One hundred years ago, an unknown patent clerk named Albert Einstein finished five scientific papers that would revolutionize the physical world and change our understanding of the universe forever.
One hundred years ago, an unknown patent clerk named Albert Einstein finished five scientific papers that would revolutionize the physical world and change our understanding of the universe forever.
He was introduced by Laura Schick ’08, dressed as Einstein and speaking in German. Schick is a resident of German Haus, which co-hosted the event.
“Einstein directly challenged the orthodoxy of physics: orthodoxy that had grown and strengthened for over a century; orthodoxy that rested on bedrock experiment and far-ranging theory,” writes physicist and historian John Rigden in his book “Einstein 1905.”
Scientists call 1905 Albert Einstein’s “annus mirabilis” – his year of miracles. And, in recognition of the man who has become the benchmark for genius and greatness, 2005 has been declared The World Year of Physics to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Einstein’s “miracle year.”
Published in a German physics journal called “Annalen der Physik,” 26 year-old Einstein’s papers touched on various theories that provided empirical evidence for the existence of atoms, uncloaked the bizarre realm of quantum mechanics, overturned views of space and time, and established that energy and mass are equivalent.
Arguably, the most notable of Einstein’s contribution to physics remains the special theory of relativity, which he developed in his third paper that year. Special Relativity replaced the laws of Newton and Galileo to show how space and time were related.
“Before Einstein, the assumption was that our universe is a big stage… in an absolute time and absolute space,” said Professor of Physics Lutz Hüwel during the lecture. “In special relativity, there is no such thing. There is no absolute finatality.”
Lecturing in celebration of the Special Theory’s 100th Anniversary, Hüwel told students that before Einstein published his ideas, the accepted belief was that “the stage where everything is happening is absolute. There is a big clock on the stand and that clock clicks at a universal time and if something happens now, [then] that now is the same for everyone in the universe.”
Einstein, however, told the world that what we had believed for decades was wrong.
In June of 1905 came his first paper describing Special Relativity. His theory was established on two basic premises: the laws of physics are the same for everyone and the speed of light in a vacuum is always constant – at 300,000,000 meters per second – regardless of the speed of the observer.
As a result of these revelations, today we don’t live in a world with one universal clock ticking all over the planet. Instead, Einstein’s theory of relativity has given us a new view of the world, relativising our concept of time, which was once thought to be absolute, and thereby dividing the world into various time zones.
In September, Einstein presented a follow-up paper that submitted another notion to his fellow physicists: Mass and energy are equivalent, and a change in a particle’s mass is associated with a change in its energy.
It was from this paper that the most famous component of Special Relativity that has come to symbolize Einstein was derived, which is the equation E=mc2, where e is energy, m is mass and c is the speed of light. In fact, Einstein’s paper didn’t include the precise formula, but laid all the necessary groundwork.
The changing time, space, and mass of Special Relativity tell only part of the story though. Einstein discovered that this theory ignored the presence of gravity. This explains why the theory is called “special”: because it can only be applied to special or restricted cases where the effects of gravity could be ignored.
This sent Einstein back to work. Ten years later, he finished connecting the dots and brought forth the concept of General Relativity to give a more broadly applicable theory for the physical world.
Einstein’s quest to merge the elements of electromagnetism (foundation of Special Relativity) and gravity (foundation of General Relativity) did not end there. In fact, it never met a fruitful end. But his attempts to explain the two above-mentioned forces as aspects of some broader mathematical structure can be found in a paper entitled “Zur einheitlichen Feld-Theorie” (“On Unified Field Theory”).
The manuscript of this paper resides in Olin Library’s treasure room since 1929, when Wesleyan became the first American university to own an Albert Einstein manuscript. Over the years, it has been exhibited occasionally, such as on the hundredth anniversary of Einstein’s birth.
The theory of Special Relativity, thus, has secured a place in history as one of the most, if not the most, revolutionary findings that have shaped 21st century Physics. Summing up its incomparable importance, Hüwel said, “If you have any theory in physics that contradicts Special Relativity, you know it’s probably wrong.”
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