Albert Einstein

Until the age of 3, Albert Einstein scarcely talked. However, he crossed the other developmental milestones in his life without any difficulty. When he was 5, Albert got private lessons from a tutor for some time, as preparation for later school. One day, his father showed him a magnetic compass. Albert held it in his hand and saw that the needle pointed towards North when he stood still. He went into another corner of his room, stood still and looked at the compass – again it swung northward! He went out of his room into the verandah and stood stable. The rotating needle became still and once again pointed northwards.

Amazing! Albert was stupefied. He thought in his little mind, “Why is it that the needle always points northwards? There is nothing inside the compass except some vacant space. Then what makes it behave so?” It was as if the needle was guided by an invisible force. In Albert’s young mind, the instinct that there was “something behind things, something deeply hidden” took root. The questioning attitude was thus born.

Albert as a little boy was very thoughtful, an extremely slow talker and always paused to think before speaking. With a lot of concentration, he would build houses of cards and even if they kept falling, he would persevere in building them again.

There were three early influences in Albert’s life – his father’s compass incident, his mother’s insistence on music lessons for him and Uncle Jakob, who would always say, “Algebra is a merry science. We go hunting for a little animal whose name we don’t know, se we call it x. When we bag our game we pounce on it and give it its right name". Albert’s later years were to prove the long-lasting effect that Uncle Jakob had, in making study attractive for him.

Besides his father, mother and Uncle Jakob, there was Uncle Casar Koch, Pauline Koch’s brother who was a loving influence on the young Albert. Uncle Casar Koch, a well-off grain merchant, lived in Stuttgart and his visits to the family were eagerly awaited. Once when Uncle Casar Koch returned from Russia to Germany in January 1885, he brought a model steam engine which he presented to Albert Einstein during a visit to Munich the same year.

In October 1885, from the age of 6, Albert began attending “Petersschule”, a catholic elementary school in Munich. Albert’s mathematical ability grew and he began building mechanical models for the fun of it. Besides getting lessons in Jewish religion at home, he also began to learn the violin. Initially, he learnt by rote without any understanding of the structure of music but with passage of time his love for the violin grew and he began enjoying it.

After his elementary education, from October 1888 till 6 years after, Albert went to the “Luitpold-Gymnasium” (grammar school), also in Munich. He was still introspective, slightly backward and his shyness made him keep to himself. A conservative outlook prevailed in Luitpold-Gymnasium which meant that the old school of thought was to be accepted and followed. This aggravated Albert’s skepticism since new ideas were not open for discussion or acceptance. However, Albert retained his opposive and questioning attitude to the many assumptions taken for granted by most people and the rote learning that was followed. He disliked the rote method of learning which stifled the freedom of the students to use their own imagination and inquiring nature. Though an “average” pupil, Albert’s probing and inquisitive nature were virtues essential and valuable for any scientist or physicist, since the new phenomena discovered with the help of advancement in technology did not fit in the existing order of things. In a way, Luitpold-Gymnasium was instrumental in making Albert realize the futility of learning without understanding. His understanding and questioning nature in a way, definitely helped him later on in arriving at the special theory of relativity at an early age.

In 1889, Max Talmud (later: Talmey), a poor Jewish medical student from Poland, was invited by the Einstein family to have his Thursday evening meals at their home. Albert Einstein was initially influenced on to his life path by Talmey who became his informal tutor. This was because, during his interactions with Albert, Talmey realized that he had an inclination towards Physics and gave him the then two popular works, A. Bernstein’s “Popular Book on Physical Science” and L. Buchner’s “Force and Matter”.

In his youth, Einstein was both - at times distant and at times attractive. He was a good-looking young man with jet black wavy hair and huge luminous eyes. He was also an excellent performer on the violin; at the age of 17, he even played Beethoven’s violin sonatas.

He had charisma – he was the kind who made heads turn when he entered a room. Einstein became obsessed with the physical world early on. His imagination and courage to explore, understand and challenge the normally accepted beliefs played a great role in shaping his genius.

At the ETH, Mathematics and the Natural Sciences were a part of the curriculum for the teacher’s training in Mathematical Physics. Einstein had some excellent teachers in Hermann Minkowski and Hurwitz. In spite of more emphasis on mathematics at ETH, the Natural Sciences drew Einstein’s attention more, as according to him “I saw that mathematics was split up into numerous specialties, each of which could easily absorb the short lifetime granted to us. Consequently, I saw myself in the position of Buridan’s ass which was unable to decide upon any specific bundle of hay.”

Einstein’s fellow students in the ETH included Mileva Maric and Marcel Grossman among others. Mileva Maric was his senior by four years. Einstein and Mileva became good friends, with their friendship gradually developing into romance and later marriage in the coming years.

Einstein completed his academic years at the ETH but disliked the examination pattern of study. He got an overall mark of 4.91 out of 6.00 on graduation. Though he was qualified for a post in ETH and his tutors had employed many other graduates, Einstein was deliberately overlooked due to his ‘troublesome’ questioning attitude. One of Einstein’s professors was hostile to him and this worked against him in getting the usual university assistantship. Hence, he could not take up any scientific study for an entire year after his finals.

Yet, it must be said that this situation was not entirely unexpected, for Einstein was a self-willed and rebellious youth. Einstein’s failure to gain a footing in ETH resulted in the Koch relations in Genoa ending his allowance. On account of this fallout, he now had to stand on his own feet, having graduated and come of age. He was 21. Thus Einstein at the end of his studies found himself, as he said, “suddenly abandoned by everyone, standing at a loss on the threshold of life.”

Now what next? Einstein joined his parents in Milan and in September 1900 decided to look out for a job. He started writing letters to the important people he knew, asking for employment. He came back in Zurich to work temporarily with Professor Alfred Wolfer, director of the Swiss Federal Observatory, who had taught him Astrophysics and Astronomy. In 1900, Einstein had written a paper “Folgerungen aus der Kapillaritatserscheinungen” (Deductions from the Phenomena of Capillarity). It was published in the ‘Annalen der Physik’ (Annals of Physics) in its December issue, raising Einstein’s hopes of recognition for his research.

Since some years, one of Einstein’s objectives had been to acquire a Swiss citizenship, and this required proof of a fixed job. He had kept this objective in mind and had saved 20 francs a month during his student days for the process of his Swiss naturalization costs. After having the required cash, residential proof and other requirements, he made his formal application to the Zurich authorities, along with a testimony of his good character and proof of unbroken residence since October 1896.

On 21^st February, 1901, the Zurich authorities did their official work of a round of examination and rigorous questioning; they found him to be innocent and harmless and granted him Swiss citizenship. Like other young Swiss men over 18, Einstein became due for the three-month military service, but was rejected due to flat feet and varicose veins. Einstein thought highly of the Swiss populace; he found them more humane and peaceful and hence he was always proud of his status as a Swiss citizen.

Einstein came back to his parents in Milan in March 1901. He applied for a job, attaching with it a copy of his thesis and sent it to Wilhelm Ostwald, the German physical chemist doing pioneering work on the principles of catalysis, and also to Kamerlingh Onnes, the Dutch physicist, who was probing the depths of ultimate cold in Leiden. But he received no reply from either of them.

In May 1901, Einstein finally got an offer to teach Mathematics in a technical school at Winterthur, as stand-in for two months. After that, he was again back in Zurich searching for a job. He read in a Zurich newspaper about the requirement for a teacher and with his former ETH fellow student, Conrad Habicht’s reference, he acquired the post in a boarding school in the little town of Schaffhausen. From September, he held this job for a few months and then was back in Zurich again. He also completed a thesis on the kinetic theory of gases for his Ph.D, and sent it to the University of Zurich in November.

In December 1901, Einstein applied for a post at the Swiss Patent Office at Berne. Its director, Herr Friedrich Haller was a personal friend of Herr Grossman (the father of Einstein’s friend, Marcel Grossman of the ETH). This helped in his being favourably considered for the job. During this time, Einstein and Mileva Maric had a daughter named Lieserl who was born out of wedlock in January 1902.

In the summer of 1902, Einstein arrived in Berne, a few weeks prior to his appointment as a Patent Officer. He withdrew his thesis which he had sent earlier. Since he had to sustain his funds till his first payday, he decided to work as a private tutor for Physics and advertised in a local newspaper for the same. Maurice Solovine, a young Rumanian student at Berne University became his first pupil. About his meeting with Einstein, Maurice recollects that he was “struck by the extraordinary brilliance of his huge eyes.”

In the course of their interaction, Einstein and Maurice realized their ideas were very similar and so would spend time together reading the standard works and discussing the problems therein. Later, they were joined by Conrad Habicht who came to Berne to continue his studies in Mathematics.

1905 was a dazzling year for Einstein. On 30^th April, 1905, Einstein along with Alfred Kleiner, Professor of Experimental Physics, completed his doctoral thesis. Thus, at 26 years of age, Einstein got his Ph.D degree from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His dissertation was entitled “Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen” (A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions). In the same year he got published many of his revolutionary scientific works in the “Annalen der Physik”, thus entitling the year 1905 as Einstein’s ‘annus mirabilis’ (miracle year). His path-breaking papers which were to bring him world-wide fame dealt with the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special theory of relativity and the mass-energy equivalence formula “E=mc²”.

His first paper “On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light”, explained the phenomenon of the photoelectric effect. In this paper, Einstein presented his idea that under certain conditions radiant energy (light) behaves as if it is made up not of waves but of particles of discrete energies “quanta”. An equation for the photoelectric effect was presented by him, in which electrons are ejected from a metal surface exposed to light. Einstein proved that the electrons are ejected in units, or “quanta”, like bullets from a gun and not in a constant stream. At that time, this was a great prediction. The theory of the photoelectric effect played an important role in the development of modern technology. This paper was to fetch him the Nobel Prize for Physics sixteen years later.

Einstein was very impressed by Thermodynamics and was interested in Statistical Mechanics. He had worked on the foundations of both from the years 1902 to 1904. From this work sprung forth, his second paper which experimented with the theory of heat and gave proof of the existence of atoms. Einstein’s second paper was named “On the Motion of Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid According to the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat”, which explained the Brownian motion. Brownian motion (one of the most direct proofs of the existence of atoms) was initially observed by Scottish botanist Robert Brown in 1827. He had concluded from his observations under the microscope that small particles like pollen dust, suspended in a liquid such as water, undergo continuous, irregular motion. Einstein too derived from his own instinct and observation that such a motion must exist. According to his thought process, the atoms in the liquid collide with the suspended particles and set them into motion. In time, the motion of the particles experiences a forward movement. It was proved by Einstein that this forward movement of the particles is directly related to the number of atoms per gram of atomic weight.

Einstein’s third paper “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” which focused on the special theory of relativity, ultimately catapulted him into the annals of history. He formulated his special theory of relativity in an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This dissertation of around nine thousand words holds that measurements of space and time vary according to the conditions such as the state of motion of the observer. Einstein always emphasized that the special theory of relativity “was not speculative in origin; it owes its invention entirely to the desire to make physical theory fit observed facts as well as possible.”

Whenever Einstein had to present the theory of relativity to the layman, he always took recourse to analogies with trains, elevators and ships. He also had a relatively simple explanation for it :

“When you are courting a nice girl, an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”

The fourth paper of his ‘Annus Mirabilis’ was “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?” This paper contained the most famous outcome from Einstein’s special theory of relativity: the derivation of the mass-energy equivalence formula E=mc².

This formula developed by Einstein showed that mass and energy are two parts of the same thing. Here, in this mathematical equation, E stands for energy, m for mass and c for the speed of light in a vacuum (ca.300,000 km/s).

According to the formula, Energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of light (c) squared. The essence of the formula is that mass is just one form of energy, and that the velocity of light being what it is, a very small amount of mass is equivalent to a vast amount of energy. This explained why electrons weighed more when moving than at rest, as a natural result of their speed, and also how the sun and the stars radiated a large amount of light and heat by losing only a fragment of mass.

Most people know this genius through this equation about the nature of energy. As Einstein himself has said,

“Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.”

Europe was on war, and with Germany’s attack on Poland, World War II broke out on 1^st September, 1939. In the same year, eminent physicist Leo Szilard, along with a few other Hungarian scientists, alerted Washington of the ongoing Nazi atomic bomb research, but the warnings were not heeded. Einstein too thought that Americans had to be alerted to the possibility of Germany winning the race to build an atomic bomb, and to the willingness of Hitler to resort to such a weapon. So on 2^nd August, 1939, a letter informing and warning US President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the possibility of the Germans trying to build nuclear bombs was signed by Einstein.

The letter spoke about the scientific advance of the Germans and the possibility of German leader Adolf Hitler becoming the first to have atomic weapons. It also recommended the U.S. government to get involved in uranium research and associated chain reaction research. The following year, on 1^st October, 1940, Einstein became an American citizen. However, he also kept his Swiss citizenship.

The letter signed by Einstein was arguably the key stimulus for the U.S. adoption of serious investigations into nuclear weapons on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II. Einstein’s letter and his meetings with President Roosevelt resulted in the U.S. entering the race to develop the bomb, by initiating the ‘Manhattan Project’, which began in November 1941. On 7^th December, 1941, with the Japanese aggression on Pearl Harbour, the American Navy Centre, the US had to enter the war fully.

There was an all-out effort for the creation of the atomic bomb. During the war, the U.S. became the only country to successfully develop an atomic bomb. In 1944, Einstein hand wrote his 1905 theory of relativity and allowed its auction. The handwritten theory fetched him six million dollars on sale, which he donated to the effort to win World War II.

The tragedy of the creation of the atomic bomb was, that Albert Einstein’s famous equation E=mc² was finally demonstrated in the most terrifying way, by destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in the final stages of World War II in 1945. Humanity suffered and how!

Einstein retired from his professor’s post at Princeton in 1945. Post-retirement too, he continued to work towards the unification of the basic concepts of Physics.

Einstein was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton till the end. The last years of the world-famous scientist were spent in Princeton reclusively. Here too, he kept searching for a true unified field theory for a deeper understanding of nature, which was unsuccessful.

Michele Besso, Einstein’s friend, died in Geneva on 15^th March, 1955. A week prior to his death, Einstein agreed to have his name appear on a manifesto (Einstein-Russell-Manifesto) calling for all nations to do without nuclear weapons. On 15^th April, 1955, Albert Einstein collapsed at his home, due to internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was brought to University Medical Centre at Princeton but he refused surgery for he felt that he had done his life’s work and now it was his time to leave. He did not wish to prolong his life artificially. He died on the morning of 18^th April, 1955 in the hospital. He was 76 years old.

The celebrated scientist that he was, Einstein had an indescribable aura surrounding his high intelligence quotient. Hence, it was perhaps ‘natural’ that during autopsy, the pathologist of Princeton Hospital, Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed his brain for preservation, for neuroscience of the future to discover what made his brain so different, so intelligently special?

Einstein’s remains were cremated the same day as per his wish and a modest funeral service was held in his honour. About two weeks later, his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location.

Albert Einstein is regarded as the original genius. He was a practical and philosophical person whose ideas stemmed from his great intellectuality.He was both attractive and charismatic; the luminous eyes, the wild white hair, all added to his aura and his mad genius image.

In his technical language, the universe was four-dimensional. He seemed to have clarity regarding the problems of physics and was determined to find solutions to solve them. He devised his own strategies and concepts to reach his goal. His major achievements were regarded by him as stepping-stones towards further advancement. His attitude was what made him much more than a mere scientist. In reply to a query in later life as to whom he attributed his talents, Einstein replied, “I have no particular talent. I am merely extremely inquisitive. So I think we can dispense with this question of heritage.”

Albert Einstein had a marvelous memory in relation to scientific matters. But he was not able to recollect well enough other mundane matters like his childhood days, the beginnings of his foray into science and his development. He was absent-minded but only about those things that did not matter to him.

Einstein was a scientist first and foremost. His priorities were always – first research, second Einstein. He himself acknowledged to his close confidante, Michelangelo Besso that he was somewhat cold and something of a tough nut. He derived great satisfaction from his work which was a lifelong dedication for him. Bertrand Russell, British mathematician and philosopher, once wrote of Einstein, “Personal matters never occupied more than odd nooks and crannies in his thoughts.”

Even though Einstein had the pleasure of being in the company of women all his life, he avoided wasting his energy in normal passions and failed to be swept off his course in life. Einstein was a person determined to keep first things first, and relinquished his position as a human. Physics was his main attraction – the amazing, wonderful science of Physics. Everything else came later.

Einstein, being famous, also attracted the semi-charlatans, hangers-on and the adorers. In his lifetime, he corresponded with many people; scientists, authors, statesmen, artists, crowned heads, and many unknown people and children who were scientifically roused and looking for help. Children of all ages wrote to him; some asked about his looks, some for his autograph, and some congratulated him on his birthday. Some even gave him some sound advice – a little girl said he ought to have a hair cut so he could look better, while others turned to him for advice for their problems. Einstein willingly answered all these letters. In reply to a little girl’s difficulties in mathematics, Einstein wrote:

“…..Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”

Einstein’s theoretical concepts and inventions have paved the way for future scientific researchers. The luminous life of this great man is a beautiful example of the practical application of curiosity and imagination. Now how’s all that you would say? Well, the dual concepts of curiosity and imagination give rise to further research and knowledge which enhances our creativity and the outcome is fabulous if we persist on our chosen path. Start right away by asking questions …What? Why? How? You could stumble on to something great!