Albert Einstein: His Life and Times:

Albert Einstein: His Life and Times: This 4-page essay gives a brief overview of the life of Albert Einstein. There is a bibliography.

According to biographers, there was nothing in Einstein's formative years to indicate that he would become a famous scientist. Born to Hermann and Pauline Einstein on March 14, 1879, in the city of Ulm, Bavaria, he was soon joined by a sister, Maja. His mother loved literature and music, and his father had various electrical businesses and moved the family frequently as his shops failed. Albert was slow to talk and even slower to read (Cahn, 1955, p.14). Schools of the time were very strict, towards the end of the Bismarck era, and Albert did not like the discipline. He wanted to ask questions instead of listen to lectures.

At a very young age he was fascinated by a compass and thought that there were invisible forces in the universe that controlled the direction of the needle. Albert excelled in mathematics in school, and he had an uncle who also taught him mathematics outside of school. This uncle called mathematics "a merry science. . . When the animal that we are hunting cannot be caught, we call it X temporarily and continue to hunt it until it is bagged" (Cahn, 1955, p.18). The Einstein family was Jewish, but the young Albert attended Catholic school some of the time because it was less expensive. At age thirteen, Albert had mastered calculus (Life and Mind, 1996).

Because of the growing German militarism, Albert complete

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matter (Cahn, 1955, p.26). He believed that mass and energy are different manifestations of the same thing, calling his theories first the Special Theory of Relativity and later the General Theory of Relativity (Life and Mind, 1996). Gradually Einstein became a world figure with speaking engagements and invitations to teach at various universities. He first accepted a teaching post in Switzerland and next the position of director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin (Cahn, 1955, p.30). Einstein was not eager to return to Germany, but the position would afford him the opportunity to do his scientific work without hindrance. After his divorce from Mileva he married a second cousin, Elsa Lowenthal, and that relationship was better than his first marriage. Observers commented that they looked somewhat alike and had similar dispositions. She was a fun-loving, unassuming person, who mostly concentrated on creating a warm home life. She even dressed in a style similar to his, in sloppy sweaters and slacks (Highfield and Carter, 1994, p.145). Einstein professed no particular religion, a fact that annoyed administrators in his jobs, so he called himself a Jew, which he was culturally. For most of his life he was a pacifist,

Category: Science - A