter of the idea of ​​forming a world government capable of ending conflicts between states. Albert Einstein died in April 1955 at the age of 76.

Albert Einstein. Biography and discoveries of Albert Einstein

To understand Einstein's general theory of relativity, imagine a rubber sheet. A heavy object such as the Sun (A) makes a dent in it. This dent figuratively shows how gravity distorts space and time. Then gravity acts as follows. Any slowly moving body that passes nearby (such as the Earth or another planet) rolls into the depression created by (A) and follows a path (B) inside it. Bodies moving faster will follow a more open path around A, while a beam of light (C) traveling at a great distance and moving much faster will bend quite a bit.

The name of this scientist is familiar to everyone. And if his achievements are an integral part school curriculum, then the biography of Albert Einstein remains outside its scope. This is the greatest of scientists. His work determined the development of modern physics. In addition, Albert Einstein was a very interesting person. A short biography will introduce you to the achievements, the main milestones of the life path and some interesting facts about this scientist.

Childhood

The years of the life of a genius - 1879-1955. The biography of Albert Einstein begins March 14, 1879. It was then that he was born in the city. His father was a poor Jewish merchant. He maintained a small workshop for electrical goods.

It is known that until the age of three, Albert did not speak, but he showed extraordinary curiosity already in early years. The future scientist was interested in knowing how the world works. In addition, from a young age he showed aptitude for mathematics, he could understand abstract ideas. At the age of 12, Albert Einstein himself studied Euclidean geometry from books.

A biography for children, we believe, must certainly include one curious fact about Albert. It is known that the famous scientist in childhood was not a child prodigy. Moreover, those around him doubted his usefulness. Einstein's mother suspected the presence of a congenital deformity in the child (the fact is that he had a big head). The future genius at school proved to be slow, lazy, withdrawn. Everyone laughed at him. Teachers believed that he was practically incapable of anything. It will be very useful for schoolchildren to find out how difficult the childhood of such a great scientist as Albert Einstein was. A short biography for children should be not just a list of facts, but also teach something. AT this case- tolerance, self-confidence. If your child is desperate and considers himself incapable of anything, just tell him about Einstein's childhood. He did not give up, he retained faith in his strength, as evidenced by the further biography of Albert Einstein. The scientist proved that he is capable of much.

Moving to Italy

The young scientist was repelled by boredom and regimentation at the Munich school. In 1894, due to business failures, the family was forced to leave Germany. The Einsteins went to Italy, to Milan. Albert, who was 15 at the time, took advantage of the opportunity to drop out of school. He spent another year with his parents in Milan. However, it soon became clear that Albert had to decide in life. After graduation high school in Switzerland (in Arrau), the biography of Albert Einstein continues with his studies at the Zurich Polytechnic.

Education at the Zurich Polytechnic

He did not like the teaching methods at the polytechnic. The young man often skipped lectures, devoting his free time to studying physics, as well as playing the violin, which was Einstein's favorite instrument all his life. Albert in 1900 managed to pass the exams (he prepared according to the notes of a fellow student). So Einstein got his degree. It is known that the professors had a very low opinion of the graduate and did not recommend him a scientific career in the future.

Work in the patent office

After receiving the diploma, the future scientist began to work as an expert in the patent office. Since the assessment of technical characteristics usually took a young specialist about 10 minutes, he had a lot of free time. Thanks to this, Albert Einstein began to develop his own theories. A short biography and his discoveries soon became known to many.

Three important works of Einstein

1905 became a significant year in the development of physics. It was then that Einstein published important works who played an outstanding role in the history of this science in the 20th century. The first of the articles was devoted to The scientist made important predictions about the movement of particles suspended in a liquid. This movement, he noted, is due to the collision of molecules. Later, the predictions of the scientist were confirmed empirically.

Albert Einstein, whose brief biography and discoveries are just beginning, soon published a second work, this time devoted to the photoelectric effect. Albert made a hypothesis about the nature of light, which was nothing short of revolutionary. The scientist suggested that under certain circumstances, light can be considered as a stream of photons - particles whose energy is correlated with the frequency of the light wave. Almost all physicists immediately agreed with Einstein's idea. However, in order for the theory of photons to be recognized in quantum mechanics, it took 20 years of intense efforts by theorists and experimenters. But Einstein's most revolutionary work was the third, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. In it, the ideas of WHAT (particular theory of relativity) Albert Einstein expounded unusually clearly. The short biography of the scientist continues with a short story about this theory.

Particular relativity

It destroyed the ideas about time and space that existed in science since the time of Newton. A. Poincaré and G. A. Lorentz created a number of provisions of the new theory, but only Einstein was able to clearly formulate its postulates in physical language. This concerns, first of all, as well as the presence of a limit on the speed of signal propagation. And today you can find statements that supposedly even before Einstein the theory of relativity was created. However, this is not true, since in WHAT the formulas (many of which were really derived by Poincaré and Lorentz) are important not so much as the correct foundations from the point of view of physics. After all, it is from them that these formulas follow. Only Albert Einstein was able to reveal the theory of relativity from the point of view of physical content.

Einstein's view of the structure of theories

General Relativity (GR)

Albert Einstein from 1907 to 1915 worked on a new theory of gravity based on the principles of the theory of relativity. Winding and difficult was the path that led Albert to success. The main idea of ​​general relativity, built by him, is the presence of an inseparable connection between the space-time geometry and the gravitational field. Space-time in the presence of gravitating masses, according to Einstein, becomes non-Euclidean. It has a curvature, which is the greater, the more intense the gravitational field in this region of space. Albert Einstein presented the final equations of general relativity in December 1915, during a meeting in Berlin of the Academy of Sciences. This theory is the pinnacle of Albert's work. It is reputedly one of the most beautiful in physics.

The eclipse of 1919 and its role in the fate of Einstein

Understanding of general relativity, however, did not come immediately. This theory was of interest to few specialists for the first three years. Only a few scholars understood it. However, in 1919 the situation changed dramatically. Then, by direct observations, it was possible to verify one of the paradoxical predictions of this theory - that a beam of light from a distant star is bent by the gravitational field of the Sun. The test can only be done during a total solar eclipse. In 1919, the phenomenon could be observed in those parts the globe where the weather was good. Thanks to this, it became possible to accurately photograph the position of the stars at the time of the eclipse. The expedition, equipped by the English astrophysicist Arthur Eddington, was able to obtain information that confirmed Einstein's assumption. Albert literally in one day became a world-famous celebrity. The glory that fell upon him was enormous. For a long time, the theory of relativity became the subject of discussions. Articles about her were filled with newspapers all over the world. Many popular books were published, where the authors explained its essence to the townsfolk.

Scientific recognition, Einstein's controversy with Bohr

Finally came recognition in scientific circles. Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 (albeit for quantum theory, not general relativity). He was elected an honorary member of a number of academies. Albert's opinion has become one of the most authoritative in the world. Einstein traveled a lot around the world in the twenties. He has participated in ongoing international conferences around the world. The role of this scientist was especially important in the discussions that unfolded in the late 1920s on questions of quantum mechanics.

The debates and conversations between Einstein and Bohr on these issues became famous. Einstein could not agree in any way with the fact that in a number of cases he operates only with probabilities, and not exact values quantities. He was not satisfied with the fundamental indeterminacy of the various laws of the microworld. Einstein's favorite expression was the phrase: "God does not play dice!". However, Albert in disputes with Bohr, apparently, was wrong. As you can see, even geniuses make mistakes, including Albert Einstein. The biography and interesting facts about him are complemented by the tragedy that this scientist experienced due to the fact that everyone tends to make mistakes.

Tragedy in the life of Einstein

The creator of general relativity in the last 30 years of his life, unfortunately, was unproductive. This was due to the fact that the scientist set himself a task of grandiose magnitude. Albert intended to create a unified theory of all kinds of interactions. Such a theory, as is now clear, is possible only within the framework of quantum mechanics. Before the war, moreover, very little was known about the existence of interactions other than gravitational and electromagnetic. The titanic efforts of Albert Einstein therefore ended in nothing. This may have been one of the biggest tragedies of his life.

The pursuit of beauty

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Albert Einstein's discoveries in science. Today practically every branch of modern physics is based on the fundamental concepts of the theory of relativity or quantum mechanics. Perhaps no less important is the confidence that Einstein instilled in scientists with his work. He showed that nature is knowable, showed the beauty of its laws. It was the desire for beauty that was the meaning of the life of such a great scientist as Albert Einstein. His biography is already coming to an end. It is a pity that one article cannot cover the entire legacy of Albert. But how he made his discoveries is certainly worth telling.

How did Einstein create theories?

Einstein had a peculiar way of thinking. The scientist singled out ideas that seemed to him disharmonious or inelegant. At the same time, he proceeded mainly from aesthetic criteria. Then the scientist proclaimed a general principle that restores harmony. And then he made predictions about how certain physical objects would behave. This approach gave stunning results. Albert Einstein trained the ability to see a problem from an unexpected angle, to rise above it and find an unusual way out. When Einstein hit a dead end, he played the violin, and suddenly the solution popped up in his head.

Moving to the USA, the last years of life

In 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany. They burned everything Albert's family had to emigrate to the USA. Here Einstein worked at Princeton, at the Institute for Basic Research. In 1940, the scientist renounced German citizenship and officially became a US citizen. He spent his last years at Princeton, working on his grandiose theory. He devoted moments of rest to boating on the lake and playing the violin. On April 18, 1955, Albert Einstein died.

Albert's biography and discoveries are still being studied by many scientists. Some of the studies are very interesting. In particular, Albert's brain after death was studied for genius, but nothing exceptional was found. This suggests that each of us can become like Albert Einstein. Biography, summary works and interesting facts about the scientist - all this is inspiring, isn't it?

Einstein, Albert(Einstein, Albert; 1879, Ulm, Germany, - 1955, Princeton, USA) - theoretical physicist, one of the founders of modern physics, creator of the theory of relativity, one of the creators of quantum theory and statistical physics.

early years

Born in the town of Ulm in Württemberg in a non-religious Jewish family. His father, Hermann Einstein, was engaged in trade, then opened a small electrochemical factory, which he led with varying degrees of success. Mother's name was Polina Koch. Mary had a younger sister.

Interested since childhood natural phenomena; at the age of 12 he read a book on geometry and became interested in mathematics for life. At the same time, he became interested in religion, but in those days, religion was considered incompatible with the scientific worldview, and Einstein's religiosity passed. Albert didn't like the German school, and the teachers didn't like him. His mentor in mathematics and philosophy was a family friend, medical student Max Talmud.

His father moved production to Munich, where the family moved. In 1894, after failing in Munich, the elder Einstein moved to Milan to work with a relative. Albert stayed at the boarding house until graduation. At the age of 16, he ran away from there to his parents. He applied for admission to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich. Since he did not have a high school diploma, he had to pass very tough exams. He failed French, Chemistry, and Biology, but failed in Mathematics and Physics in such a way that he was allowed to enter on the condition that he first finished school.

He entered a special private school in the Swiss town of Arrau. At the same time, he renounced German citizenship in order not to get on military registration in Germany.

In 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, graduating in 1900. At the university, he became friends with Marcel Grossmann and met his first wife, Mileva Marich, who studied physics there. The only one of the four graduates of 1900 in his specialty, he did not get a job at the Polytechnic (Professor Werber, who had a grudge against him, interfered). He took Swiss citizenship and was engaged in tutoring, had no means. His father went bankrupt.

In 1902, on the recommendation of his father Marcel Grossmann, he entered the service of a technical examiner in the patent office (Bern), since he was not hired by any university. He continued to study theoretical physics in his spare time. In 1903 he married Mileva Marich (his father agreed to his marriage to a Christian woman before his death). They had two sons.

First discoveries in physics

The second article - "On one heuristic point of view regarding the emergence and transformation of light" - interprets light as a stream of quanta (photons) with corpuscular and wave properties, and introduces the concept of a photon as a formation that has the characteristics of a particle and a field. He founded the photon theory of light (photoelectric effect), for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1921.

The third article - "On the electrodynamics of moving media" - contained the foundations of the special theory of relativity. Einstein introduced new concepts of space, time and motion into physics, discarding Newton's concept of absolute space and absolute time and the "world ether theory". Space and time have acquired the status of a single reality (space-time) associated with movement physical bodies and fields.

Classical mechanics was not rejected, but included in the new theory as its limiting case. The conclusion followed from the theory: all physical laws must be the same in systems moving relative to each other in a straight line and uniformly. Physical quantities that were previously considered absolute (mass, length, time interval) actually turned out to be relative - dependent on the relative speed of the object and the observer. At the same time, the speed of light turned out to be constant, independent of the speed of movement of other objects (which was already known from the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1881 and did not fit into the ideas of Newton's classical physics).

In the same 1905, 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 (m) and energy (E), and in 1906 he wrote it down as E=mc² where (c) is the speed of light. It underlies the relativistic principle of conservation of energy, the entire nuclear power industry.

The theory of relativity had predecessors - fragments of it are contained in the works of Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz, but Einstein was the first to bring together and systematize scientific ideas about it. The theory of relativity was ignored for several years scientific community. The first to understand it was Max Planck, who began to help Einstein and arranged for him invitations to scientific conferences and teaching positions.

Transition to professional scientific activity

In 1906, Einstein defended his doctoral dissertation, summarizing the work on Brownian motion. In 1907 he created the quantum theory of heat capacity. Since 1908, Einstein became a Privatdozent at the University of Bern, in 1909 - an extraordinary professor at the University of Zurich, in 1911 - an ordinary professor at the German University in Prague, in 1912 - a professor at the Zurich Polytechnic (where he had previously studied).

In 1914, despite the intrigues of anti-Semites, at the invitation of Max Planck, he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, professor at the University of Berlin, member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. In 1916, Einstein predicted the phenomenon of induced (forced) emission of atoms, which underlies quantum electronics. Einstein's theory of stimulated, ordered (coherent) radiation led to the discovery of lasers.

In 1917, Einstein completed the creation general relativity, a concept that justifies the extension of the principle of relativity to systems moving with acceleration and curvilinearly relative to each other. Einstein's theory for the first time in science substantiated the relationship between the geometry of space-time and the distribution of mass in the universe. The new theory was based on Newton's theory of gravity. His prediction of the deflection of starlight in the Sun's gravitational field was confirmed by a British team of scientists at the time of a solar eclipse in 1919.

Modern physics has experimentally substantiated the special theory of relativity. On its basis, for example, accelerators of elementary particles are created. The general theory of relativity also received a fundamental substantiation. Her hypothesis about the deflection of light under the influence of the gravitational force of the Sun was confirmed as early as 1919 by a group of English astronomers. For the discovery of the laws of the photoelectric effect and works on theoretical physics, Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921. In 1924-25. Einstein made a great contribution to the development of quantum Bose statistics, which is now called Bose-Einstein statistics.

Personal problems

Due to constant traveling and material problems, Einstein's family life deteriorated. In 1919, he divorced his wife (under a divorce agreement, he ceded to her, in particular, the rights to the Nobel Prize if she was ever received). At the same time, he began dating his cousin Elsa Löwenthal, whom he later married.

In 1915, when Einstein was giving a series of lectures in Göttingen, there were unfinished places in the theory of relativity that required mathematical revision. listened to lectures David Gilbert did this work and published his results before Einstein. The two scientists clashed for some time over scientific priority, but then became friends.

Departure for the USA

In the 1920s and 30s he was famous, especially abroad. He traveled a lot around the world, contacting colleagues and lecturing at various universities, and also engaged in social and political activities, helping socialists, pacifists and Zionists.

In 1930, his eldest son Eduard fell ill with schizophrenia and was hospitalized for the rest of his life.