Daniel Retta
English 4
Essay: Albert Einstein

Albert Pippy Einstein was born March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire. He is well known for his scientific achievements in the field of theoretical physics. His achievements are so highly valued that he is commonly regarded as the father of modern physics. His father was Hermann Einstein and his mother was Pauline Koch. He had a sister two years younger named Maja Einstein. Although Einstein's family was Jewish, they were nonobservant and he attended a Catholic elementary school, Petersschule, from the ages of 5 till 10. He became highly religious around the age of 12 and actually began writing and singing During this time he had speech difficulties, though he was a top student. In 1889 a family friend Max Talmud introduced young Einstein, age 10, to some key texts in science, mathematics and philosophy, including Euclid's Elements and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Einstein's family went through a few moves in response to their economic status difficulties. Albert's father and uncle together held a business, Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, which manufactured electrical equipment based on direct current. Because it was dependent upon the success of DC (direct current), during the War of the Currents, AC (alternating current) became the standard and their business went under. In search of better financial opportunity Herrman and his family moved to Italy, first to the city of Milan, then after a few months to Pavia. During the move to Pavia, Einstein found himself staying alone in Munich to complete his education at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Einstein's father had wanted him to pursue a career in electrical engineering, but Einstein greatly disagreed with the teaching method and regimen of the school. He convinced the school to let him leave by using a doctor's note and during the spring of 1895 he rejoined with his family in Pavia. During these experiences Einstein wrote his first scientific piece, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields", though it was not published. Einstein then applied to Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule (later Swiss Technical College (ETH)) located in Zürich, Switzerland. He was required to take an entrance examination because he lacked a requisite gymnasium certificate. He failed the entrance exam, though he did receive exceptionally high marks in physics and mathematics. His parents then sent him to Aarau, a school in northern Switzerland, to finish secondary school. During his enrollment in Arau Einstein studied Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. At the age of 17 Einstein graduated from Arau. With his father's permission he renounced his citizenship within the German Kingdom of Württemberg in order to avoid military service. He then enrolled in 1896 in the mathematics and physics program at the Polytechnic in Zurich. There Einstein met Mileva Marić, his future wife, the only woman enrolled in the same program. Four years later, in 1900, he graduated from the Polytechnic with a diploma in mathematics and physics. Then in 1901, after saving up funds for months, he applied for Swiss citizenship, a status he deeply desired. The Zurich authorities thoroughly examined him, even going so far as to request a report from the city of Milan on his parents. The Swiss entry examiners accepted him and he received his citizenship. He and Mileva shared a tryst in northern Italy and she became pregnant with their daughter, Lieserl, born in 1901, who was eventually put up for adoption. Over the next two years Einstein unsuccessfully searched for a teaching post, though some sources claim he found a couple different temporary teaching positions. After much frustration and with the help of a previous classmate's father, he was able to locate a job at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property as an assistant examiner evaluating patents for electromagnetic devices. In January of 1903 Albert and Mileva married and shortly after gave birth to Hans Einstein. Einstein’s position as an examiner became permanent, though he was passed over for a promotion until he "fully mastered machine technology”. During this period he also wrote his first published paper titled Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen (Conclusions Drawn from the Phenomena of Capillarity) and produced many other theoretical physics papers without the help of close scientific colleagues or literature. In 1905, at the age of 26 Einstein published a paper on relativity declaring the speed of light as a constant and received his Ph. D in physics from the University of Zurich. The year of 1905 is also commonly known as "Annus Mirabilis" or Einstein's "Miracle Year" as he applied his famous theory of mass and energy through the principle of e=mc2. In 1906 Einstein was promoted to the position of technical expert second class. He continued to produce a plethora of papers covering a variety of physics topics including quantum law and the emission and absorption of light, the inertia of energy, Brownian motion, and the electrodynamics of moving bodies. His work was so advanced the scientific community of that era naturally looked upon his pieces with skepticism. Only a handful of dedicated imaginative physicists truly understood the underlying meaning of Einstein’s concepts, but as his work was further pondered the community began to become aware of its immense value. The first of this community to recognize Einstein’s achievement was none other than Max Planck, the physicist known for founding quantum physics. Einstein continued his work as a patent examiner until 1910 up until he had a second son whom they named Eduard Einstein. Einstein and his family then packed up and headed to the city of Prague where he was offered a position as a professor at the German University. Over the next few years Einstein quickly scaled the academic ladder, moving upward through positions. Next he returned to Zurich as the professor of theoretical physics at the Federal Institute of Technology. Then in 1914 he becomes appointed Director of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics without teaching obligations at the University of Berlin and becomes a member of the Academy of Prussian Sciences. Throughout all of this achievement, speeches on the road and time spent away from his family while off contemplating theoretical physics, Einstein and Mileva’s relationship begins falling apart and they eventually separated. She returned to Zurich with the two kids and he continued his famed world renowned role of physics genius. Though later, during the divorce, Einstein agreed to give Mileva all of the money he might receive if he were to ever win the Nobel Prize. In 1915 Einstein completed what he considered to be his master piece, the Theory of General Relativity. World War I interrupted his concentration. As a lifelong pacifist, Einstein was absolutely opposed to the coming onslaught and called nationalism “the measles of mankind”. Later he would write, “At such a time as this, one realizes what a sorry species of animal one belongs to”. With the chaos unleashed by the war a confrontation occurred where radical students took some professors hostage. Einstein was immediately chosen as the best candidate to play mediator as he held the respect of both faculty and students alike. He and an accomplice Max Born brokered a compromise that resolved the situation entirely peaceably. Two expeditions were sent to test one of Einstein’s theories by observing the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919. The results were announced at a joint meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society. Einstein became a world-renowned figure, the successor to Newton. The front page of the Times of London read “Revolution in Science - New Theory of the Universe - Newton's Ideas Overthrown - Momentous Pronouncement - Space ‘Warped.'” The equations of his theory predicted that the universe is dynamic and is constantly expanding, as opposed to the previously accepted theory of the universe being static. As the Nazi party began to take hold of the German society, they targeted Einstein and began denouncing his work, branding it “Jewish Physics”. They then assembled multiple well known figures and had them write out against Einstein and all he had done. Einstein fled for the US and was granted permanent residency in 1935, officially becoming a citizen in 1940, but he did also choose to retain his Swiss citizenship. Einstein was never asked to participate in the production of the atomic bomb even though his work had been the basis for its development. The FBI worried about his interaction with the project because he was such a vocal peace activist and pacifist. When he heard of the nuclear devastation released upon the people of Japan he almost immediately became a part of an organization of scientists devoted to bringing the use of such a weapon under control called the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. In 1952 Einstein was offered by the premier of Israel the position of president as he was a prominent figure in the Zionist movement. Einstein respectfully declined. As the majority of physicists moved on to studying the idea of quantum physics, Albert privately continued on the trail of thought of relativity along with relativity, predicting such things as black holes, worm holes, the creation of the universe and the potential for time travel.. Einstein spent his last few years focused on a single theory. The algorithmic equation that would justify bringing everything together into a crystal clear understanding into the future. He called this idea the unified field theory. Albert Pippy Einstein, at the age of 76, passed away of an aortic aneurysm. His brain was promptly removed and isolated for future study. Never was he able to complete his unified field theory; his search for god.