Albert Einstein

Short Biography on Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, on March 14th, 1879. Einstein’s fascination with “empty” space started at the age of five when his father showed him a pocket compass and then realized that “empty” space was acting upon the needle in the compass. This event foreshadowed his later career, in which Einstein would describe this experience as one of the major realizations in his career. Einstein is famous for developing relativity theory, which created a bigger understanding of space, time, gravity, and the universe. Relativity is all physical phenomena that are in the absence of gravity. Einstein developed the equation E=mc^2, which is the definition of the simplicity of fundamental physics as we know it. This equation was revolutionary for us to understand lights and solar panels, and modern chemistry. Einstein filled his career with theories and scientific explanations as a theoretical physicist. Einstein died on April 18th, 1955, at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey.

Early 1920s (1920-1923)

At the beginning of the decade, Pauline Einstein, Einstein’s mother, dies in Berlin in February after a long illness. Einstein joined the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters which is a non-governmental national academy for the advancement of science that was founded in1 742. Einstein was induced as a foreign member on April 9th. Also during the year 1920, Niels Bohr, a Danish physician, paid a visit to Einstein in Berlin. Einstein looked up to Bohr because of his contributions in the physician field Bohr had created the Bohr model which allows us to know how many protons, neutrons, and electrons are in an atom and how they interact. Einstein joined the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences which is responsive for institutes that pay research and collections by Dutch sciences. which is another organization in Amsterdam as a foreign member on May 20 2021.

Travels in the 1920s around Europe

Einstein did much traveling in 1920 to express his theories that he made sense of in earlier years. He started in 1920 by teaching at the University of Berlin. Einstein also made lecture trips to Holland, Denmark, and Norway, where he was a visiting professor. Also, on this trip, he met physicist Niels Bohr who created the atomic model. Einstein thought Bohr was a “truly a man of genius and he had full confidence in his way of thinking.”

Einstein’s travels to the States for the first tine

In the spring of 1921, Einstein made his first trip to America with two objectives. His first objective was to take part in a fundraising tour on behalf of a Hebrew University the Zionists were planning to establish in Jerusalem. Einstein supported founding the university, and he favored an emphasis on the sciences and health professions. His second objective Was to visit Princeton University in New Jersey to deliver four lectures on relativity theory. Upon his arrival in the United States, he became immediately popular. Reporters rushed this his ship upon his arrival and he and shortly after, city officials took him on a motorcade to the lower streets in Manhattan to City Hall where Mayor James Hylan welcomed him. He spoke at Columbia University and the City University of New York. With packed auditoriums. Einstein then headed to Princeton to deliver a speech at the National Academy of Sciences in DC. Einstein’s lectures were delivered in German and were translated as he spoke. When in America, Einstein met with the president at the time, Warren Harding.

Einstein returns to Europe and reflects on how the US treated him

Before going back home, Einstein stopped in England, where Albert gave a lecture at the University of London on the relativity theory and at King’s College and at Manchester University, Einstein signed his name on a blackboard that is still preserved. While in England, Einstein paid his respects at Sir Isaac Newton’s tomb, whom he greatly admired and left a bouquet there. When Einstein returned home, he remarked on the culture of how Americans acted toward him and observations he had about Americans. Einstein remarked that “men were lapdogs of their wives and wives are extravagant spenders of their husbands’ money.” Rebutting his previous statement, Einstein commended Americans for their wrath and friendliness and expressed admiration for the schools and universities’ close relationships.

Einstein goes on Vacation and receives news of Nobel Peace Prize

After returning to Berlin, Einstein took his two sons on vacation for Hans Albert and Eduard, 17 and 11. Sailed the Baltic coast staying at a room in the local village bakery. Einstein preferred this type of vacation or getaway because of the simplicity it held. This vacation time allowed Einstein to better understand his two sons after doing substantial amount of traveling in the last year and a half of his life. Toward the end of this year, Einstein received news that he won a Nobel prize in physics to work with the photoelectric effect. This effect led to a communications revolution. The Photoelectric effect is the outburst of electrons when electromagnetic radiation, such as light, hits a material. Einstein proposed that a beam of light is not a wave propagating through space but a swarm of discrete energy packets, which would later be called photons.

Significance of Einstein

In 1921 Einstein published “Einstein on Education,” which he concluded in this present day mathematical and scientific education is too concerned with the abstractions and learning should be more hands-on that testing students with exams are unnecessary. Einstein states,

As a future educator, I admire Einstein by discussing this in 1920, and it is still a problem in our school system a century later. Learning should be hands-on learning with no stress of standardized testing in schools. If we consider Einstein to be one of the well-known geniuses globally, why can’t we evoke standardized and just normal testing in schools? The stigmatism of schools being stressful would decrease.

Map of Einstein’s Life in the 1920s

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1-3e_PUDRLE5cxV72U5bBJZbrhOBjreyl

Bibliography

• Calaprice, A. and Lipscombe, T., 2005. Albert Einstein. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
• Einstein, A., Calaprice, A. and Dyson, F., n.d. The Ultimate Quotable Einstein.
• Unknown. 1921. Professor Albert Einstein. https://library-artstor-org.library2.ramapo.edu:2443/asset/LOCEON_1039799751.