Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 23:59:18 +0530 (IST)
From: Dr.Y.S. Rao <ysrao@csre.iitb.ac.in>
To: discuss-faculty@iitb.ac.in
Subject: Einstein - some observations


Dear All,

     You all know that Albert Einstein's Centenary (1905-2005) for his 
scholarly papers and world year of physics are being celebrated in this 
year. In this following write-up, you could see about those papers along 
with his life from birth to death. I have added a little bit of philosophy 
to some of his papers. It is interesting to know that Einstein published 
62 papers during 1901-1909 in his spare time while working as a third 
class clerk. His great 5 papers published in 1905 also came in this 
period. His total publications were about 500 according to the Director of 
Einstein's paper project at CalTech and his books of about 10. She also 
said he guided very few students directly - in the current use of the 
term; he had no school (like Bohr); he had collaborators (one usually at a 
time).

EINSTEIN : SOME INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS

BIRTH : He was born in Germany on Friday, 14 March 1879 just before noon 
as a deformed child with heavy weight. The back of the baby's head was 
extremely large and angular in shape. His mother and family members were 
quite surprised and worried when they first looked at the new born's 
features.

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION : At the age of 5, he was enrolled at a Catholic 
Elementary school and was not happy with the school because rote learning 
and the use of cane were common in the school. Once the Head Master told 
his father that his son would never make a success of anything, as he was 
slow to formulate a solution. He continued in this school till the age of 
10, but he was ranked first and got a good report card. During this 
period, he had also learned playing the violin.

SECONDARY SCHOOL : He used to clash with the system in the school as he 
did not like the teaching without imagination. Almost all teachers except 
one branded him as a wastrel.  He was always asking difficult questions to 
his teachers. One day, one of them called him in his room and said, 
"Albert, I must insist that you stop asking questions in my classes." Why? 
Sir", Einstein politely enquired.  "Because, because I have no answers for 
them and the other students are losing their respect for me,"  replied the 
teacher. "It seems to me that should you decide to leave this school, it 
might be an excellent idea," the teacher added.  In order to leave the 
school, Albert managed to get a doctor's certificate which stated that he 
was suffering from a nervous disorder. When he announced to the principal 
of the school that he was leaving, he was curtly informed that he was in 
fact expelled (at the age of 16).

      During this school ( age of thirteen), Einstein gained a lot of 
interest in Maths and Science from his uncle (father's young brother) and 
a 21 year old medical student who came regularly to his house weekly for 
supper. His uncle (an engineer) gave him a little book on Algebra and said 
"We go hunting for a little animal whose name we don't know, so we call it 
X. When we bag out game we pounce on it and give it its right name."  His 
uncle set him problems and was often amazed at the thoroughness of his 
nephew's work and his ability to find an answer to the most difficult 
calculation that the engineer could devise. The medical student, in return 
for weekly supper at Einstein's home, lent Einstein popular science books 
in physical sciences, Cosmos, Force and Matter and Geometry.  According to 
Einstein's own statements later in life, this was the single most 
important factor in turning him on to science and mathematics at an 
impressionable age. Even after he dropped from the school, he used to 
write letters to his uncle about his fascinating ideas on electricity, 
magnetism and concept of Ether (an invisible medium or simply space).

EDUCATION IN SWITZERLAND (1896-1900): He appeared for entrance examination 
at Federal Polytechnic School (ETH) in Zurich to become an electrical 
engineer. But, he failed in arts subjects.  His main interest was in pure 
science or mathematics and wished to convince his family to let him join 
the course. After studying in secondary school for one year, he could make 
it to ETH. He studied a course for 4 years at the ETH that would allow him 
to become a teacher in Physics and Mathematics at secondary level. In ETH, 
he was a typical student and tried to avoid as many lectures as possible 
(but selective about which lectures be attended) spending a great deal of 
his time in cafes and bars, deep in discussion with fellow students. Like 
many students who get distraughted from their path at their young age, 
Einstein too faced and wrote a few love letters to the girl students of 
his class. When the final exam was approaching, he was ill prepared. His 
classmate Mr Marcel Grossman enabled Einstein to catch up with what he had 
missed due to infrequent attendance at lectures and passed on his neatly 
transcribed lecture notes to Einstein. He could pass final examination 
with marks 5 out of a maximum 6 marks.

HUNTING FOR JOB :  All his classmates got teaching posts or opportunity 
for higher education. Unable to get any job, he left for home and began 
sending out one letter after another to eminent scientists around the 
Europe to consider him as an assistant. All his letters were unanswered. 
Finally, he got a temporary teaching post in a school at Zurich for two 
months as a replacement. After 2 months, he was once more unemployed. 
Later, he got another teaching post for one year in a small village school 
with some influence.  While he was happy for one year employment, a most 
unpleasant news was heard. His classmate and friend, who later became his 
first wife (Mileva Maric) informed him that she was pregnant by him. 
Though he was happy with the teaching job, he could continue only half 
term in the school due to differences between school authorities and 
himself on the mode of teaching. Einstein liked a liberal and open 
approach to learning. He resigned from the teaching post and again jobless 
for about 4 months. His classmate and friend Grossman created a new 
opening for Einstein to get a permanent job in a Swiss patent office at 
Bern. He was appointed as Technical Expert (third class) in June 1902 and 
continued till July 1909 with a promotion to second class in 1906.

GROUND BREAKING PAPERS :

     Within a year after passing his diploma in teaching, he submitted his 
Ph.D. thesis on Kinetic Theory of Gases to Zurich University. It was not 
accepted as a satisfactory thesis.  His first two papers were published 
during 1901-1902. The whole basis of the papers was just plain wrong, 
though it was interesting in idea. He was trying to equate the law of 
gravity with the forces between molecules. So, he started his work with 
unifying the forces and spent his fruitless last years in USA on the same 
topic. The next 3 papers were published between 1902-1904 and they deal 
with thermodynamics and second law. These papers were also flawed due to 
lack of access to facilities such as journals, books and guidance from 
experts. It appeared that he rediscovered things that were already well 
known to the scientific community.

      As the world is observing Einstein Anniversary of his famous five 
papers published in 1905 within 8 months in three different topics, I am 
giving below the title of those papers and some information about them. 
These papers shook the world in many aspects. It has been mentioned that 
"Einstein's work on Brownian motion would have merited a sound Nobel 
prize, the photoelectric effect a strong Nobel prize , but special theory 
of relativity and E=mc~H2 were worth a super-strong Nobel prize."

PAPER 1 : A HEURISTIC POINT OF VIEW CONCERNING THE PRODUCTION AND 
TRANSFORMATION OF LIGHT, March 17,1905, Annalen der Physik, Vol. 17, pp. 
132-148.

      This paper is known as the photoelectric effect paper. The modern 
gadgets Handycam, Digicam, TV, etc. are developed based on this principle. 
While explaining black body radiation theoretically, physicists faced 
ultraviolet catastrophe (theory deviates from observation at high 
frequency region ).  Max Planck spent years on the problem and solved it 
by cutting electromagnetic energy (mathematically) into small chunks. The 
idea gave the birth for the second best of all equations in Physics E=hf. 
Although many physicists were happy to accept Planck's method of resolving 
the ultraviolet catastrophe, nobody thought it as much more than 
mathematical trick. As scientists believed for about 100 years that light 
only exists in the form Electromagnetic waves, no one, even Planck thought 
that the light did exists in the form of little lumps or quanta. But 
Einstein made a difference through this paper and explained how electrons 
eject from certain metals when light impinges on it. Einstein's 
interpretation fitted all experimental evidence on the photoelectric 
effect. For about 10 years after he published the paper, many physicists 
wondered as to how light could be both particle and wave. Maxwell proved 
that light is waves. Einstein proved that light is made of photons. Both 
were right. It is strange that a single thing appears as two in a similar 
manner like rope appears as a snake in darkness. Similarly, God has a form 
and is also formless. This duality appears in many ways like day and 
night, happiness and sorrow, good and bad, man and woman, etc. Einstein 
was awarded the Nebel Prize in 1920 for this work in addition to his 
contribution to theoretical physics. The paper laid the path for the 
development of Quantum Mechanics.

PAPER 2:  A NEW DETERMINATION OF MOLECULAR DIMENSIONS (University of 
Zurich, Ph.D. Dissertation), 30 April 1905.  (It was published in a 
slightly altered form in Annlen der Physik in Jan. 1906).

     His Ph.D. thesis containing only 21 pages was submitted to Zurich 
University as a paper. It was accepted with a comment that it was too 
short. His work deals with the properties of particles suspended in a 
fluid. He showed how to calculate Avagadro's number and size of molecules 
by studying their motion in a solution. Although Einstein was famous for 
relativity and photoelectric effect, this paper containing 21 pages (Ph.D. 
work) was the most frequently cited during 1961-1975 for papers published 
before 1912. The next paper was his early works and his third best one was 
his paper on Brownian motion. The special relativity paper did not come 
within even top ten of citations for papers published before 1912. His 
Ph.D. thesis was dedicated to his classmate and friend Mr. Grossman.

PAPER 3. ON THE MOVEMENT OF SMALL PARTICLES SUSPENDED IN STATIONARY 
LIQUIDS REQUIRED BY THE MOLECULAR-KINETIC THEORY OF HEAT, May 1905, 
Annalen der Physik 17 (1905) PP.549-560.

     This paper is known as Brownian motion paper. Most of us heard it in 
high school, when we were taught that pollen grains jiggle around randomly 
in water due to impacts of millions of invisible molecules. Einstein 
combined kinetic theory and classical hydrodynamics to derive an equation 
showing that the displacement of Brownian particles varies as the square 
root of time. This was confirmed experimentally by Jean Perrin three years 
later, proving once for all that atoms do exist.  Jean Perrin got the 
Nobel Prize in Physics for this work in 1926.

PAPER 4.  ON THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF MOVING BODIES, June 1905, Annalen der 
Physik VOL. 17, PP. 891-921.

       This paper is well known as Special Theory of Relativity paper. This 
30 pages paper was dedicated to his friend and an engineering student Mr. 
Michelangelo Besso, with whom Einstein discussed his ideas on relativity 
and got flashes of new ideas.  The paper did not contain any references 
that might suggest that he was consciously hiding his tracks. Although 
Einstein read earlier papers by Lorentz and Poincare, he claimed not to 
have seen these later works before writing this paper.

      While Aristotle believed that all the matter in universe made up of 
four basic elements, earth, air, fire and water, our ancient Indians text 
add one more element 'Ether' in addition to the four elements. It was 
believed that the Ether was present everywhere, even in empty space. Light 
waves travel through the Ether as sound waves travel through air. The 
velocity of light was considered with respect to the absolute Ether. The 
experiment conducted by Michelson-Morley showed a Null result, proving 
that there is no Ether present in the space. Then, Einstein came into the 
picture to explain the Null result.

      Einstein postulated that no matter how fast you are moving, light 
will always appear to travel at the same velocity.  While demolishing the 
concept of absolute space (i.e Ether) and time, he made light is absolute. 
Many scientists attacked Einstein for making the velocity of light 
absolute. His theory has withstood for all type of attacks and experiments 
till now.  It is interesting to know that some religions say that the 
light is God. Because of this absolute nature of velocity of light, the 
revolutionary theory of relativity was discovered. The theory predicts 
that clocks slow down and lengths get shorter when moving at speeds close 
to the speed of light.  He added a fourth dimension i.e time to the 
existing 3-dimensional space and made time and space as inter-dependent.

     Even after the Theory of Relativity was discovered and translated into 
English, only a few people could understand the relativity in the initial 
days of its discovery. Once a press reporter approached Prof. Eddington 
(Cambridge,U.K.) who had translated Einstein's work and said "Sir, it is 
said that apart from Einstein, only two people could understand Theory of 
Relativity. Is it true?"  Prof. Eddington looked at the reporter and said 
"I wonder who the third person is." In Einstein's words : "When a man sits 
with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on 
a hot stove for minute and it will seem like more than hour. That is 
relativity."  Once a lady asked Einstein's second wife "Do you understand 
the theory of relativity yourself?" Mrs. Einstein roared with laughter and 
said "Of course not, and I sometimes think Albert does not entirely 
understand it himself."

      When Mr. Besso (whom he dedicated the paper) died, Einstein said "For 
us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present and future 
is illusion, however persistent." From this statement we can deduce that 
Einstein had gone beyond space and time, at least mentally. Is there any 
possibility to go to the past and live as a child and come back to the 
present or to go to the future and come back to the present? Yes, it is 
possible for great people who had gone beyond space and time.

PAPER 5.  DOES THE INERTIA OF A BODY DEPEND UPON ITS ENERGY CONTENT? 
September 1905, Annalen der Physik, VOL. 18, pp. 639-641.

      This small 3 page paper is an extension of the previous paper on 
special relativity which culminated in a simple equation that is now known 
as E=mc^2. This equation has become the most famous in all of science. It 
tells us that everything in the universe is a repository of energy which 
is neither created nor destroyed. For that matter, we cannot create even a 
blade of grass. The single energy appears as many through transformation, 
and makes us fight each other with an illusion that we are not the one. As 
long as we see that others are different from us, all troubles start. 
Though Einstein did not foresee that his theory can be realized 
practically in his life time, others scientists could see the possibility 
of nuclear fission in an atomic bomb. They made him to sign a letter to 
the president Roosevelt to take action over the potential uses of nuclear 
fission and its use for military. A committee was formed and decided in a 
first meeting to develop the best method for converting the theory into a 
workable weapon. Einstein was formally invited to join the committee, but 
declined. Under Robert Oppenheimer's leadership, the Manhattan project was 
started with a group of scientists, technicians and soldiers. The first 
atomic bomb was exploded on July 16, 1945. After seeing the blast and its 
radiance, a verse from the Bhagavad Gita sprang into the mind of 
Oppenheimer.

If the radiance of a thousand suns
Were to burst at once into the sky
That would be like the splendor of the Mighty one ...
I am become Death, the shatterer of Worlds.

OTHER GREAT WORKS : His crowning glory, perhaps the most beautiful theory 
in all of science, was the general theory of relativity, published in 
1916. Late Nobel Laureate Feynman said "I still can't see how he thought 
of it."  While his special theory of relativity deals with motion of 
objects at high speed in an inertial frame, the general theory opened up 
an understanding of the largest of all things (equivalence of acceleration 
and gravity), from the formative Big Bang of the universe to its 
mysterious black holes. General relativity also predicts that time comes 
to a stop inside a black hole.

      In his theory of radiation paper which was published in 1917, 
Einstein introduced the concepts of spontaneous and stimulated emission. 
The concept of stimulated emission led to the invention of masers (1954) 
and lasers (1960).

      In 1924, he predicted Bose-Einstein condensation in a gas, a new form 
of matter at the coldest temperature in universe. The prediction was 
realized after a gap of 70 years with the help of laser cooling and other 
techniques with systems - namely, dilute monoatomic alkali gases-that are 
almost the opposite of liquid helium in many relevant respects.

      Not happy with Quantum theory which gave a new picture of reality, he 
clashed with Bohr and published a few papers against quantum mechanics in 
1935 . His feelings were expressed in his famous 'God does not play dice' 
dictum. Most other scientists, however, accepted the validity of the new 
quantum laws because they showed the excellent agreement with 
observations.

      The last 30 years of his life were spent on a fruitless search for 
unified theory. Following Einstein, most theoretical physicists assign a 
central role to geometrical ideas. Most of the particle-physics community 
believes, for example, string theory provides the appropriate framework 
for relalising Einstein's dream.

      He was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952 but turned it down. 
Politics is for the moment," he once wrote, "while ..... an equation is 
for eternity."  The equations of general relativity are his best epitaph 
and memorial.  They should last as long as the universe

HIS LOVE OF MUSIC : Einstein was not only outstanding scientist of 20th 
century, but also a gifted and enthusiastic musician. He once said that 
had he not been a scientist, he would have been a musician. "Life without 
playing music is inconceivable for me," he declared.  "I live my dreams in 
music. I see my life in terms of music... I get most joy in life from my 
violin". Music was not only a relaxation to Einstein, it also helped him 
in his work. His second wife (cousin), Elsa said , "As a little girl, I 
fell in love with Albert because he played Mozart so beautifully on the 
violin. He also plays the piano. Music helps him when he is thinking about 
his theories. He goes to his study, comes back, strikes a few chords on 
the piano, jots something down, returns to his study."

DEATH: According to doctors, Einstein was very calm and clearheaded during 
his final days. He totally accepted that he was on the verge of death and 
it held no terror for him. When there was leakage of blood from abdominal 
aorta, doctors suggested a surgery.  He flatly refused and preferred to 
let nature take its course. He died in the early hours of 18 April 1955. 
His brain was removed and kept for medical research. Extensive study 
unearthed nothing special. Though Einstein brain was normal in every 
aspect, the intelligence which had resided there for 76 years certainly 
was not. Where did the intelligence come from? Who had bestowed on him? 
Can one become like him by hard work? According to Einstein "God reveals 
himself in the harmony of all that exists."  He also said "Science is a 
wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."


-Y.S. Rao-