Albert Einstein
The German-American physicist Albert Einstein contributed more than any other scientist to the 20th century. Born in the town of Ulm, Germany, on March 14 and died in Princeton, N.J., on April 18, 1955. In the wake of World War, I, Einstein’s theories, especially his theory of relativity seemed to many people to point to a pure quality of human thought, one far removed from the war and its aftermath.
Seldom has a scientist received such public attention for Leaving the ability for learning that he had. in 1905, Einstein examined the phenomenon discovered by Max Planck, according to which electromagnetic energy seemed to be emitted from radiating objects in quantities that were ultimately discrete.
The energy of these emitted quantities—the so-called light-quanta—was directly proportional to the frequency of the radiation. This circumstance was perplexing because classical electromagnetic theory, based on Maxwell’s equations and the laws of thermodynamics, had assumed that electromagnetic energy consisted of waves propagating in a. hypothetical, an all-pervasive medium called the luminiferous ether and that the waves could contain any amount of energy no matter how small. Einstein used Planck’s quantum hypothesis to describe visible electromagnetic radiation or light. According to Einstein’s heuristic viewpoint, light could be imagined to consist of discrete bundles of radiation. Einstein used this interpretation to explain the photoelectric effect, by which certain metals emit electrons when illuminated by light with a given frequency. Einstein’s theory, and his subsequent elaboration of it, formed the basis for much of quantum mechanics.
Another of Einstein’s theories concerned statistical mechanics, a field of study that had been elaborated by, among others, Ludwig Boltzmann and Josiah Willard Gibbs. Unaware of Gibbs’ contributions, Einstein extended Boltzmann’s worked calculated the average trajectory of a microscopic particle buffeted by random collisions with molecules in a fluid or in a gas. Einstein observed that his calculations could account for Brownian motion, the apparently erratic movement of pollen in fluids, which had been noted by the British botanist Robert Brown.
Einstein’s paper provided convincing evidence for die physical existence of atom-sized molecules, which had already received much theoretical discussion. His results were independently discovered by the Polish physicist Marian von Smoluchowski and later elaborated by the French physicist Jean Perrin. Albert has contributed more theories that help us during everyday life than anyone ever has. He has explained what was expanded before him in an incorrect way. If he was never born, we would think of the world in a completely different manner. In my opinion, he has benefitted the world more than anyone has ever done.
