About:
A biographical Documentary on Albert Einstein by History Channel.
Synopsis:
Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14,
1879. Six weeks later the family moved to Munich, where he later on
began his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Later, they moved to
Italy and Albert continued his education at Aarau, Switzerland and in
1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be
trained as a teacher in 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.
During
his stay at the Patent Office, and in his spare time, he produced much
of his remarkable work and in 1908 he was appointed Privatdozent in
Berne. In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911
Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, returning to Zurich in the
following year 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 when he renounced his citizenship for political
reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of
Theoretical Physics at Princeton*. He became a United States citizen in
1940 and retired from his post in 1945.
After World War II,
Einstein was a leading figure in the World Government Movement, he was
offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, which he declined, and he
collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
Einstein always appeared to have a clear
view of the problems of physics and the determination to solve them. He
had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on
the way to his goal. He regarded his major achievements as mere
stepping-stones for the next advance.
At the start of his
scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian
mechanics and his special theory of relativity stemmed from an attempt
to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic
field. He dealt with classical problems of statistical mechanics and
problems in which they were merged with quantum theory: this led to an
explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He investigated the
thermal properties of light with a low radiation density and his
observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light.
In
his early days in Berlin, Einstein postulated that the correct
interpretation of the special theory of relativity must also furnish a
theory of gravitation and in 1916 he published his paper on the general
theory of relativity. During this time he also contributed to the
problems of the theory of radiation and statistical mechanics.
In
the 1920's, Einstein embarked on the construction of unified field
theories, although he continued to work on the probabilistic
interpretation of quantum theory, and he persevered with this work in
America. He contributed to statistical mechanics by his development of
the quantum theory of a monatomic gas and he has also accomplished
valuable work in connection with atomic transition probabilities and
relativistic cosmology.
After his retirement he continued to work
towards the unification of the basic concepts of physics, taking the
opposite approach, geometrisation, to the majority of physicists.
Einstein's
researches are, of course, well chronicled and his more important works
include Special Theory of Relativity (1905), Relativity (English
translations, 1920 and 1950), General Theory of Relativity (1916),
Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926), and The Evolution
of Physics (1938). Among his non-scientific works, About Zionism (1930),
Why War? (1933), My Philosophy (1934), and Out of My Later Years (1950)
are perhaps the most important.
Albert Einstein received
honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many
European and American universities. During the 1920's he lectured in
Europe, America and the Far East and he was awarded Fellowships or
Memberships of all the leading scientific academies throughout the
world. He gained numerous awards in recognition of his work, including
the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1925, and the
Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1935.
Einstein's
gifts inevitably resulted in his dwelling much in intellectual solitude
and, for relaxation, music played an important part in his life. He
married Mileva Maric in 1903 and they had a daughter and two sons; their
marriage was dissolved in 1919 and in the same year he married his
cousin, Elsa Löwenthal, who died in 1936. He died on April 18, 1955 at
Princeton, New Jersey.
