- Albert Einstein was a German-born
theoretical physicist.
- He is best know for developing the general
theory of relativity, which is regarded as one of the two pillars of
modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics).
- On Apr-11, 1905, he
revealed his famous theory of relativity.
- On Nov-21, 1905, he
published his paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its
Energy Content?", which revealed the relationship between energy and
mass and led to the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc².
- He is also best known for his mass–energy
equivalence formula E = mc2 (which is regarded as "the world's most
famous equation".
- 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", which was pivotal
in establishing quantum theory.
- He also investigated the thermal properties
of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In
1917, he applied his general theory of relativity to model the
structure of the universe as a whole.
- He was visiting the United States when Adolf
Hitler came to power in 1933, and did not go back to Germany, where
he had been a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
- So he settled in the U.S., becoming its
citizen in 1940.
- On the eve of World War II, he sounded the
American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, that Germany might be
developing an atomic weapon.
- Ultimately, USA started extensive research
for developing the atomic weapons under the famous Manhattan
Project.
- He was never in favour of using the new
discovery of nuclear fission as a weapon.
- Einstein was affiliated with the Institute
for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in
1955.
- Owing to his great intellectual achievements
and originality, the word "Einstein" has become synonymous with
"genius".
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