Albert Einstein (biography)

ALBERT EINSTEIN (BIOGRAPHY)

Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879. Six weeks later the family moved to Munich.

He had his violin lessons from age six to age thirteen. Later, Einstein’s family moved to Italy (Milan), but Einstein remained in Munich.

In 1895 Einstein failed an examination that would have al­lowed him to study for a diploma as an electrical engineer at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich.

Following the failing of the entrance exam to the Swiss Fed­eral Polytechnic School, Einstein attended secondary school at Aarau, Switzerland, planning to use this route to enter the SFPS in Zurich. While at Aarau he wrote an essay in which he wrote of his plans for the future:

«If I were to have the good fortune to pass my examina­tions, I would go to Zurich. I would stay there for four years in order to study mathematics and physics. I imagine myself be­coming a teacher in those branches of the natural sciences, choosing the theoretical part of them. Here are the reasons, which lead me to this plan. Above all, it is my disposition for abstract and mathematical thought, and my lack of imagina­tion and practical ability.»

The next year, in 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytech­nic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher of physics and mathematics. Indeed Einstein succeeded with his plan graduat­ing in 1900 as a teacher of physics and mathematics.

In 1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss citizenship and, as he was unable to find a. teaching post, he accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 he obtained his doctor’s degree. Einstein earned a doctorate from the University of Zurich for a thesis «On a new determination of molecular dimensions».

In fact 1911 was a very significant year for Einstein since he was able to make preliminary predictions about how a ray of light from a distant star, passing near the Sun, would appear to be bent slightly, in the direction of the Sun.

In 1911 he was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics in Prague. Einstein returned to Zurich in 1912 to fill a similar post. In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin.

He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933.

In 1915 Einstein published the definitive version of general theory of relativity.

Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 but not for relativity rather for his 1905 work on the photoelectric effect.

A third visit to the United States in 1932 was followed by the offer of a post of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton. The idea was that Einstein would spend seven months a year in Berlin, five months at Princeton. Einstein accepted and left Ger­many in December 1932 for the United States. The following month the Nazis came to power in Germany and Einstein was never to return there. He became a United States citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945.

One week before his death Einstein signed his last letter. It was a letter in which he agreed that his name should go on a manifesto urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons.

Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

Einstein was cremated at Trenton, New Jersey at 4 pm on 18 April 1955 (the day of his death). His ashes were scattered at an undisclosed place.

Questions___________:____________;_____

1. When and where was Albert Einstein born?

2. Did Albert Einstein enter the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich from the first time?

3. What did he want to be?

4. When did Einstein graduate as a teacher of physics and mathematics?

5. Why was 1911 a very significant year for Einstein?

6. When did Einstein receive the Nobel Prize? What for?

7. Give at least one example of Einstein’s antiwar activity.

8. When did Albert Einstein die?

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