Albert Einstein was a quirky looking gentleman with dishevelled hair who often forgot to wear socks with his shoes, and was fondly referred to as the mad scientist because of it. The truth however is that he was a well renowned, respected and well recognised scientist all over the world. Albert Einstein was a very curious child by nature and overcame many difficulties to be finally recognised not only as a brilliant scientist but is also considered one of the smartest people of the 20th century.
Let’s read a short story about the early days of Albert Einstein for kids to enjoy-
Albert Einstein was born on 14th March 1879 in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany. He was a Jew and his parents were Hermann Einstein, who owned an electronics company and his mother Pauline Einstein was a homemaker. Albert even had a little sister called Maria “Maja”.
As a young child Albert Einstein didn’t like school very much and found it difficult to study languages. In fact he didn’t begin speaking until he was 4 yrs. Old. However, young Albert enjoyed maths and science very much and his father encouraged and exposed him to a lot of science and electronics. He gave Albert a compass at the age of 5 which ignited his curiosity on how things work.
When Albert Einstein turned 15, his whole family moved to Milan, Italy. He then continued his studies at the Polytechnic Academy in Zurich, Switzerland and in 1900, he graduated with a degree in Math and Physics. Einstein wanted to start teaching but couldn’t get a teaching job. He then got a job working for the Patent Office in Berlin which gave him an opportunity to take a look at other people’s inventions and also to work on his own theories and discoveries.
In 1933 he moved to the USA as it was very difficult for a Jews to live in Germany under Hitler and the Nazi Party as they were against Jewish people. Einstein accepted a job at the Institute of Advanced study Princeton and in 1940 became a US citizen.
On 18th April 1955, Albert Einstein died of heart failure at the age of 76 and in 1999, Time magazine named him ‘Person of the Century’.
Let’s look at some Fun Facts about Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein was dyslexic, he didn’t like how certain subjects were taught and was even expelled from school.
- At age 5 he was fascinated by the “invisible forces” that moved the needle of a compass.
- Einstein even failed the first try of a college entrance exam, but with hardwork and perseverance consequently cleared the exam.
- Along with being a great scientist, Albert Einstein was also a very good musician. Initially he didn’t like playing the violin but changed once he began listening to Mozart, whose music he loved.
- Einstein was offered the opportunity of becoming the president of Israel but he turned it down as he felt he didn’t have the right set of people skills
- In 1911, he was the youngest person to be invited to the first ever world physics conference.
- He was and is still fondly referred to as a “mad scientist”, because he often didn’t wear any socks and had dishevelled hair.
- Though Einstein had a brilliant brain he was really disorganised as an adult and often forgot to attend meetings.
- Being a Pacifist meant that Einstein didn’t believe in war and violence.
- In 1918, Albert Einstein co-founded the German Democratic Party.
- Since Einstein had done a lot of research and contributed numerous papers, he was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from many American and European universities. He was able to publish more than 300 scientific works and more than 150 non-scientific works throughout his lifespan.
- Scientists were fascinated by the way Einstein’s brain functioned. After his death, Einstein’s brain was removed, preserved and scientists carried out research to try and understand what made him a genius.
Some of the great works of Albert Einstein include
The ideas and theories presented by Einstein have had a great impact and have changed the way people and other scientists understand how the universe works. He is rightly considered one of the greatest minds of the 20th century.
- Among the vast number of research papers published by Einstein, his theories on the properties of light won him the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921.
- The “theory of relativity” and the equation “e=mc²”, is what made him most famous. This theory proved that even the smallest amount of mass can be converted into energy.
- Another very well-known theory is called the special theory of relativity in which he explains that the measurement of time and space are relative, that the values change when taken by people moving at different speeds. This special theory of relativity also changed the way scientists understood energy and matter.
- Though he did not directly invent the paper towels his theories set the groundwork for their invention.
- Einstein didn’t invent solar power but he was able to map out the principles of its operation.
- The Bose-Einstein Condensate was a fourth state of matter that Einstein discovered along with another scientist Satyendra Bose, it is widely used in lasers and superconductors.
- Einstein developed the first refrigerator design using ammonia, butane and water. This was later changed to Freon which is more commonly used today. Researchers are still trying to find a more eco-friendly design.
- Some of the calculations done to analyse the stock market forecasters also comes from Einstein.
The life of Albert Einstein has not been an easy one and he was not always considered a genius and given the kind of respect that he does in today’s time. Some of his life’s obstacles include him being dyslexic, not speaking till the age of 4, hating the way the English language was taught to him, and even getting expelled from school. As an adult he faced other hurdles like failing the entrance test to a college, not being able to get a job as a teacher, he also had to move to the US later on years because of the persecution that Jews faced from the Nazis in Germany.
Amidst all this, while many would have given up, Einstein didn’t lose his zest and fervour. He did a lot of reading, self-learning and research, followed his passions, accepted mistakes and setbacks as part of the process. The truly deserving status of being one of the greatest scientists and “Person of the Century” came to him through persistence and a lot of hard work as well.
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