Albert Einstein: Old subversion (period 2)

Time to be a ' third-class specialist ' in the Department of Swiss Federal Patent Rights in Bern is the time Albert Einstein cherished intellect to conquer the peak of Olympe of wisdom.

He studied science in the after-hours, or stealthily in the office, when arranging the work of the department early, he opened the paper to work, to see who went to it, he quickly hid the card in the closet. He studied, searched, no one instructed him beyond his curiosity. At home, he once coaxed her to sleep, one hand doing math. He married Mileva in 1903 and had his first son Hans Albert in 1904.

Dawn of a new age

In 1905 came to Einstein, then 26 years old, like 'miraculous year' in the history of science. The famous German Journal of Physics Year that year received five consecutive Einstein articles only a few months apart. An explosion of creativity in Einstein after four years of 'seclusion' at the patent office. Those are five articles that are rated to have the power to change the world!

They target three topics:

1. The nature of Brown motion in liquids, by using probability as a new method of research in physics, contributes to the basis of statistical mechanics, and explains the existence of raw death, at that time still widely suspected;

2. The ' light quantum ' hypothesis, that light is composed of particles called photons with discrete "quantum energy packets", is only emitted or absorbed in a package; one of the applications of the light quantum hypothesis is the explanation of the confusing photovoltaic phenomenon at the time (in 1921 he won the Nobel Prize for this work);

3. ' On the electrodynamics of moving objects ', special relativity theory.

Five articles quickly became motivators and inspirations for the scientific world. They caused two major revolutions of the 20th century about the worldview. The first revolution completely changed the notion of time and space, which is a special theory of relativity. Ten years later, in 1915, he completed general relativity, in which space and time would combine into a four-dimensional space. The first revolution is called 'relativity', while the second revolution is ' quantum theory '.

Painting by Sidney Harris

With the special theory of relativity, Einstein changed to subvert the concepts of time, space and energy, that is, changing the classical Newton ' building ' because every other measure had can refer to these three quantities. A few months after the theory of relativity was published, he came up with a particularly important discovery: mass and energy are just one.

He wrote to a friend of his feelings after coming to this new conclusion: 'I don't know if God laughs and jokes with me, I can't know' .

God does not joke with Einstein. He saw the secret of God. It is the famous formula E = mc ² (energy equal to the mass multiplied by the speed velocity square). With general relativity, also called gravitational field theory, Einstein also " robbed " the ultimate illusion of man: no - the time we live, expressing the real world, not the Euclidean but not the Euclide! The total of three angles of a triangle is no longer two right angles. Space is again not as absolute or invariant as Newton hypothesized, but depends on the distribution of matter in it.

With relativity, Einstein freed people from the mystery and myth of space, time, of gravity, and of the relationship between energy and mass. From the 1905 timeline, science is facing a new dawn that is brighter than ever. Physics is making enlightenment for humanity. Galileo and Newton now have successors.

Become a person of the world

In May 1909, when Einstein applied for a resignation at the patent office and when asked why he wanted to quit his job while he was highly valued at the office, he answered that he was inaugurating a professor at the University. studying Zurich, he was ridiculed: ' How could that be, Mr. Einstein, I don't believe you. That is just a joke ! '. People are ' joking ' with the distant-eyed young man like these stars, assuming he will never make a big deal. It is still unknown whether the ' ugly duck ' of the day is about to turn itself into a swan from the cramped cradle, no one around knows that he is about to become a man of the world.

Charlie Chaplin (left) told Einstein: 'People applaud me because people understand me, and they applaud him because no one understands him'. (Photo: TTO)

Between 1909-1914, Einstein was a professor at the University of Zurich, briefly at the German university in Prague, then returned to ETH Zurich University, where he had failed the entrance exam and later it failed to find a lecturer. In early 1914, he accepted the invitation of the Prussian Academy to return to Berlin. That year he was 35 years old, the youngest member of the Prussian Academy. The unimaginable incentives are exceptionally exceptional policies only for Einstein. But not just because of Einstein's scientific talent. Prussia wants that both the physical and scientific worlds see Einstein's presence in Berlin as a signal of Prussian superiority in science.

In 1914, when he had just moved to Berlin for a few months, the First World War broke out. What he had suspected about Germany for a long time, the reason why he left him at 15, now turned into a terrible truth.

Against the Prussian war was an extraordinary courageous act of a scientist who was rarely seen in history by the Universal Academy. In late 1914, he joined the " New National Association " whose goal was the creation of a ' European Union '.

He was drawn to politics from there and had to divide his time fund between "equation and politics" as he said. Einstein was one of the few scientists who dared to stand against a hurricane of war. He joined forces with the men at the time to fight militarism, nationalism, to fight for peace and democracy. He is a rare scientific man who has political consciousness, and has sharp and precise political judgments, has brave citizens, absolutely does not follow the crowd. After Hilter came to power in early 1933, he publicly denounced the Nazi regime from abroad.

During his time in Berlin, he continued to study the theory of relativistic expansion into Newton's gravity. In 1915, he completed this massive project, in 1916 published in the Journal of Physics Yearbook. It is Einstein's hardest and most profound work, ' one of the greatest achievements of human thinking about nature, the combination of philosophical depth, physical intuition and amazing mathematical art. Of course, like Max Born later commented.

In August 1917, he reported to the next important Prussian Academy of cosmology. It is a century work for modern astronomy, built on general relativity. The equations from general relativity have sparked a period of development for new astronomy and changed people's understanding of the fate of the universe in the most thorough and interesting way.

This is just a prelude to a period of stormy astronomical development in the sixties, after general relativity such as fairies sleeps for three decades, because technology doesn't yet exist. conditions for verification. Four days before the publication of the study of cosmology, Einstein wrote to a friend: 'I have also sinned about something in the theory of gravity with general relativity, and there is a little risk of being Enter the madhouse. '

NGUYEN XUAN XANH compiled

Einstein answered the family friend when he asked about intelligence: 'I'm not smarter than any other person.I was simply more curious than an average person, and I didn't give up on a problem until I found an answer.He can see me as being more patient than the average person in pursuing problems.It is not smarter than important but more curious and perhaps more patient in finding problems for a problem.I don't have a particularly strong thinking power ('brain muscle'), albeit at a modest level.Many people have that much more without bringing something surprising. '

oOo

Einstein became a new star, won a Nobel Prize, gave lectures everywhere with a mission of peace. But again, he had to leave his homeland.

Next term : Farewell to Germany

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