Avelar 1

One of the most famous scientist the world has ever know
and one of the greatest scientist of all times. Even though he was
a genius, he never saw himself as a one. He once said, "I have no
special talents. I am passionately curious". The man who is
famous for his wild gray hair, and simple equation E=mc. The
man who wrote theories explaining many of the contemporary
questions about the unseen world of gravity and light. The man
whose theories were the main foundation for nuclear energy,
laser technology, televisions and computer chips. He was named
"Person of the century" by the Time Magazine in 1999, and was
the fourth most admired man of the 20th century. Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, a small
city in southern Germany. He was the first child of Hermann and
Pauline Koch Einstein. Hermann the father of Albert was a
businessman. Pauline eleven years younger than her husband
was a talented pianist. She loved music, and Albert enjoyed
watching her play. As a young child, Albert didn't show any signs
of intelligence, his parents even believed that he was "slow". He
began to speak fairly late. His parents even got worried about him
and consulted a doctor. He claims that as a baby he used to

Avelar 2

practice forming sentences by himself, that he wasn't interested

on saying anything until he was able to hold a conversation.
Albert was between two and three years old when he started
speaking. As a child, Einstein enjoyed playing on his own, playing
blocks and building houses with cards. At the age of five Albert
began violin lessons, even though he didn't enjoy practicing the
violin, his mother insisted so he was forced to learn. At the age of
13 he started loving the violin and music brought joy to his life. At
the same age, Albert got sick and couldn't go out and play, he
was restless and unhappy so his father showed him a compass
thinking that it would cheer him up. It did, it filled Albert with
wonder it didn't matter what way you turned the compass the
needle always pointed north, that experience made a deep and
lasting impression upon him.
Although the Einstein were Jewish they weren't religiously
active. Albert started in a Catholic elementary school; it was less
expensive and closer to their home. As the only Jew in class,
Albert endured some abuse from his peers. He didn't seem to
enjoy school, even though he did quite well. Once reason was
because most German schools emphasized discipline and

Avelar 3

obedience. School was run as a little army. Punishments were

often fairly harsh and he didn't like to be told what to think.
At the age of 14, Albert was fascinated about math and
physics. He began to study on his own, reading about science and
physics; science dealing with energy, matter and movement. He
taught himself algebra and worked his way up with higher math,
including calculus. He enjoyed learning on his own, reading
science journals, and keeping up with the latest theories. In
college he had a hard time attending to classes. The few times he
attended class he argued with the instructor. With the help of his
classmates and notes he passed his exams and graduated in
1900. His teachers considered Albert a bad student so they
refused to recommend him to further employment. It took some
years before Albert was able to find a job.
Albert fell in love with Mileva Maric, who was four years older
than him. Although Mileva wasn't classically beautiful, her
intellect fascinated Albert. This relationship created a lot of
problems, mainly in Alberts family, because Mileva was Catholic
and was older than Albert. Pauline disagreed with this

Avelar 4

relationship. In 1898 Mileva got pregnant, she made plans to

leave school and even though she took the final exam twice she
never passed them and never earned her degree. Mileva returned
to her native Hungary where she gave birth to a baby girl. Albert's
daughter was put into adoption. Mileva returned to school and the
couple continued to date. In 1903 Albert and Mileva got married
after Hermann, Albert's father died of a heart attack. One year
later Albert first son was born, Hans Albert. In 1910 Mileva gave
birth to their second son, Eduard. Years later Albert and Mileva
divorced, years after that Einstein married his cousin Elsa
Loewenthal.
Einsteins foundation for building his special theory was
inspired by four men: Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, James Clerk
Maxwell and Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. Albert wrote a lot of articles
over his life, which helped to learn and understand some of the
gaps in physics. Even though most of his theories were written in
his mids 20s, he had to wait years before his theories become
accepted. In 1905, Albert published four immensely important
scientific papers dealing with his analysis of Brownian motion, the
equivalence of mass and energy, the photoelectric effect and

Avelar 5

special relativity. He was only 26 years old, but every single

publication had a big contribution to science.
Einsteins main ideas were based on light, time, energy and
gravity. Albert showed and explained that photons in the light
beam knock the electron out the metal. This occurs when a beam
of light hits certain metals and causes them to give off electrically
charged particles called electrons. With this understanding it
helped pave the way to technology, television, laser, and
computer chips. He also confirmed the existence of atoms, which
at that time were suspected but not confirmed. One of Albert
greatest discovery was yet to come, his theory of relativity. That
theory explained that time passes more slowly for people
traveling at very high speeds compared with people moving more
slowly. He was also able to explain the Newtonian mystery of
where gravity comes from, gravity results from massive objects.
Without matter, space-time is flat, but it curves when matter is
present. That the motion of planets followed a curved path around
the sun because the sun bends space-time around it. He produced
one of the most famous equation ever: E=MC. This equation says
that mass (M) can be converted to energy (E). A little mass can

Avelar 6

make a lot of energy, because energy is equal to mass times the

speed of light squared. This equation helped other scientist to
unleash this energy and develop nuclear weapons, also to explain
the sun's source of energy.
In 1921 he won the Nobel Prize for physics for his
explanation of the photoelectric effect. He is considered the most
influential physicist of the 20th century. Einstein died on April 18,
1955, in Princeton, New Jersey, he died of an aortic aneurysm.

Bibliography
Bankston, J. (2003). Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity. Mitchell Lane.
Ferguson, M. (2005). Genius A photo biography of Albert Einstein. Washington D.C.: National
Geography Society.
Albert Einstein - Biographical. (2014, January 1). Retrieved February 20, 2015, from

Avelar 7
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html
Albert Einstein. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 12:20, Mar 01, 2015, from
http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408.
Albert Einstein. (2014, July 1). Retrieved February 23, 2015, from
http://www.famousscientists.org/albert-einstein/
Golden, F. (1999, December 31). Albert Einstein. Retrieved March 1, 2015, from
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993017,00.html