English (United Kingdom)Deutschελληνικά

(Albert) Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein's career began as a teacher for mathematics and physics while he was expanding the idea of Max Planck's quantum theory by adding the hypothesis of the light quantum. Einstein's discoveries were revolutionary even for today's physics: it develops a new understanding of the ration between space and time, and also of the force of gravity. Of course, he won a Nobel prize for his discoveries.

 

Before he achieved this success it was a long journey for him.
Albert Einstein was born on the 14th March 1879 in Ulm, Germany. His family was his mother Pauline and his father Herrmann and his sister Maja. He attended elementary school in Munich. In his free time he loved to play the violin and listen to music. At the age of 5 he got in contact with a compass and at the age of 12 he had a geometry book which influenced him very much.
Moreover the medical student Max Talmund, who visited Einstein’s family, began to teach him mathematics and electricity. At the age of 16 he wrote his first exploration called "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields". This paper was about the relative speed influenced him very much. Since 1894 Einsteins family lived in Milan, Italy because of his father’s work. Afterwards he went to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Switzerland and was really successful with mathematics and physics. During his studies he met his wife Mileva Maric. They had a daughter and two sons but they were divorced later. The year 1902 was the beginning of his career. He worked as an employee in the Swiss patent office. There he got in contact with electromagnetic devices and later on electrical signals. For more knowledge he studied James Maxwell's electromagnetic theories. In the year 1905 the journal “Annalen der Physik” published four papers of him where he wrote about the mathematic formula E=mc2. From 1913 to 1933 he was the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and taught young students.
His enormous success came over night in 1919. Over 7 years he worked on the relativity and published his theory about relativity in 1916. People from all over the world honored and invited him and in 1921 he received the Nobel Price for Physics.
In December, 1932, he decided to leave Germany because of political reasons. He moved to the United States and got a position a the newly formed Institute for Advanced Study where he wanted to develop a new theory. Moreover he became political active and wanted world peace. On the 18th April 1955 he died at the age of 76.

What is his “Theory of Relativity” exactly?

This theory consist of two parts: special and general Relativity. It says that two objects that are moving to each other will need different time and space. Included are also the length, gravity, time and mass. Just imagine you sit in a car that drives 40 miles an hour and your best friend sits in a car that drives 10 miles an hour. Your real speed is 40 miles an hour but your relative speed, the speed difference between your car and the car of your friend, is 30 miles per hour. It is impossible to tell the difference between the gravity and the energy of a moving object.
The theory also says that you need an object in front of you to decide if you are moving or not. Imagine you are in space and around you is nothing. You can not decide if you move or not. If there is a star that you can fix with your eyes you can decide ( = special relativity ).



Physics

Famous Physicist

Pierre Curie (1859 - 1906) You don't need to be a scientist to know who Maria Curie-Sklodowska was. You can also read about her on our website. As the only one woman in the world, she gained the Nobel Prize in two different fields of knowledge. She shared one of them with her no less famous husband, Pierre Curie. Her devotion to science made a huge impression on him.

Read more...

Jospeh John Thomson ( 1856 - 1940 ) A person who did many researches on cathode rays that, finally, led to the discovery of the electrons. Moreover, he was interested in the atomic structure and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906.

Read more...

André-Marie Ampère (1775 – 1836)

The flow of electric charge is named electric current. Maybe you heard something about electric current and in addition to this about the measure ampere (A) in your every day life, too. But do you know or asked yourself after what this measure is named? If not, here is the answer: after the founder of electrodynamics- after André-Marie Ampère.

 

Read more...

Johannes Gutenberg ( c. 1395 - 1468 ) How many newspapers, magazines and posters have you seen or read today? Many. But have you ever thought about the inventor who changed our life with the printing press? It was Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 with his printing press and movable blocks of letters and graphics that made materials available for the whole population.

Read more...

Marie Curie (1867-1934)

discovered the beta activity which was used in the Second World War to help injured soldiers. Because of this and some other cognition she won the Nobel price twice, in chemistry and physics; but that is only an extract of the achievements Marie Curie reached in her life.

Read more...

Isaac Newton ( 1643 – 1727 )

was an English Physicist and Mathematician. He is one of the most important characters of the 17th century because he developed principles of modern physics, as the law of motion. He is the person who has a great influence for our understanding of optics and motion today.

Read more...

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein's career began as a teacher for mathematics and physics while he was expanding the idea of Max Planck's quantum theory by adding the hypothesis of the light quantum. Einstein's discoveries were revolutionary even for today's physics: it develops a new understanding of the ration between space and time, and also of the force of gravity. Of course, he won a Nobel prize for his discoveries.

Read more...

Max Planck (1858-1947)

He had a big influence on the foundation of the basics in physics. A lot of his discoveries are named by his surname, like for example: the "Plancksche medal", the "Plancksche action quantum" or the "Plancksche radiation law".  In 1918 Planck lent with the Nobel prize because he has established the quantum theory which succeeded 20 years later the break through with the help of Einstein and Niels Bohr.

 

Read more...

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (1887- 1961)

After studying mathematics and physics in Vienna, Schrödinger became a professor for theoretical physics like Einstein and Max von Laue before him. Later he enunciates the "Schrödinger- equation" which builds the foundation of the quantum mechanics. In addition, he embosses the development of the molecular biology. With a lot of great chances to teach in different universities, Schrödinger also got awarded with a Nobel Prize in physics.

Read more...