Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

Einstein, Albert (1879-1955), was one of the greatest scientists of all time. He is best known for his theory of relativity, which he first advanced when he was only 26. He also made many other contributions to science.

Einstein's relativity theory revolutionized scientific thought with new conceptions of time, space, mass, motion, and gravitation. He treated matter and energy as exchangeable, not distinct. In so doing, he laid the basis for controlling the release of energy from the atom.

Thus, Einstein was one of the fathers of the nuclear age. Einstein's famous equation, E equals m times c-squared (energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared), became a foundation stone in the development of nuclear energy. Einstein developed his theory through deep philosophical thought and through complex mathematical reasoning. The great scientist was once reported to have said that only a dozen people in the world could understand his theory. However, Einstein always denied this report. See Relativity.

On Aug. 2, 1939, Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, explaining that it might be possible to build an atomic bomb. Einstein urged the President to provide governmental help for the study of the release of nuclear energy. Einstein also warned the President that Nazi Germany might already be trying to build an atomic bomb. His letter helped set the United States on the long, difficult, and costly path that finally led to the production of an atomic bomb in 1945. See Nuclear weapon.

Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany, the son of Hermann and Paulina Koch Einstein. When Einstein was 5 years old, his father showed him a pocket compass. The little bo...

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...proaching an autobiography that Einstein ever wrote. He wrote them for a scholarly volume without asking for or getting any money in return.

Einstein was married twice. He was separated from his first wife, a physicist named Mileva Maric, soon after his arrival in Berlin. After World War I, he married his first cousin, Elsa. She died at Princeton in 1936. He had two sons and a daughter by his first wife. He gained two stepdaughters in his second marriage.

Although he was not associated with any orthodox religion, Einstein's nature was deeply religious. He felt that belief in a personal God was too specific a concept to be applicable to the Being at work in this universe, but he never believed that the universe was one of chance or chaos. The universe to him was one of absolute law and order. He once said, "God may be sophisticated, but He is not malicious."