Albert Einstein

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"Einstein" redirects here. For other people, see Einstein (surname). For other uses, see Albert
Einstein (disambiguation) and Einstein (disambiguation).

Albert Einstein

Einstein in 1921

Born 14 March 1879

Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire

Died 18 April 1955 (aged 76)

Princeton, New Jersey, United States

Subject of the Kingdom of
Citizenship
Württemberg during the German Empire (1879–

1896)[note 1]

Stateless (1896–1901)

Citizen of Switzerland (1901–1955)

Austrian subject of the Austro-

 Hungarian Empire (1911–1912)

Subject of the Kingdom of

Prussia during the German Empire (1914–1918)

[note 1]

German citizen of the Free State of

Prussia (Weimar Republic, 1918–1933)

Citizen of the United States (1940–

1955)

Education Federal Polytechnic

School in Zurich (Federal teaching diploma,

1900)

University of Zurich (Ph.D., 1905)

Known for General relativity

Special relativity

Photoelectric effect

E=mc2 (Mass–energy equivalence)

E=hf (Planck–Einstein relation)

Theory of Brownian motion

Einstein field equations

Bose–Einstein statistics

Bose–Einstein condensate

Gravitational wave

Cosmological constant
Unified field theory

EPR paradox

Ensemble interpretation

List of other concepts

Mileva Marić
Spouse(s) (m. 1903; div. 1919)

Elsa Löwenthal
(m. 1919; died[1][2] 1936)

Children "Lieserl" Einstein

Hans Albert Einstein

 Eduard "Tete" Einstein

Awards Barnard Medal (1920)

Nobel Prize in Physics (1921)

Matteucci Medal (1921)

ForMemRS (1921)[3]

Copley Medal (1925)[3]

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical

Society (1926)

Max Planck Medal (1929)

Member of the National Academy of

Sciences (1942)

Time Person of the Century (1999)

Scientific career

Fields Physics, philosophy

Institutions Swiss Patent Office (Bern) (1902–1909)

University of Bern (1908–1909)

University of Zurich (1909–1911)

Charles University in Prague (1911–

1912)

ETH Zurich (1912–1914)

Prussian Academy of Sciences (1914–

1933)

Humboldt University of Berlin (1914–

1933)

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (director,

1917–1933)

German Physical Society (president,

1916–1918)

Leiden University (visits, 1920)

Institute for Advanced Study (1933–

1955)

Caltech (visits, 1931–1933)
 University of Oxford (visits, 1931–

1933)

Thesis Eine neue Bestimmung der

Moleküldimensionen  (A New Determination of

Molecular Dimensions) (1905)

Doctoral advisor Alfred Kleiner

Other academic Heinrich Friedrich Weber

advisors

Influences Arthur Schopenhauer

Baruch Spinoza

Bernhard Riemann

David Hume

Ernst Mach

Hendrik Lorentz

Hermann Minkowski

Isaac Newton

James Clerk Maxwell

Michele Besso

Moritz Schlick

Thomas Young

Influenced Virtually all modern physics

Signature

MENU

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Start of a speech by Albert Einstein. "Ladies (coughs) and gentlemen, Our age is proud of the progress it has
made in men's intellectual development. The search for truth and knowledge is one of the highest of men's
qualities ..." United Jewish Appeal, 11 April 1943. Radio Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina.
Albert Einstein (/ˈaɪnstaɪn/ EYEN-styne;[4] German: [ˈalbɛʁt ˈʔaɪnʃtaɪn] ( listen); 14 March
1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist [5] who developed
the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum
mechanics).[3][6]:274 His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. [7]
[8]
 He is best known to the general public for his mass–energy equivalence formula 

, which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation". [9] He received the
1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for
his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect",[10] a pivotal step in the development
of quantum theory.
The son of a salesman who later operated an electrochemical factory, Einstein was
born in the German Empire but moved to Switzerland in 1895 and renounced his
German citizenship in 1896.[5] Specializing in physics and mathematics, he received his
academic teaching diploma from the Swiss Federal Polytechnic
School (German: eidgenössische polytechnische Schule, later ETH) in Zürich in 1900.
The following year, he acquired Swiss citizenship, which he kept for his entire life. After
initially struggling to find work, from 1902 to 1909 he was employed as a patent
examiner at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern.
Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no
longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of
the electromagnetic field. This led him to develop his special theory of relativity during
his time at the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905, called his annus mirabilis (miracle year), he
published four groundbreaking papers, which attracted the attention of the academic
world; the first outlined the theory of the photoelectric effect, the second paper
explained Brownian motion, the third paper introduced special relativity, and the
fourth mass-energy equivalence. That year, at the age of 26, he was awarded a PhD by
the University of Zurich.
Although initially treated with skepticism from many in the scientific community,
Einstein's works gradually came to be recognised as significant advancements. He was
invited to teach theoretical physics at the University of Bern in 1908 and the following
year moved to the University of Zurich, then in 1911 to Charles University in
Prague before returning to the Federal Polytechnic School in Zürich in 1912. In 1914, he
was elected to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, where he remained for 19
years. Soon after publishing his work on special relativity, Einstein began working to
extend the theory to gravitational fields; he then published a paper on general
relativity in 1916, introducing his theory of gravitation. He continued to deal with
problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of
particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties
of light and the quantum theory of radiation, the basis of laser, which laid the foundation
of the photon theory of light. In 1917, he applied the general theory of relativity to model
the structure of the universe.[11][12]
In 1933, while Einstein was visiting the United States, Adolf Hitler came to power.
Because of his Jewish background, Einstein did not return to Germany.[13] He settled in
the United States and became an American citizen in 1940. [14] On the eve of World War
 II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting FDR to the potential
development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type" and recommending that the
US begin similar research. This eventually led to the Manhattan Project. Einstein
supported the Allies, but he generally denounced the idea of using nuclear fission as a
weapon. He signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto with British philosopher Bertrand
Russell, which highlighted the danger of nuclear weapons. He was affiliated with
the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in 1955.
He published more than 300 scientific papers and more than 150 non-scientific works.[11]
[15]
 His intellectual achievements and originality have made the word "Einstein"
synonymous with "genius".[16] Eugene Wigner compared him to his contemporaries,
writing that "Einstein's understanding was deeper even than Jancsi von Neumann's. His
mind was both more penetrating and more original". [17]

Contents

 1Life and career

o 1.1Early life and education
o 1.2Marriages and children
o 1.3Friends
o 1.4Patent office
 1.4.1First scientific papers
o 1.5Academic career
o 1.61921–1922: Travels abroad
o 1.71930–1931: Travel to the US
o 1.81933: Immigration to the US
 1.8.1Refugee status
 1.8.2Resident scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study
 1.8.3World War II and the Manhattan Project
 1.8.4US citizenship
o 1.9Personal life
 1.9.1Assisting Zionist causes
 1.9.2Love of music
 1.9.3Political and religious views
o 1.10Death
 2Scientific career
o 2.11905 – Annus Mirabilis papers
o 2.2Statistical mechanics
 2.2.1Thermodynamic fluctuations and statistical physics
 2.2.2Theory of critical opalescence
o 2.3Special relativity
o 2.4General relativity
 2.4.1General relativity and the equivalence principle
 2.4.2Gravitational waves
 2.4.3Hole argument and Entwurf theory
 2.4.4Physical cosmology
 2.4.5Energy momentum pseudotensor
  2.4.6Wormholes
 2.4.7Einstein–Cartan theory
 2.4.8Equations of motion
o 2.5Old quantum theory
 2.5.1Photons and energy quanta
 2.5.2Quantized atomic vibrations
 2.5.3Adiabatic principle and action-angle variables
 2.5.4Bose–Einstein statistics
 2.5.5Wave–particle duality
 2.5.6Zero-point energy
 2.5.7Stimulated emission
 2.5.8Matter waves
o 2.6Quantum mechanics
 2.6.1Einstein's objections to quantum mechanics
 2.6.2Bohr versus Einstein
 2.6.3Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox
o 2.7Unified field theory
o 2.8Other investigations
o 2.9Collaboration with other scientists
 2.9.1Einstein–de Haas experiment
 2.9.2Schrödinger gas model
 2.9.3Einstein refrigerator
 3Non-scientific legacy
 4In popular culture
 5Awards and honors
 6Publications
 7Other publications
 8See also
 9References
o 9.1Works cited
 10Further reading
 11External links

Life and career

Early life and education
See also: Einstein family
Einstein at the age of 3 in 1882

Albert Einstein in 1893 (age 14)

Einstein's matriculation certificate[note 2]

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire,

on 14 March 1879.[5] His parents were Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer,
and Pauline Koch. In 1880, the family moved to Munich, where Einstein's father and his
uncle Jakob founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a company that
manufactured electrical equipment based on direct current.[5]
The Einsteins were non-observant Ashkenazi Jews, and Albert attended a Catholic
elementary school in Munich, from the age of 5, for three years. At the age of 8, he was
transferred to the Luitpold Gymnasium (now known as the Albert Einstein Gymnasium),
where he received advanced primary and secondary school education until he left
the German Empire seven years later.[18]
In 1894, Hermann and Jakob's company lost a bid to supply the city of Munich with
electrical lighting because they lacked the capital to convert their equipment from the
direct current (DC) standard to the more efficient alternating current (AC) standard.
[19]
 The loss forced the sale of the Munich factory. In search of business, the Einstein
family moved to Italy, first to Milan and a few months later to Pavia. When the family
moved to Pavia, Einstein, then 15, stayed in Munich to finish his studies at the Luitpold
Gymnasium. His father intended for him to pursue electrical engineering, but Einstein
clashed with authorities and resented the school's regimen and teaching method. He
later wrote that the spirit of learning and creative thought was lost in strict rote learning.
At the end of December 1894, he traveled to Italy to join his family in Pavia, convincing
the school to let him go by using a doctor's note. [20] During his time in Italy he wrote a
short essay with the title "On the Investigation of the State of the Ether in a Magnetic
Field".[21][22]