T.D. Smith
29 Jan. 2002
Albert Einstein: A Genius
Collier’s Encyclopedia. Vol.
8. New York 1993. pg. 678-681
Hodges,
Miles H. “Albert Einstein
(1879-1955).” 2000. 1 Jan. 2002
<http://www.newgenevacenter.org/biography/einstein2.htm>
Long, Doug. “Albert Einstein and the
Atomic Bomb.” 1 Jan. 2002
<http://www.doug-long.com/einstein.htm>
Ross, Jenna. “The Equation: E=mc2.”
Einstein’s Equation. Feb. 2000. 1 Jan. 2002
<http://www.edu.pe.ca/vrcs/grassroots/1999/grade9/biographies/Equation.html>
Einstein’s
life began in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879. Born to middle class Jewish parents, who
moved for work every once in a while, he was sent to school in Switzerland. But Einstein never
liked learning in a classroom and skipped class a lot so he could to teach
himself in solitude. He married twice,
the first in 1903 to Mileva Maric, which ended in divorce in 1919 when they
were separated because of WWI, they had two sons
together, Hans Albert and Edward. He
quickly remarried later that year to his second cousin, Elsa, with whom he
lived his life out with. He is best
known for his theory of relativity and the foreground work he did on the atomic
bomb.
The
first works of his relativity theory were published in 1905. They were instantly distinguished as works of
a genius by the University of Zurich, which honored him with a Ph.D. for his achievements. An important principle for the Theory of
Relativity is that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial systems
with no existing favorable inertial system.
As for what the equation E=mc2 having to do with the Theory
of Relativity, we come to the principle of the constancy of the speed of
light. His paper “The Electrodynamics of
Moving Parts” he explained why the informingly moving mass of a physical body
increases with an increase in kinetic energy.
That theory brought him straight to the equation E=mc2. ‘E’ stands for total energy of a body, ‘m’
for the inertial mass of that body, and ‘c’ for the velocity of light (a
constant). The equation revealed that a
very small mass moving at the velocity of light could be turned into a very
large amount of energy. From this
equation came some information of what would happen when an atom was divided.
Although
he did not intended for his equation to used in the
making of an atomic bomb when he published it in 1905, he eventually advised
President Roosevelt to build the bomb for the war. Despite the fact he considered himself to be
a pacifist that despised war, but he changed his way of thinking when Hitler
rose to power in Germany. Supposing Einstein
had not pushed for the development of the a-bomb it probably still would have
been completed, just not as soon as it was.
The government did not allow Einstein to work on the a-bomb with them
because they did not trust him to not talk it.
Right before his death (in 1955) wrote that he
regretted pressing for the development of the atomic bond and only reason he
did was if the US hadn’t, then Germany would have, and the world probably be very different than
the one we know today.