Many people consider Albert Einstein, who was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879, to be one of the most intelligent people in history. His contributions to quantum physics and his revolutionary ideas of relativity fundamentally altered our conceptions of time, space, and the cosmos. In addition to laying the groundwork for contemporary physics, Einstein’s contributions had a significant impact on several other scientific and intellectual domains.
| Full Name : | Albert Einstein |
| Born : | March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany |
| Died : | April 18, 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
| Nationality : | German (born), Swiss (later), American (later in life) |
| Famous For : | Theory of Relativity, E = mc², contributions to quantum mechanics |
| Nobel Prize : | 1921, for the Photoelectric Effect |
| Education : | Swiss Federal Polytechnic (ETH Zurich), graduated 1900 |
Early Life and Education
Born into a Jewish household, Albert Einstein had a keen interest in the world from an early age. Despite being seen as a shy and sluggish student at first, Einstein’s passion for physics and mathematics grew over his adolescence. After his family relocated to Munich, Einstein went to school there and found the strict educational system difficult to navigate. But he was a math and scientific whiz.
After enrolling at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic (later ETH Zurich) in 1896, Einstein obtained a teaching certificate in mathematics and physics. Despite his academic excellence, Einstein first struggled to get employment as a teacher. Eventually, he accepted a job at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern, Switzerland, where he started formulating his most ground-breaking physics concepts.
Albert Einstein’s Net Worth
Estimated Net Worth at Time of Death (1955): Approximately $1 million to $2 million (equivalent to $12 million to $20 million today, adjusted for inflation).
The Annus Mirabilis
The most significant work of Einstein started in 1905, which is referred to as his “Annus Mirabilis” or “miracle year.” Each of the four pieces he submitted to the scholarly journal Annalen der Physik that year would revolutionize science. The most well-known of them was his Special Theory of Relativity, which established the connection between energy and mass by introducing the revolutionary equation E = mc². Particularly at speeds near the speed of light, this idea fundamentally altered our conception of motion, time, and space.
In addition to relativity, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect, which demonstrated that light behaves as both a wave and a particle. The development of quantum mechanics benefited greatly from this finding.
The General Theory of Relativity
In 1915, Einstein expanded his special relativity theory to incorporate gravity with his General Theory of Relativity, building on his prior work. According to Einstein’s theory, large objects like the sun distort space and time, producing the phenomena we sense as gravity, in contrast to Newton’s idea that gravity is a force between masses. Einstein became a worldwide scientific hero after his most well-known general relativity prediction—that light bends around big objects—was verified by a solar eclipse in 1919.
Later Years and Emigration to the United States
Einstein, who was Jewish, left Germany in 1933 and immigrated to the United States as Nazi authority grew in the early 1930s. He took a job at Princeton, New Jersey’s Institute for Advanced Study, where he would work for the rest of his career. Einstein rose to prominence in American society and used his notoriety to advocate for causes like world peace, civil rights, and nuclear weapons.
Despite his early pacifist views, Einstein supported the development of the atomic bomb during World War II and urged President Franklin D. Roosevelt to start the U.S. atomic bomb project because of the threat posed by Nazi Germany. However, Einstein turned into a fervent supporter of peace and nuclear disarmament after the war.
Famous Einstein Quotes
- “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
- “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
- “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its reason for existing.”
