ALBERT

EINSTEIN

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in

Ulm, Germany. His parents were Hermann
and Pauline Einstein. Albert’s father was an
accountant but he was also a businessman,
working with his brother, Jacob. Jacob
Einstein was an inventor and together the
Einstein brothers invented and sold a variety
of electrical equipment. At this time, electric
lights were just starting to replace gas lights.
As a child, Albert was a considerable worry to
his parents: he did not begin to talk until he
reached the age of three. As the story goes,
he finally spoke at a family dinner one night,
skipping over baby language and astounding
everyone with a fully-formed sentence, “The
soup is too hot.”
When asked why he had not spoken before, he replied,
“Because up to now, everything was in order.” After this first
discussion, Albert still did not like to talk a great deal. Nor did he
like to play with other children. Instead, like many children, he
took his toys extremely seriously and would play with them
endlessly, trying to understand exactly how they worked.

Albert’s shyness did not extend to adults, if he wanted to know

the answers to questions. And he had many questions. Typical of
these were questions about gravity. Why, for example, does a
leaf fall down while the moon stays suspended in the sky?

He was fortunate that his parents and uncle were scientifically

minded and were able to help answer his questions. Many other
parent –and teachers- would have laughed and ignored him.
A real turning point in Albert’s “education” happened when he
was five. He fell sick and was confined to bed. During this time,
his father gave him a present that was to fascinate him as much
as his question about the moon: a magnetic compass. Albert
struggled to understand why its needle always pointed north.

In 1885, Albert started school but immediately hated it. Under the
German system of the time, the teacher could punish wrong
answers with beatings. The classes were generally boring with
students forced to generally boring with students forced to
memorize and repeat exactly what their teacher said.
Fortunately, Albert excelled in science and mathematics
because of his natural interest in these subjects, but other
subjects were difficult for him. His teachers had few hopes he
would ever amount to anything.
Outside of school, Albert discovered other interests: sailing and
music. He joked that sailing was a wonderful sport because it
required so little energy. As for music, his mother played piano
and encouraged Albert to take up the violin. He enjoyed playing
the violin for the rest of his life, although he wasn’t the best
player. Albert often played with other mathematicians and
physicists in small groups, but one fellow musician complained
about him. When playing music with others, it’s necessary to
count the beats of the music to stay in time with each other.
Einstein-the most famous mathematician of all time-couldn’t
count!

Another turning point in Albert’s education was his introduction

to a young medical student, Max Talmey. It was the custom for
families to help out university students by inviting them for dinner,
and Max was a frequent visitor to the Einstein home. Albert
always had many questions for Max about mathematics and
science, and Max began supplying Albert with advanced
textbooks on these subjects. By the time he was twelve, Albert
knew much more than Max and more than math teachers.

By the time he was sixteen, Albert had begun to ask questions

about the nature of light and gravity. Answering those questions
would lead him to the Nobel Prize as well as ideas that made
possible the creation of the atomic bomb.