Albert Einstein Birthday: He gave the world general and special theory of relativity. (File)
Albert Einstein remains one of the most prominent figures of Modern Physics and an inspiration to many who came after. Born on March 14, 1879, the German-born physicist Albert Einstein developed the first of his groundbreaking theories while working as a clerk in the Swiss patent office in Bern. He migrated from Germany to the United States when the Nazis took power before World War II. He lived and worked in Princeton, New Jersey. His intellectual achievements and originality have made the word "Einstein" synonymous with "genius". In 1946 Einstein visited Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a historically black college, where he was awarded an honorary degree.
10 Facts About Albert Einstein:
Albert Einstein is best known by the general public for his mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2, that helped form the basis of the development of the atomic bomb. It helped in establishing the fundamental relationship between mass and energy.
He went on to win worldwide fame for his general theory of relativity.
Einstein also developed Special Theory of Relativity which held that the laws of physics are the same even for objects moving in different inertial frames (at constant speeds relative to each other), and that the speed of light is constant in all inertial frames.
He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.
In 1926, Einstein and his former student Leo Szilard co-invented (and in 1930, patented) the Einstein refrigerator. This absorption refrigerator was then revolutionary for having no moving parts and using only heat as an input.
During his life, Albert Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers along with over 150 non-scientific works.
Einstein developed an appreciation for music at an early age, and later wrote, "If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music... I get most joy in life out of music."
Albert Einstein married twice. He had two sons from his first wife Maric. They formally separated in 1919 after having lived apart for five years. His second son Eduard had a breakdown at about age 20 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was committed to asylum.
Einstein then married Elsa Lowenthal who was his first and second cousin. She died in 1936 after being diagnosed with kidney and heart problems. The couple also had two adopted stepdaughters Margot and Ilse.
On April 17, 1955, Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Einstein refused the surgery, saying, "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly." He died the next morning on April 18, 1955.
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