He was born in a poor Jewish family in Germany with poor economic conditions. In addition, his academic performance in primary and secondary schools is average. Although he is interested in entering the field of science, he knows that he must do what he can. He made a self-analysis: although his overall grades were average, he was very interested in physics and mathematics, and his grades were good. Only by setting goals in physics and mathematics can we have a way out, and we are inferior to others in other aspects. Therefore, when he was in college, he chose to study physics at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland.
Because the goal was chosen correctly, Einstein's personal potential was brought into full play. At the age of 26, he published a scientific research paper "New Measurement of Molecular Scale". In the following years, he published four important scientific papers one after another, developed Planck's quantum concept, put forward that light quantum has the characteristics of particles besides waves, satisfactorily explained the photoelectric effect, and declared the establishment of special relativity and the great change of human understanding of the universe. Remarkable achievements have been made. It can be seen that Einstein established the importance of goals. If he had set his goal on literature or music (he used to be a music lover), I'm afraid it would be difficult to achieve as brilliant achievements as in physics.
So as not to waste the limited time in life. Einstein was good at learning according to the needs of the target and made full use of the limited energy. He created an efficient directional learning method, that is, he found something that could lead his knowledge to the depths in his study, abandoned everything that overburdened his mind and lured him away from the main points, so that he could concentrate his strength and wisdom on the selected goals. He once said: "I see that mathematics is divided into many specialized fields, and each field can consume our short lives." ..... It is true that physics is also divided into various fields, and each field can devour a person's short life. In this field, I quickly learned to identify things that can lead to deepening knowledge, and threw away many other things and many things that filled my head and made it deviate from my main goal. "This is how he guides his study.
In order to clarify the theory of relativity, he deliberately chose the knowledge of non-Euclidean geometry, so that his argument could be carried out smoothly and completed correctly.
If he had no intention of establishing the theory of relativity, he would not have studied non-Euclidean geometry at that time. If he had dabbled in all kinds of mathematical knowledge aimlessly, the theory of relativity might not have come into being so soon. It was in 10 years that Einstein devoted himself to studying books and related goals, and finally made major breakthroughs in three different fields: photoelectric effect theory, Brownian motion and special relativity.
It is particularly worth mentioning that the patriotic Stein not only has a valuable self-knowledge spirit, but also is determined to set goals. 1952 in view of Einstein's outstanding scientific achievements and high reputation, and because he was Jewish, Weizmann was invited to accept the presidency when the first Israeli president died, but he declined politely and frankly admitted that he was not suitable for this position. Indeed, Einstein was a great scientist, and it was through his lifelong efforts that he achieved this goal. If he becomes president, he may not achieve much, because he has never shown his talent in this field, and he has never studied hard and struggled for this goal.
In the competitive field of life, it is not easy for people without clear goals to succeed. Many people don't lack self-confidence, ability and intelligence, but they don't set goals or choose them correctly, so they don't embark on the road to success. The reason is simple, just like a marksman, if he shoots aimlessly, he can't win the game.
Extension:
Albert Einstein (German/English: Albert Einstein; 1March 87914-1April 955 18), born in Ulm, Baden-Wü rttemberg, Germany, is a modern physicist.
Einstein was born in a Jewish family in Ulm, Germany (both parents were Jews). 1900 graduated from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and became a Swiss citizen. 1905, Einstein received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Zurich, put forward the photon hypothesis, and successfully explained the photoelectric effect (so he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 192 1 year). In the same year, he founded the special theory of relativity; in 19 15, he founded the general theory of relativity; in 1933, he moved to the United States and worked in Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies. He became an American citizen on 1940, while retaining Swiss citizenship. 1955 On April 8, Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey, USA, at the age of 76.
19965438+In February, Einstein was selected as the "century man" of the 20th century by American Time magazine.
Einstein's theory laid a theoretical foundation for the development of nuclear energy. In order to help fight against the Nazis, he wrote to President franklin roosevelt with the help of Leo Szilard and others, which directly contributed to the start of the Manhattan Project. After World War II, he actively advocated peace and opposed the use of nuclear weapons, and signed the Russell-Einstein Declaration. Einstein initiated a new era of modern science and technology, was recognized as the greatest physicist after Galileo and Newton, and was also the master and promoter of the critical school of philosophy of science.
The life of the character
Early life
1879 On March 4th, Einstein was born atNo. 135, Banhoff Street, Ulm, Baden-Wü rttemberg, Germany. Both parents are Jewish.
From 65438 to 0880, Einstein moved to Munich with his parents.
From 65438 to 0888, Albert Einstein entered Louis Polder High School. Receive religious education at school and accept the rite of passage. Friedman is a lecturer.
From 65438 to 0889, he read popular science books and philosophical works under the guidance of medical college student Talme.
189 1 year, Einstein taught himself Euclidean geometry, and he was fascinated by mathematics. At the same time, he began to teach himself advanced mathematics.
From 65438 to 0892, Einstein began to read Emanuel Kant's works.
From 65438 to 0894, the Einstein family moved to Milan, Italy.
1895, Einstein taught himself calculus. In the same year, Einstein failed to pass the entrance examination of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Einstein began to think about what a person would see when moving at the speed of light. Confused about the internal contradictions of classical theories.
1896, Einstein received a diploma from Arau State Middle School. On October 29th, 65438/KLOC-0, Einstein moved to Zurich to study at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
189910 June 19, Einstein formally applied for Swiss citizenship.
1900 In August, Einstein graduated from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich; In February, 65438, he finished his thesis "Inference of Capillary Phenomenon", which was published in the journal Physical Yearbook in Leipzig, Germany the following year and became a Swiss citizen.
1901March 2 1 day, Einstein officially acquired Swiss nationality. From May to July this year, I finished my thesis on the thermodynamic theory of potential difference.
On June 1902, Einstein was employed by the Patent Office in Bern, Switzerland. 1903, he married his college classmate mileva Marie. They had a daughter before they got married.
1September, 904, Einstein changed from a trainee in the patent office to a formal third-level technician.
1In March, 905, Einstein published Quantum Theory, put forward the hypothesis of light quantum, and solved the problem of photoelectric effect. In April, he submitted his paper "A New Method for Determining Molecular Size" to the University of Zurich, and received his doctorate. In May, he finished the paper "On Electrodynamics of Moving Objects", and put forward the principle of special relativity independently and completely, which initiated a new era of physics. This year is therefore called "Einstein miracle year".
1906 In April, Einstein was promoted to the second-class technician of the Patent Office. 165438+ 10, the paper on specific heat of solids was completed, which is the first paper on solid quantum theory.
Einstein and his first wife, mileva, were promoted to first-class technicians in the Patent Office on 1907. 1908 10 In June, Einstein was a part-time lecturer at the University of Bern.
1909 10 In June, Einstein left the Berne Patent Office as an associate professor of theoretical physics. 10 In June, Einstein finished his paper on critical opalescence.
19 1 1 year, Einstein moved from Switzerland to Prague, Czech Republic. 19 12 years, Einstein put forward the photochemical equivalence law.
19 13, Einstein returned to Germany, served as the director of the Institute of Physics of Emperor William in Berlin and a professor at Humboldt University in Berlin, and was elected as an academician of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Scientific achievements
restricted theory of relativity
As early as 16 years old, Einstein learned from books that light is a fast electromagnetic wave. Related to this, he would like to discuss the so-called etheric problem related to light waves. The word "ether" comes from Greece and is used to represent the basic elements that make up objects in the sky. /kloc-Descartes in the 0/7th century and christiaan huygens later initiated and developed the theory of ether, believing that ether is the medium of light wave propagation, which is full of all spaces including vacuum and can penetrate into matter. Different from the ether theory, Newton put forward the particle theory of light. Newton believed that the luminous body emitted a stream of particles moving in a straight line, and the impact of the particle stream on the retina caused vision. /kloc-Newton's particle theory prevailed in the 0/8th century, and only wave theory prevailed in the 0/9th century. The theory of ether has also been greatly developed: the propagation of waves needs medium, and the medium through which light propagates in vacuum is ether, also called optical ether. At the same time, electromagnetism has developed vigorously. With the efforts of Maxwell, Hertz and others, a mature electromagnetic phenomena dynamics theory-electrodynamics was formed, and it was proved theoretically and practically that light is electromagnetic wave in a certain frequency range, thus unifying the wave theory of light and electromagnetic theory. Ether is not only the carrier of light waves, but also the carrier of electromagnetic fields. Until the end of 19, people tried to find ether, but they never found it in the experiment. On the contrary, Michelson-Morey experiment found that ether was unlikely to exist.
The development of electromagnetism was originally contained in the framework of Newtonian mechanics, but when explaining the electromagnetic process of moving objects, it was found that it was inconsistent with the relativity principle followed by Newtonian mechanics. According to Maxwell's theory, the speed of electromagnetic wave in vacuum, that is, the speed of light, is a constant; However, according to the principle of velocity addition in Newtonian mechanics, the speed of light in different inertial systems is different. For example, two cars, one is approaching you and the other is leaving. You see the lights in the front car approaching you and the lights in the back car are far away. According to Galileo's theory, the car coming to you will emit light with a speed greater than C (vacuum light speed of 3.0x10 8m/s/s), that is, the light speed emitted by the preceding car = light speed+vehicle speed; But the speed of light emitted by the leaving car is less than c, that is, the speed of light emitted by the following car = speed of light-speed. But according to Maxwell's theory, the speed of these two kinds of light is the same, because in Maxwell's theory, the speed of a car does not affect the propagation of light. To put it bluntly, regardless of the car, the speed of light is equal to C.
Einstein seems to be the man who is going to build a brand-new physics building. Einstein carefully studied Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, especially the electrodynamics developed and expounded by Hertz and Lorenz. Einstein firmly believes that the electromagnetic theory is completely correct, but there is one problem that makes him uneasy, and that is the existence of the absolute reference frame ether. He read a lot of books and found that all the experiments that proved the existence of ether failed. After Einstein's research, it was found that ether had no practical significance in Lorentz theory except as an absolute reference system and the load of electromagnetic field.
Einstein likes reading philosophical works and absorbing ideological nutrition from philosophy. He believes in the unity of the world and the consistency of logic. During the period of "Olympia Academy of Sciences", david hume's doubts about the universal validity of causality had an impact on Einstein. The principle of relativity has been widely proved in mechanics, but it cannot be established in electrodynamics. Einstein questioned the logical inconsistency between the two theoretical systems of physics. He believes that the principle of relativity should be universally established, so the electromagnetic theory should have the same form for each inertial system, but there is a problem of the speed of light here. Whether the speed of light is constant or variable becomes the primary question whether the principle of relativity is universally established. Physicists at that time generally believed in ether, that is, there was an absolute frame of reference, which was influenced by Newton's concept of absolute space. /kloc-At the end of 0/9, Mach criticized Newton's absolute view of time and space in Mechanics in Development, which left a deep impression on Einstein. 1905 One day in May, Einstein and a friend Bezo discussed the problem that had been explored for ten years. Bezo expounded his point of view according to Mahism, and they had a long discussion about it. Suddenly, Einstein realized something, went home and thought about it repeatedly, and finally figured out the problem: there is no absolute definition of time, and time is closely related to the speed of light signals. He found the key to the lock, and after five weeks of hard work, Einstein showed people the special theory of relativity.
1905 On June 30th, the German Yearbook of Physics accepted Einstein's paper "On Electrodynamics of Moving Objects" and published it in September of the same year. This paper is the first article about special relativity, which contains the basic ideas and contents of special relativity. Special relativity is based on two principles: the principle of relativity and the principle of invariability of light speed. Einstein's starting point for solving problems is to firmly believe in the principle of relativity. Galileo first expounded the idea of relativity principle, but he did not give a clear definition of time and space. Newton also talked about relativity when he established the mechanical system, but he also defined absolute space, absolute time and absolute motion. He contradicts himself on this issue. Einstein greatly developed the principle of relativity. In his view, there is no absolute still space, and there is no absolute constant time. All time and space are connected with moving objects. For any reference system and coordinate system, there is only space and time belonging to this reference system and coordinate system. For all inertial systems, the physical laws expressed in space and time of the reference system are the same in form, which is the principle of relativity, strictly speaking, the principle of relativity in a narrow sense. In this article, Einstein did not discuss the constant speed of light as the basis of the basic principle. It is a bold assumption that the speed of light is constant, which is put forward from the requirements of electromagnetic theory and relativity principle. This article is the result of Einstein's thinking about ether and electrodynamics for many years. At the same time, he established a brand-new space-time theory from the perspective of relativity, and gave a complete form of electrodynamics of moving objects on the basis of this new space-time theory. Ether is no longer necessary and ether drift does not exist.
Generally speaking, the public will confirm relativity through signals. In order to know the simultaneity of events in different places, we must know the speed of signal transmission, but we must measure the spatial distance between the two places and the time required for signal transmission. The measurement of spatial distance is very simple, but the trouble lies in the measurement time. We must assume that every place has an aligned clock, and the time of signal propagation can be known from the readings of the two clocks. But you need a signal to know if the clocks in different places are correct. If we follow the previous thinking, it needs a new signal, so it will retreat indefinitely, and the simultaneity of different places cannot be confirmed. But one thing is clear, simultaneity must be associated with a signal, otherwise it is meaningless to say that these two things happen at the same time.