Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 07:58:09 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Satellite images 'show Atlantis'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3766863.stm
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Albert Einstein

Pages: [1] 2   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Albert Einstein  (Read 519 times)
0 Members and 40 Guests are viewing this topic.
Jason
Administrator
Superhero Member
*****
Posts: 1164



« on: August 24, 2007, 01:17:41 pm »



Albert Einstein, 1905

The Annus Mirabilis

In 1905, while working in the patent office, Einstein published four times in the Annalen der Physik, the leading German physics journal. These are the papers that history has come to call the Annus Mirabilis Papers:
•   His paper on the particulate nature of light put forward the idea that certain experimental results, notably the photoelectric effect, could be simply understood from the postulate that light interacts with matter as discrete "packets" (quanta) of energy, an idea that had been introduced by Max Planck in 1900 as a purely mathematical manipulation, and which seemed to contradict contemporary wave theories of light. This was the only work of Einstein's that he himself pronounced as "revolutionary". (Einstein 1905a)
•   His paper on Brownian motion explained the random movement of very small objects as direct evidence of molecular action, thus supporting the atomic theory. (Einstein 1905c)
•   His paper on the electrodynamics of moving bodies proposed the radical theory of special relativity, which showed that the independence of an observer's state of motion on the observed speed of light requires fundamental changes to the notion of simultaneity. The consequences of this include the time-space frame of a moving body slowing down and contracting (in the direction of motion) relative to the frame of the observer. This paper also argued that the idea of a luminiferous aether—one of the leading theoretical entities in physics at the time—was superfluous. (Einstein 1905d)
•   In his paper on the equivalence of matter and energy (previously considered to be distinct concepts), Einstein deduced from his equations of special relativity what would later become the most famous expression in all of science: E = mc2, suggesting that tiny amounts of mass could be converted into huge amounts of energy. (Einstein 1905e)
All four papers are today recognized as tremendous achievements—and hence 1905 is known as Einstein's "Wonderful Year". At the time, however, they were not noticed by most physicists as being important, and many of those who did notice them rejected them outright. Some of this work—such as the theory of light quanta—would remain controversial for years.[23] (Pais 1982, pp. 382–386)
At the age of 26, having studied under Alfred Kleiner, Professor of Experimental Physics, Einstein was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich. His dissertation was entitled "A new determination of molecular dimensions." (Einstein 1905b)
« Last Edit: August 24, 2007, 01:21:45 pm by Jason » Report Spam   Logged


Pages: [1] 2   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy