Luc Prokop

Mrs. Roof

AP World History

3/21/18

Einstein



Because of his publication of the Theory of General Relativity, Albert Einstein is widely known as the most famous physicist and perhaps scientist to ever live. Not only did Einstein's Theory of General Relativity give way to the presumed existence of black holes, and the theorization of the big bang, but it also has had many implications on items we use today. Things such as time-zones, and the GPS (Global Positioning System) are taken from granted daily and would have no purpose had it not been for the Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

Einstein was born on March 14th, 1879, in the city of Ulm at the southern tip of Germany. Shortly after he was born, Einstein moves to Munich, a city just east of where he was born. Having been raised by Hermann and Pauline Einstein, a Jewish couple, Albert had a moderate, middle-class, upbringing. While young, Einstein loved the topics of Math and Science, while also managing to play the violin very well. In 1895, at the age of 16, however, Albert dropped out of school and applied to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Einstein failed to pass the entry exam, and therefore became a student at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute at Zurich. Shortly after beginning his studies, Einstein met and married Mileva Maric, a fellow student of his. This marriage came shortly before Einstein's famous year of 1905.

From the time of Albert meeting Mileva to the year 1905, Einstein worked for the Swiss Patent Office. Bored with his profession Albert still continued to do other work on the side. In 1905 Einstein published four of his most famous articles. In his third paper of 1905, titled "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", Einstein used his newly formed Theory of Special Relativity to combine Newtonian physics, and James Maxwell's discovery of a constant speed of light. Although this theory was fundamental in it's year, it only gave way to the more famous Theory of General Relativity.

Although becoming a widely recognized name after his papers, Einstein continued to work at the Swiss Patent Office until 1909 when he was offered a job at the University of Zurich. Einstein continued his studies here until 1913 when he moved to Berlin and began work at the University of Berlin. Little did Einstein know that this move would be vital in the following years.

In 1915, while still practicing teaching at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, Einstein published the greatest accomplishment of his life, the Theory of General Relativity. In this theory it was demonstrated that not only motion but also gravity has effects on time and space. Having shown previously in his Theory of Special Relativity, Einstein demonstrated the universe to be made of a sort of "fabric" where time and space were combined. Now, not only did Einstein solidify this through mathematical equations, but he also stated that "if light is bent by acceleration, it must also be bent by gravity"1. This was a revolutionary though and accomplishment in physics, putting scientists one step closer to creating a "Grand Unified Theory" (GUT)2. With no scientific accomplishment of this size having taken place since Newton's laws of gravity, almost 300 years prior, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity was just beginning its journey in the world.

As a result of Einstein's publication of the Theory of General Relativity the theorization of the black hole and a singularity was brought to the forefront of science. With this new theory, astronomers such as Karl Swarzschild were able to solve problems previously thought impossible. Swarzschild was the first major scientific mind to realize the importance of Einstein's theory, and attempt to solve Einstein's equations. In Swarzchild's book, "On the Field of Gravity of a Point Mass in the Theory of Einstein", he presented work-throughs of Einstein's unpolished equations, and provided evidence for "a, then, implausible situation about the effects of severely compressed matter on gravity and energy"3. From this point on, Swarzschild's book which was based on Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, astrophysicists such as John Archibald Wheeler could almost certify the existence of black holes.

As stated previously, Einstein's theory described the universe as sort of sheet intertwined with time and space, where matter and energy are also present. Because of this discovery, John Wheeler came up with the name "black hole" to describe an instance where "matter tells Space-Time how to curve, and Space-Time tells matter how to move"4. A black hole is an area in space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape it's gravitational pull. Not only does this build off of Einstein's theory, but it also goes above and beyond his discoveries. Also with Einstein's theory, Wheeler, Swarzschild, and many other scientists were able to hypothesize something called a "singularity"5. A singularity is an infinitely small, one dimensional, point with an unimaginably heavy mass. Such an object in Space-Time was previously thought impossible, but now with Einstein's theory it was not.

With Einstein's new Theory of General Relativity came other predictions about the universe, more specifically, it's expansion. In Einstein's equations it was demonstrated that the Universe was constant and still. However, after meeting with other influential astrophysicists such as Edwin Hubble, Einstein was shown that the Universe was expanding at a speed now called the "Hubble Constant"6. With Einstein's own equations, Hubble demonstrated, to him, that the Theory of General Relativity was compatible, and more viable, with an expanding universe. Because of this new discovery, Einstein thought his mathematical equations involving a static universe were now useless. Einstein even called it "the biggest blunder of his life"7. This "mistake", however, only pushed scientists for answers. Later in the 20th century it was hypothesized that Einstein's "cosmological constant"8, one of his discarded equations, was actually a driving factor in the expansion on the Universe.

Einstein's cosmological constant is an "extra term added by Einstein in working out equations in general relativity that describe the universe in the situation when it is 'static', that is, not expanding"9. Because this equation was for a static Universe, and not an expanding one, Einstein thought it to be useless. However, after it's launch on April 24th, 1990, the Hubble telescope, named after Edwin Hubble, would make discoveries to actually prove for the first time, the expansion of the Universe. In 1998, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), observed the explosion of an extremely distant star. This explosion, called a supernova, demonstrated that at one time, "the universe was actually expanding more slowly than it is today"10. Now, not only had it been proven that the Universe was indeed expanding, but that it was also accelerating in doing do. Einstein's cosmological constant, in his Theory of General Relativity, was not useless but instead it had just been used incorrectly.

Because of the discovery of the expanding, as well as accelerating Universe, there was a lack of explanation for such phenomenon. Although it remains unproven, it is highly agreed that "dark energy" causes the acceleration of the Universe11. The name "dark energy" is used to describe theorized circumstance where particles and anti-particles of dark matter, which are smaller than atoms, "pop" into existence in space, and are then simultaneously destroyed by reacting with each other. This "appearance and disappearance of matter could be giving energy to otherwise empty space"12 and cause the acceleration of the expanding Universe.