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After completing his education, Albert worked as a technical expert in the patent office at Bern.
Here, he worked secretly on his idea on relativity. In 1915, he published his paper on special
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theory of relativity, followed by the world-famous equation E = mc .In 1915, he published his
paper on General Theory of Relativity, which gave an absolutely new definition to concept of
gravity. This theory made him a famous figure. In 1919, during the solar eclipse, his theory
came out to be accurate and revolutionized physics. In 1933, he emigrated to USA as Nazis had
come to power in Germany. He did not want his finding and research to be used for
destruction. In 1938, when Germany discovered the principle of Nuclear Fission, he was the first
person to write to the American President about the dangers of the atomic bombs.In 1945,
when America dropped the Atomic Bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, he was deeply hurt and
wrote to the United Nations for the formation of a world government to prevent recurrence of
such destruction.
He spent his later days in politics advocating world peace and democracy. He died at the age of
76 in the year 1955.
Questions and Answers
A) Who had these opinions about Einstein?
(i) He was boring. - His playmates
(ii) He was stupid and would never succeed in life. - Headmaster
(iii) He was a freak. - His mother
B) Explain what the reasons for the following are:-
i)Einstein leaving the school in Munich for good. - Einstein left the school in Munich because
he did not like the discipline of the school. He disliked the school’s regimentation and often
clashed with the teachers.
ii)Einstein wanting to study in Switzerland rather than in Munich.-Albert’s parents moved to
Milan and left their elder son with relatives. After a prolonged discussion, Einstein got his wish
to continue his education in German-speaking Switzerland. Actually, it was much more liberal
than Munich.
iii)Einstein seeing in Mileva an ally.- Einstein saw in MilevaMaric, an ally against the
‘Philistines’- those people in his family and at the university with whom he was constantly at
odds. He found that she was a ‘clever creature’.
iv)What do these tell you about Einstein? These lines tell us that Einstein was a genius and had
the capabilities to achieve his targets. Moreover, he had his own view of life. He believed in
freedom and he was a liberal and cultured person.
Q4) What did Einstein call his desk drawer at the patent office? Why?
Ans4) Einstein called his desk drawer at the patent office ‘the bureau of theoretical Physics.’
This was because the drawer was where he used to store his secretly developed ideas.