Albert Einstein

We will make in this article a summary of this character so special and that he/she opened a new door in the world of the science when it was believed that all overdraft was already almost, we will relate their first years until arriving to the culmination of their life.

Albert Einstein, born in Germany in 1879 and nationalized in United States in 1940, he/she is the good known and important scientist of the XX century.

In 1905, being an unknown physical youth, employee in the Office of Patents of Berne (Switzerland), it published their Theory of the Special Relativity. In her it incorporated, in a simple theoretical mark and with base in simple physical postulates, concepts and phenomena studied previously by Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz. Probably, the equation of the good known physics at popular level is the mathematical expression of the equivalence mass - energy, E=mc², deduced by Einstein like a logical consequence of this theory. That same year it published other works that you/they would sit down some of the bases of the statistical physics and the quantum mechanics.

In 1915 [1] it presented the General Theory of the Relativity, in the one that reformuló completely the concept of graveness. One of the consequences was the emergence of the scientific study of the origin and evolution of the universe for the branch of the physics denominated cosmology. Very soon after Einstein became a popular icon of the science reaching world fame, a privilege within reach of very few scientists.

He/she obtained the Prize Nobel of Physics in 1921 for their explanation of the photoelectric effect and their numerous taxes to the theoretical physics, and not for the Relativity, because in that time it was even considered a point controverted on the part of many scientists.

-First years

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, (Germany) to about 100 kms to the east of Stuttgart, in the breast of a Jewish family. Their parents were Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch. Their father worked as salesperson of mattresses, but then it entered in the electrochemical company Hermann. Albert studied its primary studies in a Catholic school; a difficult period that sobrellevaría thanks to the violin classes that he/she would give him their mother and to the introduction to the algebra that their uncle would discover him Jacob.

Another of their uncles motivated their scientific interests in their adolescence providing him science books. As the own Einstein relates in his autobiography, of the reading of these books of scientific popularization a constant question of the statements of the religion would be born; a free resolved thought that he/she went associated to other forms of rejection toward the State and the authority. A not very common scepticism in that time, to say of the own Einstein. Their step for the Gymnasium (high school institute), however, it was not very gratificante: the rigidity and the military discipline of the institutes of secondary of Bismarck's time not earned him few polemics with the professors: "your single presence mines the respect that owes me the class", one he/she told him of them in an occasion. Other he/she told him that it would never arrive to anything.

Einstein began to study mathematics to the 12 year-old age. He/she was interested in the algebra and the plane geometry, and to the 15 years without tutor neither it guides, it undertook the study of the infinitesimal calculation. The rumor, clearly groundless, exists have more than enough its inability of approving the subjects of mathematics. That that yes it is certain it is that the changes in the educational system of those years added confusion to their curriculum.

In 1894 the company Hermann suffered important economic difficulties and the Einstein they moved from Múnich to Pavía in Italy near Milan. Albert remained in Múnich to finish its courses before meeting with its family in Pavía, but the separation lasted little time: before obtaining their high school title Albert he/she decided to abandon the Gymnasium.

Then, the family Einstein tried to register Albert in the Polytechnic Institute of Zúrich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) but, when not having high school's title, he had to be presented to an access test that suspended because of a faulty qualification in a subject of letters. This supposed that it was rejected initially, but the director of the center, impressed by his results in sciences, advised him that it continued his high school studies and that he obtained the title that would give shortcut to the Polytechnician. Their family sent to Aarau to finish its secondary studies, and Albert he/she obtained German high school's title in 1896, to the 16 year-old age. That same year it gave up their German citizenship and it began the steps to become Swiss citizen. Soon after the young Einstein entered in the Polytechnic Institute of Zúrich, entering in the School of mathematical and scientific orientation, and with the idea of studying physics.

During their years in the politically vibrant Zúrich, Einstein discovered the work of diverse philosophers: Marx, Engels, Hume, Kant, Mach and Spinoza. He/she also took contact with the socialist movement through Friedich Adler and with certain thought nonconformist and revolutionary in the one that much had to see their friend Michele Besso. In 1898 he/she knew Mileva Maric, a partner of Serbian class, also friend of Nikola Tesla, of feminist and radical mood, of which fell in love. In 1900 Albert and Mileva they graduated in the Polytechnician of Zürich and in 1901 it got the Swiss citizenship. During this period Einstein discussed his scientific ideas with a group of near friends, including Mileva. Albert Einstein and Mileva had a daughter in January of 1902, called Liserl. January 6 1903 the couple married.

-Youth

After graduating, being the only of their promotion that didn't get teacher's grade, Einstein could not find a work in the University, seemingly, for the irritation that caused among their professors. The father of a class partner helped him to find a work in the Office of Patent Switzerland in 1902. Their personality also caused him problems with the director of the Office who taught him to "be expressed correctly."

In this time Einstein you referría with love to their wife Mileva like "a person that it is my equal and as strong and independent as me." Abram Joffe, in its biography of Einstein, argues that during this period it was helped in its investigations by Mileva. This is contradicted with other biographers like Ronald W. Clark who affirms that Einstein and Mileva took a distant relationship that offered Einstein the necessary solitude to concentrate on their work.

In May of 1904, Einstein and Mileva had a name son Hans Albert Einstein. That same year it got a permanent work in the Office of patents. Soon after their doctorate concluded presenting a titled thesis A new determination of the molecular dimensions. In 1905 he/she wrote four fundamental articles on the physics of small and great scale. In them he/she explained the Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect and it developed the special relativity and the equivalence mass-energy. Einstein's work on the photoelectric effect would make him worthy of the Prize physics Nobel in 1921. These articles went correspondents to the magazine Annalen der Physik and they are generally known as the articles of the Annus Mirabilis (of Latin, wonderful" "Year).

-Maturity

In 1908 it was hired in the University of Berne, Switzerland, as professor and lecturer (Privatdozent) without administrative loads. Einstein and Mileva had a new son, Eduard, born July 28 1910. Soon after the family moved to Prague, where Einstein occupied a square of Professor, the equivalent one to Professor in the German University of Prague. In this time he/she worked closely with Marcel Grossman and Otto Stern. He/she also began to call at the time mathematical fourth dimension.

In 1914, fair before the First World War, Einstein settled down in Berlin and it was chosen member of the Academy Prussian of Sciences and director of the Institute of Physical Káiser Wilhelm. Their pacifism and political activities but, especially, their Jewish origins, irritated the German nationalists. Einstein's theories began to suffer an organized campaign of bad reputation. Their marriage neither went well. February 14 1919 got divorced of Mileva and June 2 1919 he/she married his cousin, Elsa Loewenthal, maiden name Einstein: Loewenthal was its first husband's last name, Max Loewenthal. Elsa was three years adult that Einstein and she had taken care him after suffering a nervous crisis combined with problems of the digestive system. Einstein and Elsa didn't have children. The destination of the daughter of Albert and Mileva, Lieserl, born before their parents married or they found work, it is ignored. Some think that he/she died in the childhood and others affirm that it was given in adoption. Of their two children the second, Eduard, suffered schizophrenia and it was interned during long years dying in a mental institution. The first one, Hans Albert, moved to California where he/she ended up being university professor although with little interaction with its father.

After the arrival of Adolf Hitler to the power in 1933, the expressions of hate for Einstein reached higher levels. It was accused by the régime nacionalsocialista of creating a Jewish" "Physics in opposition with the German" "Physics or Aryan" "Physics. Some Nazi physiques, including physical as remarkable as the prizes Nobel of Physical Johannes Stark and Philipp Lenard, tried to discredit its theories. The physiques that you/they taught the Theory of the relativity like, for example, Werner Heisenberg, they were included in political black lists. Einstein abandoned Germany in 1933 going to United States, where he settled in the Institute of Advanced Studies of Princeton and it was nationalized American in 1940. During their last years Einstein worked to integrate in oneself theory the four Fundamental Forces, even unconcluded task. Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey, April 18 1955. -

-Scientific trajectory

-- The articles of 1905

In 1904 Einstein it got a permanent position in the Office of Patent Switzerland. In 1905 their doctorate concluded presenting a titled thesis A new determination of the molecular dimensions. That same year he/she wrote four fundamental articles on the physics of small and great scale. In them he/she explained the Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect and it developed the special relativity and the equivalence mass-energy. Einstein's work on the photoelectric effect would provide him the Prize physics Nobel in 1921. These articles went correspondents to the magazine "Annalen der Physik" and they are generally known as the articles of the "Annus Mirabilis" (of Latin: Extraordinary year). The international Union of pure physics and applied together with the UNESCO they commemorate 2005 as the world Year of the physics [1] celebrating the centennial of publication of these works.

-Brownian motion
Main article: Brownian motion

The first of their articles of 1905, titled On the movement required by the molecular kinetic theory of the heat of small particles suspended in a stationary liquid, covered their studies on the Brownian motion.

The article explained the phenomenon making use of the statistics of the thermal movement of the individual atoms that form a fluid. The Brownian motion had confused to the scientific community from its discovery some decades behind. Einstein's explanation provided an unanswerable experimental evidence on the real existence of the atoms. The article also contributed a strong impulse to the statistical mechanics and the kinetic theory of the fluids, two fields that remained in that time controversial.

Before this work the atoms were considered an useful concept in physics and chemical, but most of the scientists didn't come to an agreement on their real existence. Einstein's article on the atomic movement gave to the experimentalistas a simple method to count atoms looking through an ordinary microscope.

Wilhelm Ostwald, one of the leaders of the school antiatómica, communicated Arnold Sommerfeld that had been transformed in a believer in the atoms for the explanation of Einstein of the movement Browniano.

-Photoelectric effect
Main article: Photoelectric effect

The second article was titled A heuristic point of view on the production and transformation of light. In him Einstein proposed the idea of "quanto" of light (now called photons) and it showed how you could use this concept to explain the photoelectric effect.

The theory of the how many of light was a strong indication of the duality wave-corpuscle and that the physical systems can show so much estates ondulatorias as corpuscular. This article constituted one of the basic pillars of the quantum mechanics. A complete explanation of the photoelectric effect could only be elaborated when the quantum theory was state-of-the-art. For this work, and for their taxes to the theoretical physics, Einstein received the Prize Nobel of Physics of 1921.

-Special relativity
Main article: Theory of the Special Relativity

The third article of Einstein of that year was titled Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper ('On the electrodynamics of bodies in movement'). In this article Einstein introduced the theory of the special relativity studying the movement of the bodies and the electromagnetism in absence of the force of graveness.

The special relativity solved the problems opened up by the experiment of Michelson-Morley in which had been demonstrated that the electromagnetic waves that form the light moved in absence of a means. The speed of the light is, therefore, constant and not relative to the movement. Already in 1894 George Fitzgerald had studied this question demonstrating that the experiment of Michelson-Morley could be explained if the bodies contract in the address of its movement. In fact, some of the fundamental equations of Einstein's article had been introduced previously (1903) for Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physique, giving form mathematics to the conjecture of Fitzgerald.

This famous publication is questioned as original work of Einstein, because in her it omitted to mention all reference to the ideas or concepts developed by these authors as well as the works of Poincaré. In fact Einstein developed his theory in a way completely different to these authors deducing experimental facts starting from fundamental principles and not giving an explanation fenomenológica to disconcerting observations. Einstein's merit was therefore in explaining that happened in the experiment Michelson-Morley like final consequence of a complete and elegant theory based on fundamental principles and I don't eat an explanation ad-hoc or fenomenológica of an observed phenomenon.

Their reasoning was based on two simple axioms: In the first reformuló the principle of simultaneity, introduced before by Galilean centuries, for which the laws of the physics should be invariantes for all the observers that move to constant speeds among them, and the second that the speed of the light is constant for any observer. This second axiom, revolutionary, goes beyond the consequences foreseen by Lorentz or Poincaré that simply related a mechanism to explain the reduction of some of the arms of the experiment of Michelson and Morley. This postulate implies that if a gleam of light rushes when crossing two observers in relative movement, both will see go away the light producing a perfect circle with each one of them in the center. If to both sides of the observers he/she put on a detector, none of the observers would come to an agreement in what detecting it was activated first (they get lost the absolute time concepts and simultaneity).

The theory receives the name of special "theory of the relativity" or restricted "theory of the relativity" to distinguish it of the general Theory of the relativity that was introduced by Einstein in 1915 and in the one that you/they are considered the goods of the graveness and the acceleration.

-Equivalence mass-energy

The famous equation is shown in Taipei 101 during the event of the world year of the physics in 2005.
To increase
The famous equation is shown in Taipei 101 during the event of the world year of the physics in 2005.
Main article: Equivalence between mass and energy

Was the fourth article of that year titled Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig? (Does the inertia of a body of its energy content "depend? ") and it showed a deduction of the equation of the relativity that relates mass and energy.

In this article it was said that "the variation of mass of an object that emits an energy L is L/V²", where V was the notation for the speed of the light used by Einstein in 1905.

This equation implies that the energy AND of a body in rest is similar to its mass m multiplied by the speed from the light to the square:

And = mc^2 \,

It shows how a particle with mass possesses an energy type, "energy in rest", different from the classic kinetic energy and potential energy. The relationship mass - energy is commonly used to explain how the nuclear energy takes place; measuring the mass of atomic nuclei and dividing for the atomic number you can calculate the connection energy caught in the atomic nuclei. Parallelly, the quantity of produced energy in the fission of an atomic nucleus is calculated as the difference of mass among the initial nucleus and the products of its disintegration multiplied by the speed from the light to the square.

-General relativity
Main article: General theory of the Relativity

In November of 1915 Einstein it presented a series of conferences in the Academy of Sciences of Prussia in those that it described the theory of the general relativity. The last of these chats concluded with the presentation of the equation that replaces to the law of graveness of Newton. In this theory all the observers are considered equivalent and not only those that move with an uniform speed. The graveness is not already a force or action at distance, like it was in the graveness newtoniana, but a consequence of the bend of the space-time. The theory provided the bases for the study of the cosmology and he/she allowed to understand essential characteristics of the Universe, many of which would not be discovered but with posteriority to Einstein's death.

The general relativity was obtained by Einstein starting from mathematical reasonings, hypothetical experiments (Gedanken experiment) and rigorous mathematical deduction without really having an experimental base. The fundamental principle of the theory was the compound number equivalence principle. In spite of the mathematical abstraction of the theory, the equations allowed to deduce verifiable phenomena. In 1919 Arthur Eddington was able to measure, during an eclipse, the deviation of the light of a star passing near the Sun, one of the predictions of the general relativity. When it became public this confirmation Einstein's fame was increased vastly and it was considered a revolutionary step in the physics. From then on the theory has been verified in each and every one of the experiments and verifications carried out until the moment.

In spite of their popularity, or maybe in fact for her, the theory had important detractors among the scientific community that you/they could not accept a physics without an absolute reference system.

Statistical of Bose-Einstein
Main article: Statistic of Bose-Einstein

In 1924 Einstein he/she received an article of an Indian physical youth, Satyendra Nath Bose, describing to the light like a gas of photons and requesting Einstein's help for their publication. Einstein realized that the same type of statistics could be applied to groups of atoms and it published the article, jointly with Bose, in German, the most important language in physics in the time. Bose-Einstein's statistics explain the behavior of groups of indistinguishable particles to each other and well-known as bosones

-The Institute of Advanced Studies

Einstein dedicated his last working years to the search of an unified mark of the laws of the physics. To this theory he/she called it Unified Theory of Field.

Einstein tried to unify the formulation of the fundamental forces of the nature by means of a model in the one that, under the appropriate conditions, the different forces would arise as manifestation of an only force. Their intents failed the strong and weak nuclear forces since they didn't understand each other in a common mark until the years 1970, after numerous experiments in physics of high energy and already past fifteen years from Einstein's death. This objective continues being pursued by the modern theoretical physics. The most outstanding recent intents to reach an unification theory are the supersimetría theories and the theory of strings.

-Political activity

Albert Einstein always had an inclination toward the politics and to the social commitment as scientific, being interested deeply in the relationships between science and society. It was cofundador of the German Democratic Liberal Party. With the peak of the movement national socialist in Germany Einstein left his country and it was nationalized American. In full Second World War it supported Robert's initiative Oppenheimer to begin the program of well-known development of nuclear weapons as Project Manhattan, since it considered this the only form of scaring the German and Japanese governments. But Einstein always wanted that these nuclear weapons were not used.

In May of 1949, Monthly Review published (in New York) his article under the title of why the socialism? in the one that meditates on the history, the conquests and the consequences of the economic "anarchy of the capitalist" society, article that today continues having validity. It is necessary to keep in mind that Einstein was an inflamed political activist very pursued during the hunt of the anticommunist senator's witches McCarthy to manifest opinions of anti-imperialistic character, although he survived to contribute big scientific advances of those that the American government was been worth for his expansion armamentística.

Native of an assimilated Jewish family pled for the Zionist cause, although up to 1947 it had been shown more in favor of a common state between Arab and Jews. The State of Israel you creó in 1948. When Chaim Weizmann, the first president from Israel and old friend of Einstein, died in 1952, Abba Eban, Israeli ambassador in USA, offered him the presidency. Einstein rejected the offer saying I am "deeply moved by the offer of the State of Israel and at the same time so saddened that it is I impossible to accept it." In their last years it was a convinced pacifist and he/she was devoted to the establishment of an utopian World Government that would allow to the nations to work meetings and to abolish the war. In this time the Apparent acquaintance threw Russell-Einstein that made a call to the scientists to unite in favor of the disappearance of the nuclear weapons. This document served as inspiration for the later foundation of the Conferences Pugwash that in 1995 they became worthy of the Prize Nobel of the Peace.

-Religious beliefs

Einstein believed in a "God that is not revealed in the harmony of all that exists, in a God that is interested in the destination and the man's" stocks. He/she wanted to know "how God it had created the world."

In some moment it summarized their religious beliefs in the following way: "My religion consists on a humble admiration of the limitless superior spirit that one reveals in the smallest particulars that we can perceive with our fragile and weak mind."

"The but beautiful and deep emotion that is given us to feel is the sensation of the mystic thing. She is the one that generates all true science. The man that ignores that emotion that is unable to marvel and to feel the charm and the astonishment, this practically dead one. To know that that that is impenetrable for us really exists that one manifests as the but high wisdom and the but radiant beauty, on which our alone blunt abilities can understand in their forms but primitive. That knowledge, that sensation, is the true religion."

 

In an occasion, in a meeting he/she was asked to Einstein if he/she believed or not in a God to what responded: I "believe in the God of Spinoza that is identical to the mathematical order of the Universe."

Einstein's longer appointment appears in Science, Philosophy, and Religion, TO Symposium (science Symposium, philosophy and religion), published by the Conference of Science, Philosophy and Religion in its Relationship with the Form of Democratic Life:

The more imbued it is a man in the orderly regularity of the events, firmer it will be their conviction that there is not place. on the side of this ordinate regularity. for a cause of different nature. For that man, neither the human rules neither the divine" "rules will exist like independent causes of the natural events. Of sure, the science will never be able to refute the doctrine of a God that interferes in natural events, because that doctrine can always take refuge in that the scientific knowledge cannot pose the foot in that topic. But I am convinced that such a behavior on behalf of religious people is not only inadequate but also fatal. A doctrine that not stays in the clear light but in the darkness that has already caused an incalculable damage to the human progress, it will necessarily lose their effect in the humanity. In their fight for the very ethical one, religious people should give up the doctrine of the existence of God, this is, to give up the source of the fear and the hope that it put a great power in the priests' hands in the past. In their work, they should lean on in those forces that are able to cultivate the well, the truth and the beauty in the same humanity. This is of sure, a more difficult but incomparably more meritorious and more admirable task.

In a letter dated in March of 1954, that was included in the book Albert Einstein: their human side (in English), published by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman and published by Princeton University Press, Einstein says:

Of course it was a lie what has been read about my religious convictions; a lie that is repeated systematically. I don't believe in a personal God and I have never denied it but rather I have expressed it clearly. If there is something in me that religious can be called it is the limitless admiration for the structure of the world, up to where our science can reveal it. [...] I don't believe in the individual's immortality, and I consider that the ethics is of exclusively human interest, without any superhuman authority on him.