阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦 Albert Einstein 英文生平简介。

This PDF file contains most of the text of the Web exhibit "Einstein – Image and Impact" at /history/einstein. NOT included are many secondary pages reached by clicking on the illustrations, which contain some additional information and photo credits. You must also visit the Web exhibit to explore hyperlinks within the exhibit and to other exhibits, and to hear voice clips, for which the text is supplied here.
Brought to you by The Center for History of Physics Copyright 1996-2004 - American Institute of Physics Site created Nov. 1996, revised May 2004
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Table of Contents
Formative Years I Was Einstein's Brain Different? Formative Years II Formative Years III Formative Years IV The Great Works I Atoms in a Crystal… E=mc2 Einstein Explains the Equivalence of Energy and Matter The Great Works II World Fame I A Gravitational Lens… World Fame II Public Concerns I Public Concerns II Einstein Speaks on the Fate of the European Jews Public Concerns III The Quantum and the Cosmos I You're Looking at Quanta… The Quantum and the Cosmos II A Black Hole… The Quantum and the Cosmos: At Home The Nuclear Age I The Nuclear Age II Einstein Speaks on Nuclear Weapons and World Peace… Nuclear Age: At Home Science and Philosophy I Can the Laws of Physics be Unified? Science and Philosophy II The World As I See It, An Essay By Einstein Einstein's Third paradise, By Gerald Holton Einstein's Time, By Peter Galison How Did Einstein Discover Relativity? By John Stachel Einstein on the Photoelectric Effect, By David Cassidy Einstein on Brownian Motion, By David Cassidy An Albert Einstein Chronology Einstein Chronology for 1905 Off the Net: Books on Einstein More Einstein Info & Links Einstein Site Contents Exhibit Credits 3 4 5 7 8 9 11 12 14 15 17 18 19 21 23 24 25 27 30 31 32 33 34 36 38 39 41 42 44 45 47 54 65 75 78 81 83 85 90 92 93
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Einstein's parents, Hermann and Pauline, middle-class Germans. "I was the son of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents," Einstein recalled. "There was this huge world out there, independent of us human beings and standing before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partly accessible to our inspection and thought. The contemplation of that world beckoned like a liberation."
One story Einstein liked to tell about his childhood was of a "wonder" he saw when he was four or five years old: a magnetic compass. The needle's invariable northward swing, guided by an invisible force, profoundly impressed the child. The compass convinced him that there had to be "something behind things, something deeply hidden." Even as a small boy Einstein was self-sufficient and thoughtful. According to family legend he was a slow talker at first, pausing to consider what he would say. His sister remembered the concentration and perseverance with which he would build up houses of cards to many stories. The boy's The house where Einstein was born. thought was stimulated by his uncle, an engineer, and by a medical student who ate dinner once a week at the Einsteins'.
"At the age of 12, I experienced a wonder in a booklet dealing with Euclidean plane geometry, which came into my hands at the beginning of a school year. Here were assertions, as for example the intersection of the three altitudes of a triangle in one point, which -- though by no means evident -- could nevertheless be proved with such certainty that any doubt appeared to be out of the question. This lucidity and certainty made an indescribable impression on me."
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