This is a picture of young Einstein in 1893 at the age of 14. The way that Albert becames the man we know today is so fascinating and so untraditional. He didn't fit the prototype that teachers of his day (and still today?) expected of a young man destined for greatness. He was a good student, but he cut class a lot. The perception his professors had of him was of a lazy goof off. Someone who would not reach their potential. It is sometimes said the most gifted often get bored with normal classes, but in Einstein's case, it seems more a disdain for the structure of school. He'd rather be outside contemplating physics and engaging these scientific concepts directly rather than answering questions in an auditorium and reading textbooks.
To labor the point, it was so bad for young Albert, that after college graduation in 1900, not a single professor would give him a job. He was just another guy after college and at one point he considered selling insurance. In letters written to his family, he shows his frustrations by contemplating that it may have been better had he not been born.
He would eventually get a job as a substitue teacher, just to make ends meet. His dad felt the need to get involved, actively petitioning on his son's behalf with powerful and influential professors, trying to see if any would take Albert Einstein on as a research assistant. He could not. At the time of his father's, he passes away thinking that his son will be a failure.
In 1902, a friend got him a job, far away from physics, as a patent clerk in the Swiss patent office. Again, he wasn't a big fan of the college structure, and it could be suggested that he would not have enjoyed a job as a research assistant kissing up to some college professor. The work that he did at the patent office was not very engaging, he could finish up early and spent a lot of time "daydreaming" out of his 3rd floor window. He cut classes in college to daydream and ponder theoretical physics, and he would have a lot of his brilliant ideas while in that patent office looking out of the window. For example, he often wondered to himself
"what is it like ride a light beam?"
(not something most 23 year-olds think about)
In fact, his daydreams... what he would later term "thought experiments"... would be the foundation for his physics breakthroughs. When you or I daydream, we're goofing off. We're not paying attention. When Albert Einstein does it... its a thought experiment. He didn't have the luxury to work with professors in labs day in and day out. He has a wife and child and needs to earn money... considering the legitimacy of patent requests in Switzerland. And to me, this makes him all the more amazing, because he's changing science in his free time. In 1905, IN HIS SPARE TIME, Einstein publishes four papers that will change the way we view our world.
1) What is light? Explaining light particles (photons), disproving wave theory
2) First proof of atomic particle, even calculating their size.
3) E=MC2: direct correlation between matter and energy
4) Theory of Special Relativity: perception of bodies in motion
That is a career! And its done in one year (known as his miracle year), by a unknown 26 year old patent clerk.
That is a career! And its done in one year (known as his miracle year), by a unknown 26 year old patent clerk.
As relates to special relativity, Einstein was riding the bus and daydreaming. While the bus was going forward, he looked back at a clock tower behind him. As most people do, when they're on a bus and looking back at an object, Einstein begins to wonder what would happen if the bus starts to accelerate until its moving at the speed of light. He wonders what he would then see as he looks back at the clock. In his daydream, the hands on the clock stop!
He would later say that this was the point that the flood gates of his mind burst open. Though more than 300 years earlier and related to a totally different topic, Martin Luther would use similar imagery when explaining his total conversion from the Catholic view of salvation. I have a fascination with the mind, and its always interesting to hear a man divulge what totally augmented the way he would see the world.
Einstein knows that for someone standing stationary at the clock tower itself, time is still moving normally and the hands on the clock are still moving like normal... but as the bus reaches the speed of light, the light from the clock is no longer able to catch up to him. If you were facing backwards on that bus, holding a mirror and watching yourself change facial expressions, once you reached the speed of light, there would only show a frozen picture of yourself at the point you reached the speed of light. Like two runners, if one guy is several meters ahead, if they are both going the same exact speed (of light itself), the guy behind will never reach the front runner.
If you talk to the average person from 2009 about this... this is still very weighty stuff. In 1905, this would be mind shattering. So, as you can imagine, the 26 year old patent clerk was very eager for his works, published in the leading German physics journal, to be recognized. But time, slowly, marched on. Months went by...
Finally, Max Planck, a theoretical physicist himself, and perhaps the first person who read Einstein's work... and TRULY understood it... picked up on his writings. But, there would be no immediate recognition, as Einstein would work as a patent clerk for another two full years after publishing such ground breaking scientific papers. Einstein also knew that his theory on "special" relativity only dealt with "special" cases of objects moving at the speed of light. And only when going in one direction. But in reality, what does that? What about changing speeds? What about objects that change directions. And what about gravity? How did special relativity account for that? What exactly was gravity, anyway? A new theory... of general relativity... would be needed.
By this time, Planck and Einstein have begun correspondence with one another. Plunck actually warned Einstein not to even try to tackle gravity. Go work on something else. As Max Planck saw it, there were two major problems. Number one, you can't figure out gravity. Its too hard. You'll just be wasting your time. Its too complicated a concept. How would one tackle gravity from scratch in 1905? Where would you even begin? The second problem that Planck told Einstein... even if you do figure it out... noone will believe you. I blogged about Galileo and his problems with being believed a few days ago. Max Planck understood that a lot of advancement in human history is met with initial resistance.
The physicists of Einstein's day were living under 250 years of Newtonian physics (see above pic). Newton was a major hero for Albert Einstein, himself. He was considered the father of modern physics and indeed made great advancements, but he could not fully tackle gravity. There were certain things the apple could not tell him. All matter had this inate "magical" pull. Smaller objects such as humans have it as well, its just that we dont have enough mass, to where our pull is noticeable. So, in Newtonian physics the Earth pulls on objects. But there's no explanation for why that is... we must just take that at face value (all things pull on others)... and it has been said that this answer never fully satisfied Newton himself.
Einstein would figure out gravity through another of his daydreams. Im sorry, "thought experiment." And he did it while at work in his third floor patent office. He wasn't daydreaming about riding light beams that particular day. He was thinking about guys working on fixing the roofs of the buildings in sight. What if one of those guys were to fall off the roof? What is actually happening? Is that person being pulled? Does the person falling FEEL like he's being pulled down? No. When you fall, you feel weightless. The assumption is, if he were being pulled, he would feel even heavier. But, he when you fall, you feel weightless, as if you're being PUSHED. You dont actually feel gravity when you're falling... or if you're in an elevator that has had the cord severed.
When talking about inertia and laws of thermodynamics... bodies at rest remaining at rest unless acted upon by an outside force... they're not pulled upon... its always a pushing force. But, the 26 year old has to now wonder... if someone falling is being pushed, what is pushing him? And why?
Then he gets it. Space, itself, is pushing downward. The earth has curved the space around it... and the displaced space is pushing downward. Space itself is malleable! Space can be shaped and curved. If the universe with no objects in it, is how space should be... space itself reacts to the planets displacing space. That sounds sooooo weird the first time you hear it. And the next 37 times too. Almost like when you get in a bathtub, you can feel the displaced water on your legs as you try to move your legs. Almost in the same way, the displaced space pushes back... pushes down on the objects on the planet! People today still think that the Sun pulls on the earth and the other planets. The sun does not pull. If a toddler gets in a bathtub, it will not displace water the same way that a 400lb man will. The sun is so enormous... the displacement of space is on such a large scale, that space is actually pushing back on our entire galaxy.
This was realized daydreaming out of a third floor window. It wouldn't be until 1911, before the attention surrounding the article on photon particles gave him the invitation to become a full time scientist at the University of Zurich. So, 1911 would be the first time you could have really called Albert Einstein a professor, now age 32. Once a professior, his "miracle" papers would be taken more serious and scrutinized and the debate over general relativity would begin.. and "tangible" proof would take several years, but he would finally get it (1919).
In 2003, Nasa would use a satellite (when positioned on the otherside of the sun) bound for Saturn (click here) to not only reaffirm what was proven through a Solar eclipse in 1919, but with satellites, prove it far more accurately.
Though there were moments of dispair for the young man, and though it seemed like his life was not on track, the young man was able to not only make his own life better, but help usher in technological advancements which would improve the evolution of human civilization.
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