Albert Einstein

956 Words2 Pages

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, the first child of the Jewish couple Hermann and Pauline Einstein. In June 1880 the family moved to Munich where Hermann Einstein and his brother Jakob founded the electrical engineering company Einstein & Cie. Albert Einstein's sister Maria was born on November 18, 1881. Einstein's childhood was a normal one, except that to his family's irritation, he learned to speak later than most. In 1884 he received some tutoring in order to get prepared for school.

In 1885 he started learning to play violin. Beginning in 1885 he received his primary education at a Catholic school in Munich; in 1888 he changed over to the Luitpold-Gymnasium, also in Munich. However, he didn't like his school and he did not get along with his form-master so left this school in 1894 without a degree and joined his family in Italy where they had settled.

In order to be admitted to study in Zurich, Einstein took his entrance examination in October 1895 but didn't do well enough and was forced to enroll at some substandard schools in the area. He continued his education and left school early to work.

Between May 1901 and January 1902 he was teacher in Winterthur and Schaffhausen. Afterwards he moved to the Swiss capital Bern. In order to make his living, he gave private lessons in mathematics and physics.

At the end of 1902 Einstein's father died in Milan. On January 6, 1903 he married Mileva Maric. In May 1904 Einstein's first son, Hans Albert, was born and in July 1910 his second son, Eduard.

In April 1905 Einstein submitted his doctoral thesis "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions" to the university in Zurich which was accepted in July. During this same year he published five pioneering papers...

... middle of paper ...

...velt in order to draw his attention to the atomic danger. In this letter he pointed out to the President the military possibilities of atomic energy and encouraged him to intensify U.S. research into nuclear technology. This was his only participation in connection with the atomic bomb.

On October 1, 1940 Einstein was sworn in as American citizen. In August 1948 Einstein's first wife, Mileva Maric, died in Zurich. He had to undergo abdominal surgery in the same year. On April 15, 1955 Einstein was transported to hospital in Princeton because he had severe pain. The diagnosis was a ruptured aneurysm of his abdominal aorta. Because of this illness Albert Einstein died at the age of 76 at 1:15 a.m. on April 18, 1955. Following his wish his remains were cremated the same day and the ashes were placed at an unknown location. Science had lost one of his foremost thinkers.

More about Albert Einstein

Open Document