Biography of Albert

Einstein

On March 14,1879 in Ulm, Germany Albert Einstein was born. At 7 years old he started elementary school. In elementary school his best subjects were math, the violin, and the Jewish religion. At 15, Einstein's family moved to Milan, but Einstein stayed in Ulm to stay in school.

In 1895 Einstein did a test that would approve him to study for an electrical engineer diploma at Edgenossisch Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, if he passed the test. He ended up failing. Then he decided to go to a secondary school in Aaron. There he planned to study math and physics and go to ETH after he was done. He was accepted at ETH. He graduated in 1900 as a math and physics teacher. However, no one would accept Einstein at any of the universities to teach.

Einstein got a temporary job at a patent office as a third class technical expert in 1902. In 1904 his job was made permanent. Einstein published five papers in 1905 that started his career as a physicist, and then he developed The Theory of Relativity. In 1908 he got a part time job as a lecturer at the University of Bern.

In 1909 Einstein quit his job at the patent office. In 1911 he became a full professor at Karl Ferdinand University. Using his theory of relativity Einstein came up with some new calculations, also in 1911. Einstein guessed that the light from other stars passing close to the sun would be distorted by the sun's gravity. Then he began to study tensor analysis, which is an advanced form of mathematics. From that he developed the theory of relativity to general theory. He published the general theory in 1915. The general theory of relativity changed the way all people looked at time, gravity, and motion. The theory wasn't proven until 1919. The day after it was proven it made The London Times headline.

Einstein went to the US to do a lecture on his theory. He also gave the lecture to raise money to make the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1924 he made another big discovery on the relation of waves and matter. Unfortunately it ended up being his last. In 1928 he fainted from working to hard.

Einstein rested till 1930, when he traveled to the US to work at Princeton. Einstein was going to stay in Princeton for 5 months but he was still in the US when they invaded Germany in 1933. So he didn't go back to Berlin. Einstein became a US citizen in 1935. Einstein and some other physicists wrote a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt. They were suggesting the use of an atomic bomb to use as a weapon against Japan to end WWII. When Einstein found out how dangerous the bombs were he started a protest against them.

Einstein started working on a universal law in 1940. He kept on working on it until 1949 when he got sick. Einstein was offered to be president of Israel when the last president died in 1952, but he refused. Einstein died on April 19, 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey.

For more information visit the following sites:

www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/cosmostar/html/cstars_eins.html

www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/