Letโs brush up on some Albert Einstein facts!!
Humankind has seen many inventions, from bulb inventions to making out complex machines that help us in our daily lives.
Behind these successful inventions in different resources, many intelligent people have worked their brains behind it. And when talking about intelligence, the world has seen the likes of Da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Alva Edison, Aryabhatta, Galileo Galilei, and many more.
The list is endless, and in this infinite list, there is a name we all are aware of. A renowned name that is printed in books across the world, A name that was groundbreaking in the world of physics, and a name that contributed a lot to the field of theoretical physics, A name that holds theย Nobel prize.
The name is Albert Einstein. You may know the name, but chances are you might not know some interesting facts about Albert Einstein. We are here to break up 9 astonishing facts you might not know about Albert Einstein.
But before going into details of this, letโs get you through the life of this great scientist.
Life of Albert Einstein
Famous physicist Albert Einstein was born in March 1879 in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany. The German-born physicist was the one who developed and was known for the general and special theory of relativity.
Einstein received his Nobel prize for explaining the photoelectric effect in 1921. Albert Einstein is prominently considered an influential physicist in the 20th century.
His numerous awards and achievements in scientific work and originality resulted in making โEinsteinโ synonyms for the word genius.
Keeping in touch with this crisp reflection of his life, letโs move past and discuss someย Albert Einstein factsย which may come astonishingly to you.
1. Nobel Prize for A Divorce Settlement?
Yes, you read that right. Einstein Offered his Nobel Prize as a part of the divorce settlement. After his marriage hit the rock with Mileva Maric, they both decided to call it off and get divorced in 1919.
As a part of the divorce settlement with his first wife, he promised her an annual stipend in addition to some amount he might receive from the Nobel Prize.
As promised, he did hand over a small amount following receiving his award in 1921.
2. Einsteinโs Daughter?
Another interesting fact about Albert Einstein is no one knows what happened to his first daughter. Yes, Einstein had an illegitimate daughter with Mileva Maric a year before marriage.
Einstein met Mileva Maric at Swiss Federal Polytechnic School when Einstein renounced his German citizenship and joined the university. The world became aware of his illegitimate daughter named โLieserlโ when his private papers were examined in the late 1980s. To this day, the mystery prevails as to what happened to Lieserel.
Some scholars believe she died from scarlet fever in 1903, while others think she survived the sickness and was given up for adoption in Maricโs native Serbia.
3. Albert Einstein Favored Building Atomic Bomb
Before World War II, Albert Einstein, with Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard wrote a letter to the U.S president Franklin D. Roosevelt urging the States to invent the atomic bomb.
He took this approach after learning about the Naziโs process of putting scientists and building their atomic bomb. The prospect of Nazis having control of weapons such as this made him fear to keep aside his pacifist principles.
Even though he never directly participated in the Manhattan Project, he mentions his regrets about playing a minor role in that bought in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. After this incident, he became a prominent advocate of disarmament and weapon testing controls.
4. Einsteinโs Brain Was Stolen
Albert Einstein died in April 1955 due to an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The scientist requested his body to be cremated. Still, in a very unusual incident, his brain was taken out by Princeton pathologist Thomas Harvey during his autopsy without prior permission.
After receiving approval from Einsteinโs son, his brain was cut into pieces and sent to various scientists for research purposes.
Many studies have been conducted on his brain since the 1980s.
5. The Miracle Year of 1905, Quantum Theory and Theoretical Physics
Young Einstein wrote his first scientific paper at the age of only sixteen. Being as smart as he was, you would imagine him getting work and getting a job in academics quickly.
Well, this was not the case. Due to his rebellious personality and skipping classes at the Swiss Federal Institute, Einstein did not have good recommendations from his professors.
As a result, for two years, searching for a job in academics and settling on a gig at the Swiss patent office in Bern.
This menial job turned out to be favorable for him since it helped him devote the rest of the day to writing and conducting research after office duties. In 1905, often mentioned as โThe Miracle Year,โ Albert Einstein published four revolutionary articles.
These papers were about the Quantum theory, Brownian motion, Electrodynamics of moving bodies, his famous equation: E = mcยฒ, and the general theory of relativity. This year turned out to be a miracle for him as he got his breakthrough in physics.
6. Terrible Memory of Albert Einstein
For a genius like Einstein, itโs fair to assume his memory will not be a problem for him. Well, funny enough, it was.
The world-renowned Einstein memory game was not strong enough as the scientist was poor at remembering dates and his phone number! His schoolย teacherย claimed his memory was like a sieve shows how poor Albertโs memory was.
7. He Worried His Parents as A Child
Every parent wishes their child to be innovative and intelligent from a very young age. Well, in the case of Albert Einstein, he did give some worries to his parents.
When he was born, his parents feared that he was deformed because his head was so large and of a different shape. However, their worries were not meant to be extended as after a few weeks, his head was usually shaped.
After that, his parents worried that he had some problems as he did not speak till age four. He broke his long silence at dinner, saying, โThe soup is too hot.โ
Till the age of nine, he stammered, practicing his sentences inside his head or under his breath until they got them right.
8. President of Israel?
Albert Einstein was very fond of Jewish heritage and often spoke out against anti-Semitism despite not being traditionally religious.
In 1953 when the head of state Chaim Weizmann died, the Israeli government offered him the proposal of being the nationโs second president.
Einstein declined the offer and wrote a letter to the Israeli ambassador saying, โAll my life I have dealt with objective matters,โ โhence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official function.โ
9. Solar Eclipse Made Albert Einstein Famous
Another Albert Einstein fact includes how the solar eclipse gave Einstein his breakthrough in physics.
In 1915, Albert Einstein published his famous general theory of relativity. The theory states thatย gravitational fieldsย cause distortions in the fabric of space and time.
His theory remained controversial till 1919 since it was a bold statement with regard to laws of physics. In May 1919, the solar eclipse provided perfect conditions to test Albert Einsteinโs theory. In this case, a supermassive object-sun would cause a measurable curve in the starlight when passing from it.
Einsteinโs theory was proved right when an English astronomer Arthur Eddington embarked on a journey to the coast of West Africa and photographed the eclipse. After analyzing the pictures, he confirmed that the sunโs gravity had deflected the light by roughly 1.7 arc-secondsโprecisely as predicted by Albertโs general relativity theory.
The successful credibility of Einsteinโs theory made him famous overnight. Albert was even compared as an heir to the famous Sir Issac Newton, who travelled around the world lecturing about his theories on the cosmos.
After the events of 1919, Walter Isaacson, an Einstein biography writer, mentioned more than 600 books and articles were written about the theory of relativity.
Hence, you can rightly say that a cosmic played a crucial role in giving Albert Einstein world-renowned fame.
So there it is, 9 astonishing facts about Albert Einstein that probably are not known by many. Points not in mainstream media setup or books, but facts that are interesting enough to be learned.
Last Updated on by Steffy Michael