Albert Einstein Birth Anniversary: Here’s All You Need To Know About ‘Father Of Modern Physics’

New Delhi: Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest physicists of all time. A genius, he had taught himself algebra and Euclidean geometry in a single summer at the age of 12. Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his contributions to theoretical physics and discovery of the law of photoelectric effect.

He is best known for establishing the theory of relativity and the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2. He also independently developed his own original proof of the Pythagorean theorem when he was just 12 years old, and by the age of 14, he had learned integral and differential calculus. Throughout the course of his career, he published over 300 scientific papers as well as over 150 non-scientific items.

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family. Hermann Einstein, his father, was a salesman and engineer. The family relocated to Munich around 1880. Einstein left school because he struggled with language and other subjects. Einstein authored his first scientific paper on the force of magnetism when he was 16 years old. The paper was inspired by his father's compass, which he received as a present.

Einstein's first study, Findings from the Capillarity Phenomena, was published in 1900. In 1905, he was awarded a Doctorate in physics. In 1905, he wrote four seminal works on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and mass-energy equivalence.

Einstein's 'year of marvels' became known as that year. In 1925, he received the coveted Copley Medal from the Royal Society of London for his contributions to relativity theory and quantum theory.

Here are some quotes by Albert Einstein:

• Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.
• If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.
• Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
• A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.

In January 1903, the physicist married Mileva Maric. Unfortunately, Maric and Einstein's marriage did not last, and they divorced in 1919, owing to the physicist's interest to his cousin Elsa. After a five-year courtship, Einstein married Elsa Lowenthal in 1919. Elsa died in 1936 as a result of kidney problems.

Einstein reportedly loved music and once stated that if he hadn't been a physicist, he would have been a musician. He was also fascinated by Mahatma Gandhi, with whom he wrote throughout their lives.

Einstein died at the age of 76 on April 17, 1955, from an internal hemorrhage caused by a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.