60 years ago, died a great physicist - Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was born 14 March 1879, in Ulm in southern Germany, died 18 on April 1955, in Princeton, USA at the age of 76. A theoretical physicist is one of the founders of modern theoretical physics; in 1921, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics. A public humanist, in different years he lived in Germany, Switzerland, the United States. He was an honorary doctor at about 20 of the world's leading universities, was also a member of the Academies of Sciences of many countries, including a foreign honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1926 year).
The future famous scientist, whose name is remembered today even by those who did not pass physics at school, but passed by physics, was born 14 March 1879, in the small town of Ulm in the south of the German Empire. He was born into a poor Jewish family. His father was Hermann Einstein (1847-1902) co-owner of a small enterprise for the production of bedding for feather beds and mattresses. His mother was Paulina Einstein (nee Koch, 1858-1920), who came from a family of a fairly wealthy corn dealer Julius Derzbacher.
Einstein's ancestors settled in Swabia about 300 years ago, and the famous physicist maintained a soft South German pronunciation until the end of his life, even when he spoke English. The future scientist received his primary education in Munich, where his family moved to the Catholic school in 1880 year. At the age of 11-13 years, Albert Einstein experienced a state of deep religiosity. However, the boy read a lot, reading popular science literature made him a free-thinker, forever instilled in him a skeptical attitude towards authorities.
Beginning with the 6 age, the boy, at the initiative of his mother, was engaged in playing the violin. This hobby Einstein kept throughout his life, playing this musical instrument has become part of the life of a great scientist. Many years later, in 1934, while already in Princeton, Albert Einstein gave his own concert. All fees from this event went in favor of the emigrants from Nazi Germany, cultural figures and scholars. On his violin, the famous physicist performed the works of Mozart, whose passionate admirer he remained throughout his life.
Oddly enough, in the gymnasium, Einstein was not among the first students. Then he excelled in mathematics and Latin. At the same time, Albert did not like a lot in the gymnasium - in particular, the authoritarian attitude of teachers towards students and the well-established system of mechanical learning of teaching materials by students. Einstein believed that excessive cramming causes more harm to learning and the development of creative thinking than good. Because of these disagreements, the future scientist often entered into arguments with teachers.
In the Munich gymnasium, his thirst for geometry and natural science was revealed. Very quickly in the exact sciences, Einstein was able to circumvent his peers. By 16 years he mastered the basics of mathematical science, including integral and differential calculus. In the 1895 year, without graduating from high school, Einstein went to Zurich, where the Federal Higher Polytechnic School was located, which in those years enjoyed an excellent reputation. From the first time, he could not enter this institution, unable to pass the exam in modern languages and stories. The Rector of the Polytechnic School, assessing the applicant’s very outstanding mathematical abilities, sent him to prepare for the cantonal school in Aarau, which in those years was considered one of the best in Switzerland.
In this school, Albert Einstein spent only one year, but this year passed for him with benefit. After graduating from school in 1896, he entered the Zurich Polytechnic. He spent most of his time at this institution in the physical laboratory, and the rest of the time he read the classic works of J. Maxwell, G. Kirchhoff, G. Helmholtz and others. He graduated from the Polytechnic in 1900, but for two years a graduate could not find a permanent job. Until finally, in the year 1902, he received, on the recommendation of friends, the place of technical expert at the Swiss Patent Office located in Bern.
Shortly before that, Einstein changed citizenship, becoming a Swiss national. A few months after he got a job, he first married his former classmate from Zurich, Mileva Maric, who was from Serbia and was older than Albert by 4. In Bern, at the Patent Office, which Einstein himself called the “secular monastery,” he worked for more than 7 years, calling those years the happiest in his life. The position of "patent assistant" constantly occupied his inquiring mind with technical and scientific issues, while leaving enough time for independent creativity. The result was the publication of scientific articles that will change the face of modern physics and bring their author world-wide fame.
1905 has become a truly breakthrough year for Einstein. This year, the Annals of Physics magazine immediately published 3 outstanding articles by a young scientist, which marked the beginning of a new revolution in science, these were materials:
1. "To the electrodynamics of moving bodies." The article was the beginning of the theory of relativity.
2. "On one heuristic point of view concerning the emergence and transformation of light." She became one of the works that laid the foundations of the quantum theory emerging at that moment.
3. "On the motion of particles suspended in a fluid at rest, required by the molecular-kinetic theory of heat." This work was devoted to the Brownian motion and greatly advanced statistical physics.
In 1909, a young scientist visited the congress of naturalists, which was held in Salzburg, Austria. At this congress, it was possible to collect all the elite of German physics. It was in Salzburg that Einstein first met Planck; after three years of correspondence, they became close friends, maintaining friendship until the end of their lives. After the Salzburg convention, Albert Einstein finally got a paid position as a professor at the University of Zurich. In Zurich, he worked for two years. Since the salary of a university lecturer was small, especially for a family that already had two children, in 1911, Albert Einstein accepted without any hesitation an invitation to head the physics department at German University in Prague. During this period, the scientist continued to publish his work on the theory of relativity, thermodynamics and quantum field theory.
A year later, the scientist returned to Zurich, and at the end of the 1913 of the year, on the recommendation of his friend Plank, he was invited to head the Physics Research Institute in Berlin. Later, he was also enrolled as a professor at the University of Berlin. Einstein, without hesitation, accepted the invitation and in the pre-war 1914 year, the convinced pacifist Albert Einstein arrived in the capital of Germany. At the same time, Mileva and her children remained in Zurich, their family broke up, in February 1919, their divorce was formalized.
After the end of the First World War, Albert Einstein, without abandoning his past research, became interested in new fields of physics - the Unified Field Theory and Relativistic Cosmology. The unified field theory was intended by the scientist to unite electromagnetism, gravity, and also the theory of the microworld. His first article on cosmology appeared back in the war years in 1917.
In June, 1919, Albert Einstein married for the second time, this time Elsa Löventhal to his cousin on the maternal side, and he adopted her two children. In the fall of 1919, a solar eclipse occurred. At the same time, British researchers discovered the deviation of light predicted by Einstein in the field of the sun. The value measured by them did not correspond to the Newtonian, but to the Einstein law of aggression. This sensational news very quickly spread throughout Europe, as Einstein's theory of relativity received experimental evidence, the fame of the scientist at that moment reached unprecedented heights.
It is worth noting that in the life of the scientist that period of life was very strange. He was overtaken by several different diseases. In addition to old, but aggravated complications with the liver, Einstein was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer, and then jaundice, and he also had general weakness. A scientist spent several months lying in bed. But even at this time he did not give up his research. Diseases retreated from Einstein only in 1920.
Prior to this, Albert Einstein was nominated many times for the Nobel Prize in Physics, but the theories of the scientist seemed so revolutionary that the members of the Nobel Committee could not decide on awarding them to the author for a long time. As a result, a compromise was found. The 1921 Prize in Physics was awarded to a scientist for the theory of the photoelectric effect, that is, well tested in experiments and his most undisputed work. However, the text of the decision of the Nobel Committee included a diplomatic and neutral addition "... and for other work carried out in the field of theoretical physics."
In the 20-ies of XX century, Albert Einstein was a recognized authority and a person of great importance, he was constantly involved in various political actions. At the same time, a world-renowned scientist spoke in favor of internationalization, the establishment of social justice, and cooperation between states. In 1923, Albert Einstein took part in the organization of the cultural society Friends of New Russia. Repeatedly, the scientist called for disarmament and unification of Europe, called for the abolition of compulsory military service.
In his memoirs, another famous physicist Max Born noted: “Already in the early years, Albert Einstein demonstrated the indomitable will to independence. He hated the game of soldiers, because it meant violence. ” Later, Einstein himself declared that for those people who enjoyed marching to the sounds of the march, the brain was in vain, they could well have done with just one spinal cord.
In 1929, the scientist's 50 anniversary was celebrated pompously all over the world, but the hero of the occasion did not take part in these celebrations. He chose to hide from everyone in his suburban villa near Potsdam, where he had a good time, growing his roses enthusiastically.
All this happened against the backdrop of the growing economic crisis in Europe. At the same time, political instability intensified in Germany, radical nationalist sentiments and anti-Semitism grew in the society. Insults and direct threats against a scientist have become more frequent. It got to the point that once appeared a leaflet in which a large reward in 50 of thousands of stamps was offered for Einstein’s head. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, all the works of the scientist were declared a distortion of true science, while an uncompromising racial purge unfolded in the country.
Albert Einstein was tied to Germany, but he could not be in this country, and already in 1933, he had to leave the country in which he was born forever. With his family, he moved to the United States, and after some time, in a sign of his protest against the crimes of Nazism, he refused membership in the Prussian and Bavarian Academies of Sciences, as well as German citizenship. After moving across the Atlantic, Einstein became a professor of physics at Princeton (New Jersey) at the new Institute for Basic Research. Here he became a real media attraction. Despite the fact that he was known to physicists of world renown, he was a very friendly, modest and somewhat eccentric man, whom you could always just run into on the street. In the hours free from work, Einstein loved to play music. Sometimes he played the violin in an ensemble with other physicists. He also liked sailing, which, in his opinion, contributed in an extraordinary way to thinking about physical problems.
In America, Albert Einstein almost immediately became one of the most respected and famous people, earning the reputation of the most brilliant scientist of our time. At the same time, he had a very colorful appearance and gained the image of a “scattered professor” among the people. In January, 1934, at the invitation of Einstein, visited the White House and met with Roosevelt, with whom he had a long cordial conversation. Every day, the scientist received hundreds of letters of different content, to which he always tried to answer as much as possible. Being a world-renowned scientist, he continued to remain a modest, accessible, friendly, and undemanding person.
In August 1939, he, among others, put his signature on a letter addressed to the President of the United States, drafted on the initiative of the Hungarian physicist Leo Silard. In this letter, Roosevelt’s attention was drawn to the possibility that Hitlerite Germany could acquire an atomic bomb. After several months of thinking, the American president decided to take this threat seriously and created his own project to develop nuclear weapons. weapons. In this case, Albert Einstein did not participate in the work on the creation of the military atom. Later, he was very worried about his signature on this letter, realizing that the new US President Harry Truman would use nuclear weapons as a deterrent tool. Subsequently, Einstein strongly criticized developments in this field, the use of nuclear weapons against Japan, and tests conducted on the Bikini Atoll (1954). His involvement in the acceleration of work on the development of atomic bombs, he considered the greatest tragedy of his life.
Albert Einstein did not give up physics until the very end of his life. In 1955, the health of a scientist deteriorated dramatically. He even managed to write a will, and said to his friends: "I have already fulfilled my task on Earth." His last work, which he did not have time to finish, was an appeal with a call to prevent a nuclear war on the planet. The great physicist died on April 18 1955 in Princeton at the age of 76 from an aortic aneurysm. In the memory of mankind, he will forever remain a great scientist who turned the idea of people about the universe. Einstein wished the time and place of his burial not to be disclosed. 19 April 1955, without any publicity in the presence of all 12 close friends, passed his funeral. The body of the scientist was burned in the Ewing-Simteri crematorium, and the ashes were then scattered to the wind.
Based on materials from open sources
The future famous scientist, whose name is remembered today even by those who did not pass physics at school, but passed by physics, was born 14 March 1879, in the small town of Ulm in the south of the German Empire. He was born into a poor Jewish family. His father was Hermann Einstein (1847-1902) co-owner of a small enterprise for the production of bedding for feather beds and mattresses. His mother was Paulina Einstein (nee Koch, 1858-1920), who came from a family of a fairly wealthy corn dealer Julius Derzbacher.
Einstein's ancestors settled in Swabia about 300 years ago, and the famous physicist maintained a soft South German pronunciation until the end of his life, even when he spoke English. The future scientist received his primary education in Munich, where his family moved to the Catholic school in 1880 year. At the age of 11-13 years, Albert Einstein experienced a state of deep religiosity. However, the boy read a lot, reading popular science literature made him a free-thinker, forever instilled in him a skeptical attitude towards authorities.
Beginning with the 6 age, the boy, at the initiative of his mother, was engaged in playing the violin. This hobby Einstein kept throughout his life, playing this musical instrument has become part of the life of a great scientist. Many years later, in 1934, while already in Princeton, Albert Einstein gave his own concert. All fees from this event went in favor of the emigrants from Nazi Germany, cultural figures and scholars. On his violin, the famous physicist performed the works of Mozart, whose passionate admirer he remained throughout his life.
Oddly enough, in the gymnasium, Einstein was not among the first students. Then he excelled in mathematics and Latin. At the same time, Albert did not like a lot in the gymnasium - in particular, the authoritarian attitude of teachers towards students and the well-established system of mechanical learning of teaching materials by students. Einstein believed that excessive cramming causes more harm to learning and the development of creative thinking than good. Because of these disagreements, the future scientist often entered into arguments with teachers.
In the Munich gymnasium, his thirst for geometry and natural science was revealed. Very quickly in the exact sciences, Einstein was able to circumvent his peers. By 16 years he mastered the basics of mathematical science, including integral and differential calculus. In the 1895 year, without graduating from high school, Einstein went to Zurich, where the Federal Higher Polytechnic School was located, which in those years enjoyed an excellent reputation. From the first time, he could not enter this institution, unable to pass the exam in modern languages and stories. The Rector of the Polytechnic School, assessing the applicant’s very outstanding mathematical abilities, sent him to prepare for the cantonal school in Aarau, which in those years was considered one of the best in Switzerland.
In this school, Albert Einstein spent only one year, but this year passed for him with benefit. After graduating from school in 1896, he entered the Zurich Polytechnic. He spent most of his time at this institution in the physical laboratory, and the rest of the time he read the classic works of J. Maxwell, G. Kirchhoff, G. Helmholtz and others. He graduated from the Polytechnic in 1900, but for two years a graduate could not find a permanent job. Until finally, in the year 1902, he received, on the recommendation of friends, the place of technical expert at the Swiss Patent Office located in Bern.
Shortly before that, Einstein changed citizenship, becoming a Swiss national. A few months after he got a job, he first married his former classmate from Zurich, Mileva Maric, who was from Serbia and was older than Albert by 4. In Bern, at the Patent Office, which Einstein himself called the “secular monastery,” he worked for more than 7 years, calling those years the happiest in his life. The position of "patent assistant" constantly occupied his inquiring mind with technical and scientific issues, while leaving enough time for independent creativity. The result was the publication of scientific articles that will change the face of modern physics and bring their author world-wide fame.
1905 has become a truly breakthrough year for Einstein. This year, the Annals of Physics magazine immediately published 3 outstanding articles by a young scientist, which marked the beginning of a new revolution in science, these were materials:
1. "To the electrodynamics of moving bodies." The article was the beginning of the theory of relativity.
2. "On one heuristic point of view concerning the emergence and transformation of light." She became one of the works that laid the foundations of the quantum theory emerging at that moment.
3. "On the motion of particles suspended in a fluid at rest, required by the molecular-kinetic theory of heat." This work was devoted to the Brownian motion and greatly advanced statistical physics.
In 1909, a young scientist visited the congress of naturalists, which was held in Salzburg, Austria. At this congress, it was possible to collect all the elite of German physics. It was in Salzburg that Einstein first met Planck; after three years of correspondence, they became close friends, maintaining friendship until the end of their lives. After the Salzburg convention, Albert Einstein finally got a paid position as a professor at the University of Zurich. In Zurich, he worked for two years. Since the salary of a university lecturer was small, especially for a family that already had two children, in 1911, Albert Einstein accepted without any hesitation an invitation to head the physics department at German University in Prague. During this period, the scientist continued to publish his work on the theory of relativity, thermodynamics and quantum field theory.
A year later, the scientist returned to Zurich, and at the end of the 1913 of the year, on the recommendation of his friend Plank, he was invited to head the Physics Research Institute in Berlin. Later, he was also enrolled as a professor at the University of Berlin. Einstein, without hesitation, accepted the invitation and in the pre-war 1914 year, the convinced pacifist Albert Einstein arrived in the capital of Germany. At the same time, Mileva and her children remained in Zurich, their family broke up, in February 1919, their divorce was formalized.
After the end of the First World War, Albert Einstein, without abandoning his past research, became interested in new fields of physics - the Unified Field Theory and Relativistic Cosmology. The unified field theory was intended by the scientist to unite electromagnetism, gravity, and also the theory of the microworld. His first article on cosmology appeared back in the war years in 1917.
In June, 1919, Albert Einstein married for the second time, this time Elsa Löventhal to his cousin on the maternal side, and he adopted her two children. In the fall of 1919, a solar eclipse occurred. At the same time, British researchers discovered the deviation of light predicted by Einstein in the field of the sun. The value measured by them did not correspond to the Newtonian, but to the Einstein law of aggression. This sensational news very quickly spread throughout Europe, as Einstein's theory of relativity received experimental evidence, the fame of the scientist at that moment reached unprecedented heights.
It is worth noting that in the life of the scientist that period of life was very strange. He was overtaken by several different diseases. In addition to old, but aggravated complications with the liver, Einstein was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer, and then jaundice, and he also had general weakness. A scientist spent several months lying in bed. But even at this time he did not give up his research. Diseases retreated from Einstein only in 1920.
Prior to this, Albert Einstein was nominated many times for the Nobel Prize in Physics, but the theories of the scientist seemed so revolutionary that the members of the Nobel Committee could not decide on awarding them to the author for a long time. As a result, a compromise was found. The 1921 Prize in Physics was awarded to a scientist for the theory of the photoelectric effect, that is, well tested in experiments and his most undisputed work. However, the text of the decision of the Nobel Committee included a diplomatic and neutral addition "... and for other work carried out in the field of theoretical physics."
In the 20-ies of XX century, Albert Einstein was a recognized authority and a person of great importance, he was constantly involved in various political actions. At the same time, a world-renowned scientist spoke in favor of internationalization, the establishment of social justice, and cooperation between states. In 1923, Albert Einstein took part in the organization of the cultural society Friends of New Russia. Repeatedly, the scientist called for disarmament and unification of Europe, called for the abolition of compulsory military service.
In his memoirs, another famous physicist Max Born noted: “Already in the early years, Albert Einstein demonstrated the indomitable will to independence. He hated the game of soldiers, because it meant violence. ” Later, Einstein himself declared that for those people who enjoyed marching to the sounds of the march, the brain was in vain, they could well have done with just one spinal cord.
In 1929, the scientist's 50 anniversary was celebrated pompously all over the world, but the hero of the occasion did not take part in these celebrations. He chose to hide from everyone in his suburban villa near Potsdam, where he had a good time, growing his roses enthusiastically.
All this happened against the backdrop of the growing economic crisis in Europe. At the same time, political instability intensified in Germany, radical nationalist sentiments and anti-Semitism grew in the society. Insults and direct threats against a scientist have become more frequent. It got to the point that once appeared a leaflet in which a large reward in 50 of thousands of stamps was offered for Einstein’s head. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, all the works of the scientist were declared a distortion of true science, while an uncompromising racial purge unfolded in the country.
Albert Einstein was tied to Germany, but he could not be in this country, and already in 1933, he had to leave the country in which he was born forever. With his family, he moved to the United States, and after some time, in a sign of his protest against the crimes of Nazism, he refused membership in the Prussian and Bavarian Academies of Sciences, as well as German citizenship. After moving across the Atlantic, Einstein became a professor of physics at Princeton (New Jersey) at the new Institute for Basic Research. Here he became a real media attraction. Despite the fact that he was known to physicists of world renown, he was a very friendly, modest and somewhat eccentric man, whom you could always just run into on the street. In the hours free from work, Einstein loved to play music. Sometimes he played the violin in an ensemble with other physicists. He also liked sailing, which, in his opinion, contributed in an extraordinary way to thinking about physical problems.
In America, Albert Einstein almost immediately became one of the most respected and famous people, earning the reputation of the most brilliant scientist of our time. At the same time, he had a very colorful appearance and gained the image of a “scattered professor” among the people. In January, 1934, at the invitation of Einstein, visited the White House and met with Roosevelt, with whom he had a long cordial conversation. Every day, the scientist received hundreds of letters of different content, to which he always tried to answer as much as possible. Being a world-renowned scientist, he continued to remain a modest, accessible, friendly, and undemanding person.
In August 1939, he, among others, put his signature on a letter addressed to the President of the United States, drafted on the initiative of the Hungarian physicist Leo Silard. In this letter, Roosevelt’s attention was drawn to the possibility that Hitlerite Germany could acquire an atomic bomb. After several months of thinking, the American president decided to take this threat seriously and created his own project to develop nuclear weapons. weapons. In this case, Albert Einstein did not participate in the work on the creation of the military atom. Later, he was very worried about his signature on this letter, realizing that the new US President Harry Truman would use nuclear weapons as a deterrent tool. Subsequently, Einstein strongly criticized developments in this field, the use of nuclear weapons against Japan, and tests conducted on the Bikini Atoll (1954). His involvement in the acceleration of work on the development of atomic bombs, he considered the greatest tragedy of his life.
Albert Einstein did not give up physics until the very end of his life. In 1955, the health of a scientist deteriorated dramatically. He even managed to write a will, and said to his friends: "I have already fulfilled my task on Earth." His last work, which he did not have time to finish, was an appeal with a call to prevent a nuclear war on the planet. The great physicist died on April 18 1955 in Princeton at the age of 76 from an aortic aneurysm. In the memory of mankind, he will forever remain a great scientist who turned the idea of people about the universe. Einstein wished the time and place of his burial not to be disclosed. 19 April 1955, without any publicity in the presence of all 12 close friends, passed his funeral. The body of the scientist was burned in the Ewing-Simteri crematorium, and the ashes were then scattered to the wind.
Based on materials from open sources
Information