Albert Einstein

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Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Wüttemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. While he was still an infant, the family moved to Munich. Albert’s father was plagued with business failures throughout his life, and after one such failure, he moved his family to Milan, Italy. Einstein was, at first, left behind to finish his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium, but he disapproved of this choice, and followed his family to Milan. Albert decided to attempt to skip the rest of gymnasium and tried to pass the test he needed in order to do so. He failed the Zürich Poly entrance examination on his first attempt, and so he was sent by his family to finish school in Aarau, where Albert actually enjoyed being educated, unlike his gymnasium experience. The school in Aarau was liberal, and a great experience for Albert, who remembered the year that he spent there vividly for the rest of his life. During that year, Albert lived with the headmaster of the school that he attended, Jost Winteler. The lack of external authority shown at Aarau “left an indelible impression” (Cropper p. 204) on Albert. After school, he paid 3 marks that he had saved, and released himself from being a German citizen. Albert took the Poly examination for the second time and passed with good marks. He then began his four year process of becoming a fachlehrer, or a specialized high-school teacher. Albert failed to enjoy most of the schoolwork done at Poly, but graduated four years later, nonetheless, in the fall of 1900. A few months after his graduation, he published his first work in the same journal that contained Max Planck’s inaugural paper on quantum theory. After many jobs prospects for Albert fell through, he obtained a job with the help of a friend’s father, ... ... middle of paper ... ...the photoelectric effect. In 1933, Einstein moved to the United States permanently. For the rest of his life, Einstein sough a “unified field theory” where “gravitation and electromagnetism could be derived from one set of equations” (http://www.humboldt1.com/~gralsto/einstein/later.html). Einstein was notably against war, but corresponded with F.D. Roosevelt to urge him to develop the atomic bomb before the Germans did. He made contributions to the war effort by hand writing his 1905 paper on special relativity and auctioning it off –an act that raised six million dollars. A week before he died, Einstein wrote a letter to Bertrand Russell which gave the instruction that Einstein desired his name to be put on a manifesto urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons. Einstein died on 18 April 1955, and he was cremated, his ashes scattered over an unknown area.

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