Born today biography of albert einstein

Who Was Albert Einstein?

Albert Einstein was a German mathematician and physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. In , he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. In the following decade, he immigrated to the United States after being targeted by the German Nazi Party. His work also had a major impact on the development of atomic energy. In his later years, Einstein focused on unified field theory. He died in April at age With his passion for inquiry, Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20 century.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Albert Einstein
BORN: March 14,
DIED: April 18,
BIRTHPLACE: Ulm, Württemberg, Germany
SPOUSES: Mileva Einstein-Maric () and Elsa Einstein ()
CHILDREN: Lieserl, Hans, and Eduard
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces

Early Life, Family, and Education

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, , in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany. He grew up in a secular Jewish family. His father, Hermann Einstein, was a salesman and engineer who, with his brother, founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a Munich-based company that mass-produced electrical equipment. Einstein’s mother, the former Pauline Koch, ran the family household. Einstein had one sister, Maja, born two years after him.

Einstein attended elementary school at the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich. However, he felt alienated there and struggled with the institution’s rigid pedagogical style. He also had what were considered speech challenges. However, he developed a passion for classical music and playing the violin, which would stay with him into his later years. Most significantly, Einstein’s youth was marked by deep inquisitiveness and inquiry.

Toward the end of the s, Max Talmud, a Polish medical student who sometimes dined with the Einstein family, became an informal tutor to young Einstein. Talmud had introduced his pupil to a children’s science text that inspired

German-born physicist (–)

"Einstein" redirects here. For other uses, see Einstein (disambiguation) and Albert Einstein (disambiguation).

Albert Einstein (, EYEN-styne;German:[ˈalbɛʁtˈʔaɪnʃtaɪn]; 14 March – 18 April ) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc, which arises from special relativity, has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the Nobel Prize in Physics for .

Born in the German Empire, Einstein moved to Switzerland in , forsaking his German citizenship (as a subject of the Kingdom of Württemberg) the following year. In , at the age of seventeen, he enrolled in the mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Swiss federal polytechnic school in Zurich, graduating in He acquired Swiss citizenship a year later, which he kept for the rest of his life, and afterwards secured a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. In , he submitted a successful PhD dissertation to the University of Zurich. In , he moved to Berlin to join the Prussian Academy of Sciences and

On March 14, , Albert Einstein is born, the son of a Jewish electrical engineer in Ulm, Germany. Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity drastically altered human understanding of the universe, and his work in particle and energy theory helped make possible quantum mechanics and, ultimately, the atomic bomb.

After a childhood in Germany and Italy, Einstein studied physics and mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic Academy in Zurich, Switzerland. He became a Swiss citizen and in was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich while working at the Swiss patent office in Bern. That year, which historians of Einstein’s career call the annus mirabilis—the “miracle year”—he published five theoretical papers that were to have a profound effect on the development of modern physics.

In the first of these, titled “On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light,” Einstein theorized that light is made up of individual quanta (photons) that demonstrate particle-like properties while collectively behaving like a wave. The hypothesis, an important step in the development of quantum theory, was arrived at through Einstein’s examination of the photoelectric effect, a phenomenon in which some solids emit electrically charged particles when struck by light. This work would later earn him the Nobel Prize in Physics.

In the second paper, he devised a new method of counting and determining the size of the atoms and molecules in a given space, and in the third he offered a mathematical explanation for the constant erratic movement of particles suspended in a fluid, known as Brownian motion. These two papers provided indisputable evidence of the existence of atoms, which at the time was still disputed by a few scientists.

Einstein’s fourth groundbreaking scientific work of addressed what he termed his special theory of relativity. In special relativity, time and space are not absolute, but relative to the moti

One of science's greatest minds of all time, Albert Einstein, was born on March 14, , at his family's home in Ulm, Germany. He shares his birthday with Pi Day, a celebration of this special never-ending number. Einstein's life in science started early, with him writing his first scientific paper when he was only a teenager. In , Einstein published several influential works, tackling such topics as relativity and introducing his most famous equation on mass and energy E=mc2. And, in , he earned the Nobel Prize in physics.

Let's take a closer look at the life of this incredible genius:

Einstein was a late talker

His parents worried that there was something wrong with him early on and even had him examined by doctors. He didn't really start using words until after he was two years old, but even after he started speaking, he often took unnatural pauses. No one knew in these very early years that they had a genius on their hands. In fact, many biographies on Einstein include the family maid's opinion of young Einstein. She thought he was "a dope." While he was slow with language, Einstein showed early sparks of interest in science. A gift of a compass from his father when he was five years old led to a lifetime fascination with magnetic fields.

READ MORE: What Was Albert Einstein's IQ?

Einstein wasn't a big fan of school

Despite some claims, he actually did well in his classes, especially math and science. Einstein, however, didn't like the way he was taught. He later remarked that "It is almost a miracle that modern teaching methods have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for what this delicate little plant needs more than anything, besides stimulation, is freedom," according to an article on the American Institute of Physics website.

Some of his most important learning was done outside of class. His uncle, Jakob Einstein, introduced him to algebra. A young Jewish medica