PrintThe Theory of Relativity - Background
At the age of 26 he realises that 1905 is to be his annus mirabilis, his miraculous year, as he publishes five groundbreaking papers. On 17 March 1905, he completes the first, “On a Heuristic Point of View about the Creation and Conversion of Light”, an explanation of the photoelectric effect that in 1921 is to win him the Nobel Prize in Physics.
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Only six weeks later, on 30 April 1905, he submits a dissertation to the University of Zürich with the title of “A New Determination of the Molecular Dimensions”. This is to earn him the title of Doctor of Physics on 15 January 1906. It is followed by his paper on “Brownian Motion” and his essay “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”, published on 26 September 1905. The very next day he delivers the supplementary paper, “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on its Energy Content?”
It is this essay which contains for the first time what is to become probably the most famous formula in the word: e = mc2 (or energy equals mass times the square of the speed of light). These two papers are described nowadays as the “special” theory of relativity. Nevertheless, his application for a professorship at the University of Bern is turned down in 1907, and it is not until 1909 that he is appointed Professor Extraordinarius of Physics at the University of Zürich.
It is this essay which contains for the first time what is to become probably the most famous formula in the word: e = mc2 (or energy equals mass times the square of the speed of light). These two papers are described nowadays as the “special” theory of relativity. Nevertheless, his application for a professorship at the University of Bern is turned down in 1907, and it is not until 1909 that he is appointed Professor Extraordinarius of Physics at the University of Zürich.
Early in 1914 Max Planck succeeds in recruiting Einstein for the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Released from all teaching obligations, Einstein at last finds in Berlin the peace and quiet that he needs to complete his great work, the “general” theory of relativity, which he publishes in 1916. This helps him to arrive at a completely new way of explaining gravitation.
Here he assumes that every mass bends the spatial time around it in the same way that a sheet of cloth is dented by the weight of a ball lying on it. This curvature in turn prescribes how other masses have to move. The Earth and the Moon thus do not attract each other in the way that Newton formulated it, instead moving along the shortest path through spatial time.
Here he assumes that every mass bends the spatial time around it in the same way that a sheet of cloth is dented by the weight of a ball lying on it. This curvature in turn prescribes how other masses have to move. The Earth and the Moon thus do not attract each other in the way that Newton formulated it, instead moving along the shortest path through spatial time.
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Einstein’s discovery overturns the scientific view of the world. It creates a sensation when an experiment in 1919 produces results that confirm his theory. Scientists in London report on the analysis of photographs of an eclipse of the sun where stars at the edge of the sun appear to have shifted slightly from their expected positions. This is exactly the effect predicted by the “General Theory of Relativity” which Einstein had published in 1916. It is nothing less than a “revolution in science” that The Times in London celebrates on 7 November 1919 as “one of the most important, if not the most important, statement of human thought”.
In one fell swoop, the professor from Berlin catapults physics into the modern era, leaving Galileo and Newton far behind. Space, time, mass and light – nothing is any longer what it used to be. His formulae describe the structure of the universe, going right back to the Big Bang, and today are indispensable to space travel and satellite navigation. Einstein lives in Berlin until 1932. He utilises his fame outside the narrow scientific world to promote peace and understanding between nations. In this way he regards himself as a pacifist, a socialist and a Zionist.
Einstein leaves his home before the end of 1932 and travels to Princeton, USA. Hitler’s seizure of power in January 1933 means he never returns. He breaks off all contact with Germany and is never again to step on the soil of his native country. The genius of the century stays in Princeton until his death on 18 April 1955.
In one fell swoop, the professor from Berlin catapults physics into the modern era, leaving Galileo and Newton far behind. Space, time, mass and light – nothing is any longer what it used to be. His formulae describe the structure of the universe, going right back to the Big Bang, and today are indispensable to space travel and satellite navigation. Einstein lives in Berlin until 1932. He utilises his fame outside the narrow scientific world to promote peace and understanding between nations. In this way he regards himself as a pacifist, a socialist and a Zionist.
Einstein leaves his home before the end of 1932 and travels to Princeton, USA. Hitler’s seizure of power in January 1933 means he never returns. He breaks off all contact with Germany and is never again to step on the soil of his native country. The genius of the century stays in Princeton until his death on 18 April 1955.
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