March 18, 2006
Ihave always had an affinity for Albert Einstein, perhaps the greatest scientist of the 20th century and of all time.
A good reason to celebrate his birthday.
Einstein, born March 14, 1879, would be 127 years old this year, yet his thoughts and theories are just as “relative” today as they always were.
No, my appreciation of him is not because he is the father of the theory of relativity, although he certainly deserves kudos for that.
No, it is because I love his unruly, white hair and his sense of humor. He is, unquestionably, an icon, representing the brainy, wild-haired professors we, so often, see in the movies.
How can we not like someone who, in 1951, on his March birthday, hammed it up for a photographer by sticking out his tongue? That famous photo, now a poster in many college dorm rooms, reminds me of why I am fond of him. He was funny, kind, friendly, and modest, especially about his brains.
Einstein’s name is most certainly synonymous with genius.
He never understood all the fuss, however.
Once, he expressed surprise at the success of his ideas, “I never thought that others would take them so much more seriously than I did.”
Scientists tell us he was a simple, profound man who thought differently than anyone else.
As a result, he changed our world.
His ideas led indirectly to the invention of the atomic bomb, and his theories explained gravity, black holes, and how light works, among other things.
I do not pretend to understand physics, but the basics behind Albert Einstein’s research theories are “relatively” easy. He looked at all the data in a different way than others had and decided that energy and mass are basically the same thing. Thus, we have his now famous equation: E=mc squared.
Truth is, we know his theories better than we think because they are a part of our everyday lives, whether we realize it or not.
Einstein once explained, “The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.”
His three famous theories, all introduced to the world in 1905, were instantly proclaimed as revolutionary.
If you have studied physics, you may know these three as: photoelectric effect, general relativity, and the equivalence of energy and matter.
Do not worry. There will not be a test.
Here’s how he explained relativity to novices: “Put your hand on a stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity!”
Now, I get it.
What is just as important about Albert Einstein is the fact that he was both a fun-loving man and a deeply spiritual one.
When asked how he developed his theories, Einstein said, “I tried to imagine how God could have done it.”
Einstein loved jokes. Sometimes, his humor was so simple that often the erudite and “the learned” missed the punch lines. Sometimes, so did his students.
During the period of time with Einstein was active as a professor, one of his students came to him and said, “The questions are the same as last year’s.” To which, Einstein replied: “Yes, but this year all answers are different.”
I can see that student scratching his head. So am I.
I figure that we can learn from Einstein’s humor, just as scientists learn from his brilliance in math and science.
These Einstein quotes are my favorites:
Simply stated, Einstein condensed his theory about the universe to this: “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
Oh, if physics were only that simple.
