The famous figure in the world of natural sciences Albert Einstein (years of life: 1879-1955) is known even to the humanities who do not like precise subjects, because the surname of this person has become a common name for people with incredible mental abilities.
Einstein is the founder of physics in its modern sense: the great scientist - the founder of the theory of relativity and the author of more than three hundred scientific papers. Albert is also known as a publicist and public figure, who is an honorary doctor of about twenty higher educational institutions in the world. This man attracts with ambiguity: the facts say that, despite his incredible ingenuity, he was foolish in solving everyday issues, which makes him an interesting figure in the eyes of the public.
Childhood and youth
The biography of the great scientist begins with the small German city of Ulm, located on the Danube River - this is the place where Albert was born on March 14, 1879 in a poor family of Jewish origin.
The father of the genius physicist Herman was engaged in the production of filling mattresses with feather stuffing, but soon the Albert family moved to the city of Munich. Herman, along with his brother Jacob, went into a small company selling electrical equipment, which at first developed successfully, but soon could not withstand the competition of large firms.
As a child, Albert was considered a dim-witted child, for example, he did not speak until the age of three. Parents were even afraid that their child would never learn to pronounce words, when at the age of 7, Albert barely moved his lips, trying to repeat the learned phrases. Also, the mother of the scientist Pauline was afraid that the child had a congenital deformity: the boy had a large nape, which protruded strongly forward, and Einstein's grandmother constantly repeated that her grandson was fat.
Albert had little contact with his peers and was more fond of solitude, for example, he built houses of cards. From an early age, the great physicist showed a negative attitude towards war: he hated the noisy game of soldiers, because it personifies a bloody war. Einstein's attitude to war did not change throughout his later life: he actively opposed bloodshed and nuclear weapons.
A vivid memory of a genius is the compass that Albert received from his father at the age of five. Then the boy was sick, and Herman showed him an object that interested the child: after all, it is surprising that the arrow of the device showed the same direction. This little subject aroused incredible interest in the young Einstein.
Little Albert was often taught by his uncle Jacob, who from childhood instilled in his nephew's love for exact mathematical sciences. Together they read textbooks on geometry and mathematics, and solving a problem on their own for a young genius has always been happiness. However, Einstein's mother Paulina reacted negatively to such activities and believed that for a five-year-old child, love for the exact sciences would not turn out to be anything good. But it was clear that this man would make great discoveries in the future.
Albert Einstein with his sister It is also known that Albert was interested in religion from childhood, he believed that it was impossible to start studying the universe without understanding God. The future scientist watched the priests with trepidation and did not understand why the higher biblical reason did not stop the war. When the boy was 12 years old, his religious conviction sank into oblivion due to the study of scientific books. Einstein became committed to the Bible as a highly developed system for managing youth.
After leaving school, Albert entered the Munich gymnasium. The teachers considered him mentally retarded due to the same speech defect. Einstein studied only those subjects that were interesting to him, ignoring history, literature and the German language. He had special problems with the German language: the teacher told Albert in the face that he would not finish school.
Albert Einstein at age 14 Einstein hated going to an educational institution and believed that teachers themselves did not know a lot, but they thought of themselves as upstarts who were allowed to do everything. Because of such judgments, young Albert constantly entered into disputes with them, so he developed a reputation as not only a backward, but also not the best student.
Without graduating from the gymnasium, 16-year-old Albert moved with his family to sunny Italy, to Milan. In the hope of entering the Federal Higher Technical School of Zurich, the future scientist leaves Italy for Sweden on foot. Einstein managed to show decent results in the exact sciences in the exam, but Albert completely failed in the humanities. But the rector of the technical school appreciated the outstanding abilities of the teenager and advised him to enter the Swiss Aarau school, which, by the way, was considered far from the best. And Einstein was not considered a genius at all in this school.
The best Aarau students left for higher education in the German capital, but in Berlin, the abilities of the graduates were poorly appreciated. Albert recognized the texts of the problems that the director's favorites could not cope with, and solved them. After that, a satisfied future scientist came to Schneider's office, showing the solved problems. Albert angered the head of the school, saying that he unfairly chooses students for the competition.
After successfully completing his studies, Albert enters the educational institution of his dreams - the Zurich school. However, the relationship with the professor of the department Weber was bad for the young genius: the two physicists constantly swore and argued.
The beginning of a scientific career
Due to disagreements with professors at the institute, Albert was closed the path to science. He passed the exams well, but not perfect, the professors denied the student a scientific career. Einstein worked with interest at the scientific department of the Polytechnic Institute, Weber said that his student was a smart guy, but did not accept criticism.
At the age of 22, Albert received his teaching diploma in mathematics and physics. But due to the same quarrels with teachers, Einstein could not find a job, having spent two years in an agonizing search for a permanent job. Albert lived poorly and could not even buy food. Friends of the scientist helped to get a job at the patent office, where he worked for a long time.
In 1904, Albert began cooperation with the journal Annals of Physics, gaining authority in the publication, and in 1905 the scientist publishes his own scientific works. But the revolution in the world of science was made by three articles of the great physicist:
- To the electrodynamics of moving bodies, which became the basis of the theory of relativity;
- The work that laid the foundation for quantum theory;
- A scientific article that made a discovery in statistical physics about Brownian motion.
Theory of relativity
Einstein's theory of relativity radically changed the scientific physical concepts that used to be based on Newtonian mechanics, which existed for about two hundred years. But the theory of relativity, deduced by Albert Einstein, was able to fully understand only a few, therefore in educational institutions they teach only the special theory of relativity, which is part of the general one. SRT speaks of the dependence of space and time on speed: the higher the speed of the body, the more distorted both the dimensions and the time.
According to SRT, it is possible to travel in time by overcoming the speed of light, therefore, based on the impossibility of such travel, a limitation was introduced: the speed of any object cannot exceed the speed of light. For small speeds, space and time are not distorted, therefore, the classical laws of mechanics are applied here, and high speeds, for which the distortion is noticeable, are called relativistic. And this is only a small part of both the special and the general theory of Einstein's entire motion.
Nobel Prize
Albert Einstein has been nominated for the Nobel Prize more than once, but this award has bypassed the scientist for about 12 years because of his new and not clear views on exact science. However, the committee decided to compromise and nominate Albert for his work on the theory of the photoelectric effect, for which the scientist was awarded the prize. All due to the fact that this invention is not so revolutionary, in contrast to general relativity, for which Albert, in fact, prepared his speech.
However, at the time when the scientist received a telegram from the committee about the nomination, the scientist was in Japan, so they decided to present him with the award in 1922 for 1921. However, there are rumors that Albert knew long before the trip that he would be nominated. But the scientist decided not to stay in Stockholm at such a crucial moment.
Personal life
The life of the great scientist is covered with interesting facts: Albert Einstein is a strange man. He was known to dislike wearing socks and also hated brushing his teeth. In addition, he had a bad memory for simple things, for example, for phone numbers.
Albert married Mileva Maric at the age of 26. Despite the 11-year marriage, the spouses soon had disagreements about family life, according to rumors, due to the fact that Albert was still that womanizer and had about ten passions. However, he offered his wife a cohabitation contract, according to which she had to comply with certain conditions, for example, to periodically wash things. But under the contract, Mileva and Albert did not provide for any love relationship: the former spouses even slept separately. The genius had children from his first marriage: the youngest son died while in a psychiatric hospital, and the scientist did not have a relationship with the older one.
After his divorce from Mileva, the scientist married Elsa Leventhal, his cousin. However, he was also interested in Elsa's daughter, who did not harbor mutual feelings for a man who is 18 years older than her.
Many who knew the scientist noted that he was an unusually kind person, was ready to lend a helping hand and admit mistakes.
Cause of death and memory
In the spring of 1955, during a walk between Einstein and his friend, a simple conversation about life and death began, during which the 76-year-old scientist said that death is also a relief.
On April 13, Albert's condition deteriorated sharply: doctors diagnosed aortic aneurysm, but the scientist refused to be operated on. Albert was in the hospital, where he suddenly got sick. He whispered words in his native language, but the nurse could not understand them. The woman approached the patient's bed, but Einstein had already died of a hemorrhage in the abdominal cavity on April 18, 1955. All his acquaintances spoke of him as a meek and very kind person. This was a bitter loss for the entire scientific world.
Quotes
Quotes from a physicist about philosophy and life are a subject for a separate discussion. Einstein formed his own and independent outlook on life, with which more than one generation agrees.
- There are only two ways to live life. The first is that miracles do not exist. The second - as if there were only miracles around.
- If you want to lead a happy life, you must be attached to a goal, not to people or things.
- Logic can lead you from point A to point B, and imagination can take you anywhere ...
- If the theory of relativity is confirmed, then the Germans will say that I am German, and the French - that I am a citizen of the world; but if my theory is refuted, the French will declare me a German and the Germans a Jew.
- If a mess on a table means a mess in your head, then what does an empty table mean?
- It is people who cause me seasickness, not the sea. But I'm afraid science has not yet found a cure for this ailment.
- Education is what remains after everything learned in school is forgotten.
- We are all geniuses. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life, considering itself a fool.
- The only thing that prevents me from studying is the education I received.
- Strive not to achieve success, but to ensure that your life has meaning.
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Nobel Prize in Physics (1921) |
Einstein, Albert(Einstein, Albert; 1879, Ulm, Germany, - 1955, Princeton, USA) - theoretical physicist, one of the founders of modern physics, the creator of the theory of relativity, one of the creators of quantum theory and statistical physics.
early years
Born in Ulm, Württemberg, to a secular Jewish family. His father, Hermann Einstein, was engaged in trade, then opened a small electrochemical factory, which he managed with varying success. Mother's name was Pauline Koch. There was a younger sister, Maria.
From childhood he was interested in natural phenomena; at the age of 12, he read a book on geometry and became interested in mathematics for life. At the same time, he became interested in religion, but in those days religion was considered incompatible with the scientific worldview, and Einstein's religiosity passed. In a German school, Albert did not like, and the teachers did not like him. His family friend, medical student Max Talmud, became his mentor in mathematics and philosophy.
His father moved production to Munich, and his family moved there. In 1894, after failing in Munich, the elder Einstein moved to Milan to work with a relative. Albert stayed at the boarding house until graduation. At the age of 16, he fled from there to his parents. He applied for admission to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich. Since he did not have a high school diploma, he had to pass very tough exams. He failed French, chemistry and biology, but passed mathematics and physics so that he was allowed to enter on the condition that he first graduated from school.
He entered a special private school in the Swiss town of Arrau. At the same time, he renounced German citizenship in order not to get registered in Germany.
In 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, graduated in 1900. At the university he became friends with Marcel Grossman and met his first wife, Mileva Maric, who studied physics there. The only one of the four graduates of 1900 in his specialty, he did not get a job at the Polytechnic (Professor Werber, who had a grudge against him, interfered). He accepted Swiss citizenship and was engaged in tutoring, had no funds. His father went bankrupt.
In 1902, on the recommendation of his father, Marcel Grossmann, he entered the service as a technical expert in the patent office (Bern), since he was not hired by any university. He continued to study theoretical physics in his free time. In 1903 he married Mileva Marich (his father, before his death, agreed to his marriage to a Christian woman). They had two sons.
First discoveries in physics
The second article - "On one heuristic point of view concerning the origin and transformation of light" - treats light as a flux of quanta (photons) with corpuscular and wave properties, and introduces the concept of a photon as a formation with the characteristics of a particle and a field. He founded the photonic theory of light (photoelectric effect), for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1921.
The third article - "On the electrodynamics of moving media" - contained the foundations of the special theory of relativity. Einstein introduced new concepts of space, time and motion into physics, rejecting Newton's concept of absolute space and absolute time and the "theory of the world ether". Space and time have acquired the status of a single reality (space-time) associated with the movement of physical bodies and fields.
At the same time, classical mechanics was not rejected, but was included in the new theory as its limiting case. The conclusion followed from the theory: all physical laws should be the same in systems moving relative to each other rectilinearly and uniformly. Physical quantities that were previously considered absolute (mass, length, time interval), in fact, turned out to be relative - dependent on the relative speed of movement of the object and the observer. At the same time, the speed of light turned out to be constant, independent of the speed of movement of other objects (which was already known from the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1881 and did not fit into the ideas of classical Newtonian physics).
In the same 1905, in his article “Does the inertia of a body depend on the energy content in it?” Einstein was the first to introduce into physics the formula for the relationship between mass (m) and energy (E), and in 1906 he wrote it down in the form E = mc² where (c) is the speed of light. It underlies the relativistic principle of conservation of energy in all nuclear power.
The theory of relativity had predecessors - fragments of it are contained in the works of Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz, but Einstein was the first to put together and systematize scientific ideas about this. The theory of relativity has been ignored by the scientific community for several years. The first to understand it was Max Planck, who began to help Einstein and arranged invitations for him to scientific conferences and teaching positions.
Transition to professional scientific activity
In 1906, Einstein defended his doctoral dissertation, summarizing work on Brownian motion. In 1907 he created the quantum theory of heat capacity. Since 1908, Einstein became a privat-docent at the University of Bern, in 1909 - an extraordinary professor at the University of Zurich, in 1911 - an ordinary professor at the German University in Prague, in 1912 - a professor at the Zurich Polytechnic (where he had previously studied).
In 1914, despite the intrigues of anti-Semites, at the invitation of Max Planck, he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, a professor at the University of Berlin, a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. In 1916, Einstein predicted the phenomenon of induced (stimulated) emission of atoms, which underlies quantum electronics. Einstein's theory of stimulated, ordered (coherent) radiation led to the discovery of lasers.
In 1917, Einstein completed the creation general relativity, the concept substantiating the extension of the principle of relativity to systems moving with acceleration and curvilinear relative to each other. Einstein's theory was the first in science to substantiate the connection between the geometry of space-time and the distribution of mass in the Universe. The new theory was based on Newton's theory of gravitation. His prediction of the deflection of light from stars in the sun's gravitational field was confirmed by a British team of scientists at the time of a solar eclipse in 1919.
Modern physics has experimentally substantiated the special theory of relativity. On its basis, for example, elementary particle accelerators are being created. The general theory of relativity was also substantiated in principle. Her hypothesis about the deflection of light under the influence of the gravitational force of the Sun was confirmed back in 1919 by a group of British astronomers. For the discovery of the laws of the photoelectric effect and his works on theoretical physics, Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921. In 1924-25. Einstein made a great contribution to the development of quantum Bose statistics, which are now called Bose-Einstein statistics.
Personal problems
Due to constant travel and material problems, Einstein's family life deteriorated. In 1919, he divorced his wife (under the divorce agreement, he ceded to her, in particular, the rights to the Nobel Prize in case it was ever received). Then he began to meet with his cousin Elsa Loeventhal, whom he later married.
In 1915, when Einstein lectured in Göttingen, there were incomplete passages in the theory of relativity that required mathematical revision. Listened to the lectures David Gilbert did this work and published his results before Einstein. The two scientists clashed for some time over scientific priority, but then became friends.
Departure for the USA
In the 1920s and 30s. he was famous, especially abroad. He traveled a lot around the world, contacting colleagues and lecturing at various universities, and also engaged in social and political activities, helping socialists, pacifists and Zionists.
In 1930, his eldest son Eduard fell ill with schizophrenia and was hospitalized for the rest of his life.
Name: Albert Einstein
Age: 76 years
Place of Birth: Ulm, Germany
A place of death: Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Activity: Theoretical physicist
Family status: was married
Biography
2005 marked one hundred years since Albert Einstein's theory of relativity was published. The genius scientist has long been a mythological figure of the 20th century, the embodiment of an eccentric genius, for whom nothing but science existed. But the great physicist also had a stormy personal life, the details of which he carefully concealed.
Several "bombs" exploded almost simultaneously. In 1996, Einstein's papers were published, which had previously been kept in a shoebox by his son Hans Albert. There were diaries, notes, letters from Einstein to his first wife Mileva and other women. These documents refuted the idea that the great scientist was almost an ascetic. It turned out that love occupied him no less than science. This was confirmed by the letters to Margarita Konenkova put up for auction in New York in 1998. Einstein's last love was the wife of the famous sculptor Konenkov and, what is most sensational, a Soviet spy.
But back to the beginning of the biography, the life of the future scientist. Albert was born in the southern German town of Ulm on March 14, 1879. His Jewish ancestors had lived in this area for three hundred years and had long adopted local customs and religion. The scientist's father was an unsuccessful businessman, his mother was a domineering and zealous mistress of the house. Subsequently, the scientist never said who was the head of the family - father Herman or mother Polina.
He also did not answer the question of which of the parents he owed his talents. “My only talent is extreme curiosity,” Einstein said. And so it was: from early childhood he was occupied with questions that seemed trivial to others. He strove to get to the bottom of everything and find out how all things are arranged.
When his sister Maya was born, it was explained to him that now he can play with her. "How does she understand?" - Albert, two years old, asked with interest. He was not allowed to disassemble his sister, but she had suffered a lot from her brother: he was prone to fits of rage. One day I almost pierced her head with a child's spatula. “The sister of a thinker must have a strong skull,” Maya remarked philosophically in her memoirs.
Until the age of seven, Einstein spoke poorly and reluctantly. At school, teachers and classmates thought he was dumb. During recess, he did not run with his peers, but huddled in a corner with a math book. From the age of seven, the young man was interested only in the exact sciences, in which he was the best in the class. For the rest of the subjects, he had bold deuces on his report card.
The teachers were especially angry that Albert scoffed at the warlike policies of Kaiser Wilhelm and did not understand the need for military training. The teacher of Greek even told the future scientist that he was undermining the foundations of the school, after which the young man decided to leave this educational institution.
He went to Zurich to enter the prestigious Higher Polytechnic School. But this required passing exams in history and French, and, of course, Einstein failed. Then he entered a school in the neighboring town of Aarau and rented a room in the house of Winteler's teacher.
The young man's first passion was the teacher's daughter Marie Winteler, who was two years older than Albert. Young people walked in the park, wrote tender letters to each other. They were united by a common love for music: Marie was a pianist and often accompanied Albert when he played the violin. But the romance quickly ended: Einstein graduated from high school and went to Zurich to study at the Polytechnic.
During his four years of study, Einstein developed his talents in arguments with fellow practitioners who formed the so-called "circle of Olympians." After receiving his diploma, Albert tried to find a job for several years. Only in 1902 he got a job at the Zurich Patent Office. It was in this "secular monastery", as Einstein called it, that he made his major discoveries.
Five small articles in the journal Annals of Physics, published in 1905, turned world science upside down. The famous formula E = ms \, which determined the relationship between mass and energy, laid the foundation for nuclear physics. Of particular importance was the special theory of relativity, according to which space and time were not constant quantities, as was previously thought.
While studying at the Zurich Polytechnic, Einstein met there a Serbian student Mileva Maric, who studied at the Faculty of Medicine. They got married in 1903 and had three children in the marriage.
The doctors diagnosed the daughter who was born with a disappointing diagnosis: developmental delay. Soon the baby died.
A few years later, the wife gave Einstein two sons, but he did not feel affection for them either. One of the boys suffered from a mental disorder and spent most of his life in a specialized clinic. Doctors have never seen a famous father among his visitors.
Albert and Mileva occasionally found time to walk around Zurich. They argued about physics and feasted on their last money with coffee and cakes - both were desperate sweet tooth. He called her his little witch, wild and frog, she called him "Johnny."
However, it cannot be said that the biography of their personal life was serene. Einstein became famous, beautiful women were looking for his society, and the years did not add prettiness to Milev. The knowledge of this made her furiously jealous. She could grab the hair of some beauty right on the street that her Johnny was staring at. If it turned out that he was going to visit, where there would be beautiful ladies, then a scandal began and plates flew to the floor.
In addition, Mileva turned out to be a bad hostess - the house was in disorder, the dishes were always unwashed, and eggs and sausage were served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The absent-minded Einstein ate whatever he could and had a stomach ulcer as a result. In the end, he broke down and forced his wife to sign the contract.
She pledged to serve him food three times a day, wash his clothes and not enter his office without knocking. But even after that, almost nothing has changed. Coming to Einstein, friends found him with a book on mathematics in one hand, with the other hand he rocked a stroller with a screaming child, while he did not let his pipe out of his mouth and was all enveloped in smoke.
By then, Einstein's illusions about marriage had long since vanished. He wrote to his sister: "Marriage is an unsuccessful attempt to create something lasting from a brief episode." Quarrels with Mileva continued, the family drama aggravated the matter - the youngest son Eduard suffered from a mental disorder. It turned out that among the relatives of Mileva were schizophrenics.
Home life became hell - especially after their maid Fanny gave birth to a child, whom Mileva considered Albert to be the father of. During quarrels, both spouses used their fists, then Mileva sobbed, Einstein calmed her ... As a result, he practically fled to Berlin, leaving his wife with children in Switzerland.
Their meetings became increasingly rare, and in 1919, Einstein, who had had another woman for a long time, persuaded his wife to divorce. As compensation, he promised to give her the Nobel Prize, not doubting that he would soon receive it. Einstein kept his word - the prize awarded to him in 1922 went entirely to Mileva and her sons.
Since then, Mileva lived alone in Zurich, without communicating with her former acquaintances and falling deeper and deeper into melancholy. She died in 1948, after which her son Edward was admitted to a psychiatric clinic. Another son, Hans Albert, left for the USA, where he became a famous engineer and creator of underwater structures. He was in close relationship with his father, and until his death, Hans Albert kept Einstein's archive.
The second and last wife of the scientist was his cousin Elsa Leventhal. By the time they met, she was no longer young and raised two daughters from her first husband. They met in Berlin, where Einstein arrived in 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. Their relationship was rather strange - he tried to look after not only Elsa, but also her younger sister Paula, as well as 17-year-old daughter Ilsa.
By that time, Elsa was the mistress of the famous Don Juan Dr. Nicolai, who, in turn, also courted young Ilsa in every possible way. She even confessed in a letter to Dr. Nicolai: "I know that Albert loves me as much as, perhaps, no man will love me, he even told me about it yesterday."
The romantic girl was going to marry Einstein, but in the end he chose her mother. They got married immediately after their divorce from Mileva. Elsa was neither youthful nor beautiful, but she was an ideal hostess and secretary. Now Einstein could always count on three meals a day, clean linen, and the rest necessary for scientific work.
He and his wife slept in separate bedrooms, and she had no right to enter his office at all. Not to mention the fact that Einstein forbade her to interfere in her personal life, which remained very turbulent in those years.
He also had longer hobbies - for example, the young and beautiful Betty Neumann, whom he officially settled in the house as a secretary (Elsa did not mind). The banker's widow, Tony Mendel, took Einstein to the theater in her own limousine, and from there to her villa. He returned home only in the morning.
Then she was replaced by the famous pianist Margaret Lebach, who accompanied the scientist when he played the violin. At times Elsa rebelled and burst into tears, but Einstein was able to convince his upset spouse that he was truly attached only to her. Her daughters Ilsa and Margot always took the side of "dear Albert" - after all, his money and fame provided them with fashionable outfits and enviable suitors.
The same arguments worked for Elsa, and the strange family life continued. In the big house there was a place for Einstein's younger sister Maya and for his permanent secretary Helene Ducas, who, according to some statements, was also his mistress.
At the beginning of the twenties, Nazism was gaining strength in Germany, threats against "Jewish scientists" were heard. Einstein was included in this list. Fearing for his own life, the physicist remembered his Jewish roots and actively joined the movement for the creation of Israel (later he was even offered the post of president of this country).
In America, he was greeted with enthusiasm by the Jewish community. In 1933, while in the States, Einstein learned about the rise to power of the Nazis. He immediately renounced his German citizenship and asked for political asylum in the United States. America accepted him, Einstein was promoted to professor at Princeton University.
The family left Germany with him. The move worsened Elsa's health, and in 1936 she died. Albert reacted to her death philosophically - at that time he was more interested in the fight against fascism. He opposed the persecution of Jews in Germany, and, together with other American scientists, turned to Roosevelt with a request for the early creation of nuclear weapons.
The famous physicist even made theoretical calculations for the first nuclear bomb. After the war, Einstein was the first to advocate disarmament - and came under FBI suspicion as a "communist agent." Hoover's office did not know how close it was to the truth - a Moscow agent settled in the scientist's house. Moreover, in his bed.
In 1935, the sculptor Konenkov, an emigrant from Russia, visited Princeton to sculpt a bust of the great physicist. His wife came with him - a charming slender brunette who looked much younger than her years. Margarita turned forty, in the past she had affairs with Chaliapin and Rachmaninov. Einstein immediately liked her and began to visit his house often - first with her husband, and then alone.
To lull Konenkov's suspicions, the scientist helped Margarita get a medical report that she was sick and that only the healing climate of Lake Saranak could help her. There, Einstein, by a strange coincidence, had a summer house.
Konenkov still did not get rid of suspicions, but Margarita firmly said that "friends in Moscow" considered her friendship with the physicist useful. Moreover, it is necessary for returning to the Motherland, which the sculptor so dreamed of. "Friends" worked at the Lubyanka, and Margarita has already carried out their instructions more than once.
Konenkova settled down next to the physicist for seven whole years. They invented their own "dictionary of lovers", common things were called "Almaras", and the apartment in Princeton was fondly called "nest". There they spent almost every evening - he wrote sonnets for her, and she read aloud, combed his famous gray curls and talked about the wonderful country of Russia. Einstein always loved water activities, and the couple went on boat trips on weekends.
Along the way, he shared with her the news about the American nuclear program, which Margarita transmitted to Moscow. In August 1945, she arranged a meeting between Einstein and the Soviet vice-consul (and, of course, intelligence officer) Mikhailov, who received a detailed report on the first atomic bomb tests in the state of New Mexico. Shortly thereafter, the Konenkovs returned to the Soviet Union.
For some time, correspondence persisted between the lovers. Einstein in his letters complained of illness, complained that without her their "nest" was empty, hoped that she settled well in her "hardened country." Answers from her rarely came, and the scientist was indignant: “You do not receive my letters, I do not receive yours.
Despite what people say about my sharp scientific mind, I am completely unable to solve this problem. " The Soviet special services did everything to interfere with their communication - Margarita fulfilled her task, and now she was to become an exemplary wife of a patriotic sculptor.
At the end of life, no one would have recognized the old beauty in the overweight elderly woman. Margarita Konenkova died in Moscow in 1980. Einstein knew nothing of her fate. He still lived in Princeton, fought with opponents, played the violin and sent telegrams to the forums of fighters for peace.
Einstein tried to match the ideal image in which the whole world now knew him. The Czech librarian Johanna Fantova became his friend in recent years. The scientist trusted her with his last thoughts about science, which never managed to save mankind from hardships and wars.
His life is a strange combination of brilliant intellect and spiritual callousness. He did not make the women who were dear to him happy. The scientific mind was powerless to unravel the secrets of human relations. He was too busy with physics to find a formula for ideal love.
Albert Einstein, Albert Einstein- the greatest physicist of the XX century, the founder of the theory of relativity.
For the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect to the world in 1921, he won the Nobel Peace Prize (the idea of the induced emission of atoms was later continued in the form of a laser).
He was the first to expound the theory that gravity is nothing more than a distortion of space-time, which can explain many physical phenomena. Today's picture of the world is largely based on Einstein's laws. Einstein's personality has attracted enormous public attention since the publication of special “theory of relativity” in 1905.
Biography
Physicist Albert Einstein of German, Swiss and American descent was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, a medieval town of the kingdom of Württemberg (now the land of Baden-Württemberg in Germany), in the family of Hermann Einstein and Pauline Einstein, he grew up in Munich, where his father and uncle there was a small electrochemical plant. He was a very quiet, absent-minded boy, with a penchant for mathematics, but could not stand the teaching methods of the school, with its automatic cramming and stone discipline.
In the early years, spent at the Munich Luitpold Gymnasium, Albert himself began to study books on philosophy, mathematics and popular science. The greatest impression on him was made by the idea of space. When his father's affairs were bad in 1895, the family moved to Milan. However, Einstein stayed in Munich, leaving the gymnasium, while not receiving a certificate, so he also joined his family.
I don’t know what kind of weapon the Third World War will be fought, but in the Fourth they will use a bow and arrow!
At one time, Einstein was struck by the atmosphere of freedom and culture that he was able to find in Italy. Despite his in-depth knowledge in mathematics and physics, acquired through self-education and development, and independent thinking far from his age, Einstein never chose a suitable profession for himself. His father wanted him to become an engineer and be able to support his family.
But Albert tried to pass the entrance exams at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, which did not require a special high school diploma to enter.
He failed in exams, not having the necessary training, but the headmaster of the school could not help but notice his talent and therefore sent him to Aarau, twenty miles west of Zurich, so that he graduated from high school there. One year later, in the summer of 1896, Einstein successfully passed the entrance exams to the Federal Institute of Technology. In Aarau, Einstein flourished greatly, bastard from close contact with teachers and the liberal atmosphere that reigned in the gymnasium. He said goodbye to his past life with great desire.
Scientific life
In Zurich, Einstein began to study physics on his own, relying more on the independent study of the material. Initially, he wanted to teach physics, but could not find a job and later became an examiner for the Swiss Patent Office in Bern, where he served for about seven years. It was a very happy and productive time for him. His early works were devoted to the forces of interaction between molecules and applications of statistical thermodynamics. One of them - "The New Definition of Molecular Sizes" - was accepted as a doctoral dissertation by the University of Zurich, and in 1905 Albert Einstein was awarded the title of Doctor of Science.
Another paper proposed an explanation for the photoelectric effect - which was emitted by electrons on a metal surface when exposed to electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet range.
Einstein's third excellent work, which was published in 1905 g.- was called the special theory of relativity, which managed to completely change the whole understanding of physics.
After he published most of his scientific articles in 1905, Einstein received full academic recognition.
In 1914, Albert was invited to Germany as a professor at the University of Berlin and at the same time director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physics Institute (now the Max Planck Institute).
After hard work, Einstein succeeded in 1915 in founding the general theory of relativity, which went far beyond the framework of the special theory, in which the motions must be uniform and the relative velocities must be stable. The general theory of relativity covered all possible movements, including accelerated ones (that is, those occurring with variable speed).
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity was able to replace Newton's theory of the gravitational attraction of bodies in a space-time segment. According to this theory, bodies are not able to attract each other, they change and determine the bodies passing through it. Einstein's colleague physicist JA Wheeler noted that "space tells matter itself how it needs to move, and matter tells space how it needs to bend."
In 1922, Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Peace Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect."
"Einstein's law became the basis of photochemistry, just as Faraday's law became the basis of electrochemistry," said Swante Arrhenius of the Royal Swedish Academy at the presentation of the new laureate.
Since he had said in advance that he was performing in Japan, Albert was unable to be at the ceremony and gave his Nobel lecture one year after he was awarded the award.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein was outside Germany and never returned. Einstein turned out to be a professor of physics at the new Institute for Basic Research, which was created in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1940, Einstein was awarded American citizenship. During the years of World War II, Einstein revised his pacifist views, in 1939, under the leadership of some émigré physicists, Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he wrote that an atomic bomb was most likely being developed in Germany ... He pointed out the need for support from the American government for research into fission of uranium.
After World War II, which shook the world with the use of a nuclear bomb against Japan, Einstein, shortly before his death, signed the Bertrand Russell treaty indicating and warning the entire planet about the danger of using a nuclear bomb.
The most famous of all scientists of the XX century. and one of the greatest scientists of all times and peoples, Albert Einstein enriched the entire theory and practice of physics with his own play of imagination. From childhood, he perceived the earth as a harmonious cognizable whole, "standing before us like a great and eternal mystery." By his own admission, he believed in "the God of Spinoza, manifesting himself in the harmony of all that exists."
Among the many honors that were constantly offered to him, one of the most respectable was the offer to become the president of Israel, which followed in 1952. Einstein refused. In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, he was awarded many other awards, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London (1925) and the Franklin Franklin Institute Medal (1935). Einstein was honorary doctorates from many universities and a member of the leading academies of sciences.
Undoubtedly, Albert Einstein is one of the greatest and smartest people in history, who gave our world a lot of discoveries. An interesting fact is that when scientists studied his brain, it was found that those areas that are responsible for speech and language in anyone are reduced, and areas that are responsible for computational abilities, on the contrary, are larger than those of the average person.
Other studies showed that it had significantly more neuronal cells and improved communication between them. This is what is responsible for the mental activity of a person.
A successful person is always an amazing artist of their imagination. Imagination is much more important than knowledge, because knowledge is limited, and imagination is infinite.
Einstein Albert
(born in 1879 - died in 1955)
American theoretical physicist. One of the founders of modern physics, who made a significant contribution to the creation of quantum mechanics, the development of statistical physics and cosmology, the author of the theory of relativity, philosopher, humanist. Nobel Prize Laureate (1921).
At the end of 1999, Time magazine, summing up the past century, named Albert Einstein "the man of the century" for the greatest contribution to the development of civilization during the "reporting period." According to the editorial board, the name of Einstein has become synonymous with human genius, and, judging by the results of the survey, the majority of the magazine's readers share this view, because this outstanding scientist and thinker turned the worldview of mankind. Through his "ability to see in the known what others did not notice, and the pursuit of logical simplicity," he offered a completely new understanding of space, time and gravity. And Einstein's jokes and aphorisms are no less famous than his scientific works. For example, what relativity is, he humorously explained as follows: “Hold your hand on a hot stove for a minute - and a minute seems like an hour. Sit next to a pretty girl for an hour - and it will seem like a minute. " Behind his discoveries was a new world philosophy: firmly denying atheism, Einstein believed in "the god of Spinoza, manifesting himself in the harmony of all things."
The scientist used his fame to fight for the ideas of pacifism and liberalism. Striving to establish harmony in the world, he was a humanist in relation to humanity as a whole: “Man exists for others - first of all, for those on whose smiles and wellbeing our happiness depends entirely, then for those many unfamiliar to us, with destinies which we are bound by the bonds of compassion. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life is based on the work of others, living and dead, and I must make an effort to give in the same measure that I received and receive ... "
Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in the ancient city of Ulm (now the land of Baden-Württemberg in Germany), in the family of Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch. He grew up in Munich, where his father and uncle had a small electrochemical enterprise. Albert was a quiet, absent-minded boy, had a penchant for mathematics, but he hated school with its mechanical cramming and barracks discipline. At the insistence of his mother, he studied music and later became an excellent violinist, although he played all his life solely for pleasure. In the bleak years spent at the Munich Luitpold gymnasium, Einstein independently read books on philosophy, mathematics, and popular science literature. He was greatly impressed by the idea of the cosmic order, and at the age of 12, the boy decided to devote himself to solving the riddle of the "huge world", and his ideals on this path were always "kindness, beauty and truth."
In 1895, his father's business fell into disrepair, the family moved to Milan, and Albert never received a certificate. Despite deep knowledge in mathematics and physics, acquired mainly through self-education, and independent thinking not for his age, the young man by this time had not chosen a profession for himself. However, the father insisted that his son choose engineering, hoping that this would help improve the financial situation of the family. Albert went to Zurich, at the Federal Higher Polytechnic School, for admission to which a high school diploma was not required and ... failed in exams in French and history. But the young man liked the director of the school, and he advised him to finish the last grade of the school in order to still get a certificate of maturity. A year later, Einstein entered the pedagogical faculty of the Zurich Polytechnic without any problems. Here one of his teachers was the excellent mathematician Hermann Minkowski (later it was he who gave the special theory of relativity a complete mathematical form), so that Einstein could have received solid mathematical training, but most of the time he worked in the physics laboratory, and the rest of the time he read classical the works of G. Kirchhoff, J. Maxwell, G. Helmholtz and others.
In the summer of 1900, Albert became a certified teacher of physics and mathematics, and in 1901 he became a Swiss citizen. Physics professor G.-F. Weber, an adherent of the old order, did not leave the headstrong student in his department, so Einstein had to teach physics at Schaffhausen for some time and give private lessons.
Only in July 1902, Albert managed to get a job as a third-class expert in the Berne Federal Patent Office, where he served for seven years. At this time, his interest in physics increased. The circle of talented young people who formed a community, jokingly called "Olympia Academy", also contributed to the liberated thought.
In 1903, despite the categorical objection of his parents, Albert married his university friend Mileva Maric, a Serb by birth. From this marriage he had two sons - Hans-Albert and Edward. But the woman who witnessed Einstein's first steps into the world of science did not understand her husband, for whom physics was always in the first place. Their family life was unsuccessful, and with the outbreak of the First World War, they parted, and in 1919 they divorced. Despite this, Einstein generously gave his ex-wife and sons monetary rewards from the 1921 Nobel Prize. Immediately after his divorce from Mileva, Albert married his cousin Elsa Loeventhal, who already had two daughters from her first marriage.
In terms of scientific fruitfulness, historians often compare the Bernese period in Einstein's life with the "plague years" spent by Isaac Newton at Woolsthorpe. In 1905, in the prestigious German monthly Annalen der Physik, four scientific works of the young scientist were published one after another, which made a revolution in physics. The first opened the theory of Brownian motion, the second - "New definition of molecular sizes" - was accepted as a doctoral dissertation by the University of Zurich, and soon Albert became a doctor of sciences. A sensation that caused fierce controversy in the scientific community was an article that outlined the dual nature of light, and received universal recognition only 20 years later. The fourth work - "On the electrodynamics of moving bodies" - formulated the special theory of relativity. It summed up the many years of hard work of the young scientist on the problem of space and time (although it was written in just 6 weeks). In fact, the new theory destroyed the previous ideas about the foundations of the Universe (albeit in the part where events occur with speeds lower than the speed of light). Einstein's relative world corresponded to the speed of light, created a new mechanics, different from Newton's.
So Einstein became a famous scientist, and in the spring of 1909 he was appointed extraordinary professor of theoretical physics at the University of Zurich, and in early 1911 he was invited to head the department at the German University in Prague. A year later, Albert returned to Zurich and became a professor at the department of mathematical physics created especially for him at the Polytechnic, where he once studied himself. In 1914, Einstein was elected a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and invited to Germany as a professor at the University of Berlin and at the same time director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics (now the Max Planck Institute). Over the next 19 years, he lectured here, conducted seminars, and regularly participated in the colloquium, which was held once a week at the Physics Institute during the academic year.
Once in a lecture, Einstein was asked how great discoveries are made. He thought for a while and replied: “Let's say that everyone knows about something, that it is impossible to do it. However, there is one ignorant who does not know this. It is he who makes the discovery. "
After several years of hard work, the scientist managed in 1915 to create a general theory of relativity, which went far beyond the special theory and replaced Newton's theory of gravitational attraction of bodies with a spatio-temporal mathematical description of how massive bodies affect the characteristics of the space around them.
During this period, Einstein worked on other topics as well. For example, in 1916-1917 his works were published on the quantum theory of radiation. In them, the scientist considered the probabilities of transitions between stationary states of the atom (the theory of Niels Bohr) and put forward the idea of induced radiation. This concept has become the theoretical basis of modern laser technology.
Although special and general relativity were too revolutionary to bring immediate recognition to the author, they soon received a number of confirmations. One of the first was the explanation of the precession of the orbit of Mercury, which could not be fully understood in the framework of Newtonian mechanics. An English expedition led by astrophysicist Eddington managed to observe a star hidden behind the edge of the Sun during a total eclipse in 1919. This fact indicated that the rays of light are bent under the influence of the planet's gravitational field.
When the messages of Eddington's expedition spread all over the world, Einstein received worldwide fame. Relativity became a familiar word, and already in 1920 its author was invited to the post of professor at Leiden University (Netherlands) - the world center for physical research. In Germany, he was attacked for his anti-militarist views and revolutionary physical theories. Some of Einstein's colleagues, including several anti-Semites, called his work "Jewish physics" and argued that his results did not meet the high standards of "Aryan science." The scientist remained a staunch pacifist, actively supporting the peacekeeping efforts of the League of Nations. He was a supporter of Zionism and worked hard to found the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1925.
In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics and especially for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." "Einstein's law became the basis of photochemistry, just as Faraday's law became the basis of electrochemistry," said S. Arrhenius from the Royal Swedish Academy at the presentation of the new laureate.
In the mid-1920s, significant differences were discovered between physicists working in the field of quantum mechanics. Einstein could not reconcile himself to the fact that the laws of the microworld are only probabilistic (his reproach addressed to Bohr is known for believing "in God playing dice"). Albert did not consider statistical quantum mechanics to be a fundamentally new doctrine, but considered it as a temporary tool that must be resorted to until a complete description of reality can be obtained. At the Solvay Congresses of 1927 and 1930, Einstein was unable to convince either Bohr or his young colleagues Heisenberg and Pauli, and since then followed the work of the Copenhagen School with a deep sense of disbelief.
Beginning in 1930, Einstein spent the winter months in the United States, in California, lecturing at the Pasadena Institute of Technology, and with Hitler's rise to power (1933) he no longer set foot on German soil and announced his resignation from the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Einstein became professor of physics at the new Institute for Basic Research, which was established in Princeton, New Jersey, and seven years later became an American citizen. In the years leading up to the Second World War, the scientist, feeling that only military force could stop Nazi Germany, came to the conclusion that in order to “defend the rule of law and human dignity” it would be necessary to “enter into battle” with the Nazis.
In August 1939, at the urging of several émigré physicists, Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he informed that in Germany, in all likelihood, work was underway to create weapons of mass destruction. He pointed to the need for US government support for uranium fission research. Later, the scientist regretted that he "participated in the opening of this Pandora's box." Although Einstein was not directly involved in research and did not know anything about the creation of the American nuclear bomb until its use in Hiroshima in 1945, his name was persistently associated with the advent of the nuclear age.
After the end of World War II, shocked by the horrific consequences of the use of the atomic bomb against Japan and the ever-accelerating arms race, Einstein became an ardent supporter of peace, believing that in modern conditions war would pose a threat to the very existence of mankind. At a ceremonial meeting of the UN session in New York in 1947, he declared the responsibility of scientists for the fate of the planet, and in 1948 he delivered an address in which he called for the prohibition of nuclear weapons. Shortly before his death, he signed the appeal of Bertrand Russell to the governments of all countries and warn them about the dangers of using the hydrogen bomb, and also advocated the free exchange of ideas and the responsible use of science for the benefit of humanity.
Among the many honors given to Einstein was an offer to become President of Israel, which followed in 1952, which he, however, refused. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has received many other awards, has been an honorary doctorate from several universities and a member of the world's leading academies of sciences and scientific societies.
The great scientist spent the last 22 years of his life at Princeton. According to the testimony of others, life for Einstein turned into a play, which he watched with some interest, since he was never torn apart by the tragic emotions of love or hate. All his thoughts were directed beyond this world, into the world of phenomena. Einstein lived with his wife Elsa, her daughter Margot and personal secretary Helen Dukas in a simple two-story house, walked to the institute, where he worked on his unified field theory and talked with colleagues. During leisure hours, he played the violin and sailed on a boat on the lake. In Princeton, it has become a local landmark. He was known as a world-renowned physicist, and at the same time he was a kind, modest, friendly and somewhat eccentric person for everyone.
On April 18, 1955, Einstein died in his sleep at the Princeton Clinic of an aortic aneurysm. Nearby on the table lay his last unfinished statement: "What I strive for is only to serve truth and justice with my insignificant possibilities, at the risk of not pleasing anyone." On the same day, his body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered by friends in a place that should forever remain unknown. Even after his death, he wanted to be a citizen of the world, "never fully belonging to his country, his home, his friends and even his family."
This text is an introductory fragment.Chapter six. Professor Albert Einstein
Chapter 5, in which Albert Einstein has a "year of miracles" Brilliant thoughts come to mind so rarely that they are not difficult to remember. Einstein on how he was able to remember all his great discoveries It just so happened that all of his most outstanding discoveries Einstein
Chapter Eight, In Which Albert Einstein Becomes a Star The laws of mathematics that have anything to do with the real world are unreliable; and reliable mathematical laws have nothing to do with the real world. Einstein on reality Einstein turned 40 in 1919
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