Einstein::Quiz

Einstein could not grasp which of these elementary school subjects, leading him into a mini depression?

Greek.At the time the young Albert had already taught himself Latin, advanced Mathematics and had discovered a love for geometry. In later life he announced the discovery of Euclid as a great delight in his life. He refers to a book on Euclidean geometry as 'holy.'

Polytechnic classmate and lifelong friend Marcel Grossman, used his father's influence to get Einstein a job in which countries patent office?

Switzerland. This position was a saviour for the now 23-year-old Einstein who had failed to get a permanent teaching or academic position after graduation. He was completely penniless. The job also allowed Einstein the time to develop his theories.

In 1905, the final jigsaw pieces of the special theory of relativity came to Einstein where?

In his sleep. Einstein is quoted as saying this about the discovery: "A storm broke loose in my mind and with it came the answers." A friend had later said: "He has tapped into gods' thoughts and tuned into the master plan for the universe."
1905 was a very busy year for Einstein. 'Relativity' was his fourth paper. The fifth that year was on the photoelectric effect. By applying this great scientists' quantum theory of light, Einstein helped to establish quantum mechanics.

Who was this great German scientist and idol to Einstein?

Max Planck. Planck had changed views that stood for over 200 years that light was a wave like phenomenon and he claimed that light was absorbed by matter or quanta. Einstein went further and claimed that light quanta or photons travelled as separate particles and would hit matter sporadically, not smoothly like a wave.

Einstein summed up the special theory of relativity in a magazine review a few years later with the now legendary equation E=mc2. How does this translate?

Energy = mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Mass contains enormous amounts of energy. Marie Curie discovered that one-ounce of radium emitted 4000 calories/hour indefinitely. E=mc2 would be the base of the discovery of how the sun and stars radiate light and heat for billions of years - and much to Einstein’s horror, the atomic bomb.

What did Einstein win a Nobel Prize for in 1922, 17 years after relativity was first published?

Services to Theoretical Physics. There were many reasons why a Nobel Prize wasn't awarded to Einstein for so long and not for relativity. Relativity was very controversial and it was theoretical. It could not be proven. Add to the equasion that the judges didn't fully understand it. Also, there was a large 'anti-Einstein' movement headed by the anti-semitic and later nazi supporter Philip Lenard who had influence on the panel. By 1922 Einstein had the overwhelming support of the science community. The Nobel judges finally capitulated after pressure by the science world and awarded Einstein a services award based on the work he did with the photoelectric effect. (They were still playing it safe.)

Einstein first visited the United States of America in April, 1921. What was the purpose for the visit?

To support the World Zionist Organisation. Einstein was a world celebrity. The general public in the US did not understand relativity but he attracted thousands of people wherever he went including a media circus. The tour was a success, raising nearly a million dollars for the Zionist movement, enough to start building the Medical Faculty of Hewbrew University. Einstein wasn't a zionist but he cared deeply about the fate of his brother Jew and supported the creation and expansion of Palestine under British rule.

What did Edgar Hoover suspect so strongly, that he committed thousands of FBI man-hours in unsuccessfully trying to convict Einstein?

Einstein was a communist. Although Hoover suspected Einstein was a communist he would never put his money were his mouth was and approve phone tapping or mail interception in fear of the backlash against the FBI if they were discovered - Einstein was too popular a figure. After many years and thousands of hours work, Hoover dropped the case against Einstein and his secretary Helen Dukas. They had collected 6 feet of files, all proving nothing. Later, friends said Einstein would have found the whole affair highly amusing.

One of the reasons it took 30 years for the majority of scientists to support relativity was that it dispelled the mythical existence of the ether. Ether was described as an infinite, jelly like substance, which was the medium for the propagation of electromagnetic waves.

Amazing but true. The existence of the ether was (incorrectly) proven many times to support Maxwell's unified theory that light consist of electromagnetic waves. The waves needed a medium to travel upon, and the medium was believed to be an elastic, mass-less solid called the ether. Relativity shattered this belief but the existence of ether was so firmly entrenched in many great minds that they refused to comprehend its non existence and labelled Einstein a fraud.