Albert Einstein Research Paper

Albert Einstein, who arguably contributed more than any other scientist since Sir Isaac Newton to our modern vision of physical reality, is clearly one of the most gifted intellects the world has ever known. In a relatively brief period of time, Einstein changed the way people thought about space, time, gravitation and war.

Albert Einstein was born on March 15, 1879, in the southern Germany city Ulm. Both of Einstein’s parents were Jewish, although they did not strictly practice the religion. As a adolescent he was very dull, in fact his parents first thought he might have been mentally challenged because he could not speak fluently until he was about nine years old. “He would pause for a long time between sentences, and sometimes he would repeat himself”. (Jake Goldberg pg.7) In school when Einstein was young he didn’t appear to have any special educational “gift”, “In fact, he impressed his early teachers as a dreamy child without an especially promising future”. (Jeremy Bernstein pg.21) However as Einstein became older he started getting older his acumen progresses immensely, “at the age of 12 I experienced a second wonder of a totally different nature: in a little book dealing with Euclidean plane geometry”. (Jeremy Bernstein pg.24) That was what gave Einstein a “kick start” to becoming one of the most influential figures in history. From ordinary beginnings Einstein became one of the greatest scientific thinkers of all time. From Einstein’s theory of relativity, this changed our conception of the universe and our place on it, to his search for a unified field theory that would explain all of the forces in the universe. On top of that he also earned a Nobel Prize in 1921, but “Einstein was rejected as a Nobel winner for eleven years”. (Judy L. Hasday pg.8)

There are many reasons why Albert Einstein is the most influential person in history, changing the views of space, time, gravity, and war. Einstein had a general relativity theory that describes space and time as curved. Through wonder and complicated thinking Einstein gave a strong argument on how space and time could be curved. By Einstein creating this theory he completely altered the way we could think of space and time. Einstein pictured space as a three-dimensional version of a thin rubber sheet. If you put a heavy object on the sheet, it makes a dent, and therefore an object’s path would be affected by that dent. So, planets orbit the sun because “the space around the sun is curved in the 2-D equivalent of a funnel or basin”.( http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/20th_people_einstein.html) “The curvature of space results in the effects of gravity. This notion of curved space becomes more tangible occurs because its curvature of space”. (http://www.fi.edu/learn/case files/einstein/curved.html) Einstein introduced this special theory of relativity because it dealt only with the special case of motion in frames of reference that are neither increasing nor decreasing to the viewer. In other words, “the frames of the reference are . . . a consistent speed in a straight line”. (Jake Goldberg pg.47)

Einstein also changed how we now think about gravity itself! He came up with his own theory of gravity as well, called Equivalence Principle. “Einstein said that when he was sitting in a chair in the patent office at Bern when all of a sudden a thought occurred to me: ‘If a person falls freely he will not feel his own weight.’ I was startled. This simple thought … impelled me toward a theory of gravitation. …” (http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/20th_people_einstein.html) Not only did Einstein recreate the way we thought of the entire universe, he also changed the strategy and weaponry factors of war. He did this by his special theory of relativity; this is also the equivalence of energy and matter. This is one of his most famous equations and piece of work recognized around the world; E equals mc squared () this equation is immensely precise in representing energy and matter. “It says that they are fundamentally the same thing. It also says that from an extremely small amount of matter can be released a very large amount of energy”. This is why atomic weapons are so powerful, it’s also how the sun gives off energy by converting matter into energy. However Einstein never liked war, he was actually against it but when Hitler came into power that’s when Einstein devoted his time to creating a weapon of mass destruction for the United States, but the United States ended up using it on Hiroshima.

Albert Einstein has been compared to Isaac Newton. Albert Einstein contributed a lot to the scientist world; he took Isaac Newton’s theories and altered with them completely into his own. Albert Einstein made his theories better than Isaac’s theories, making them more possible and realistic. Albert Einstein also contributed to war by creating the formula to creating a nuclear bomb. Newton became a member of the Parliament in England. Newton then wrote some religious tracts about the interpretation of the Bible.

Albert Einstein is one of the world’s most intellect and intelligent human being. Not only did Einstein change the way we think about space, time, gravity and war, he changed the way we think of the entire universe through complicated thinking and dedication to science he earned a Noble Prize. This is why he is clearly one of the world’s most influential historical figure.

Bibliography

http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/20th_people_einstein.html
Chris Mihos – Webhome
http://www.fi.edu/learn/case files/einstein/curved.html
No info on bibme.org

Goldberg, Jake. Albert Einstein . Danbury, CT: Franklin Watts, 1996. Print

Hasday, Judy L.. Albert Einstein: the giant of 20th century science. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 2004. Print

Bernstein, Jeremy. Albert Einstein and the frontiers of physics ; Jeremy Bernstein.. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Print