Evans Library presents
Still "Miraculous" After All These Years
A 100-year celebration of Albert Einstein's 'Miraculous Year': 1905
July 1 - September 30, 2005
Click to hear Albert Einstein*
"Ladies and gentlemen, our age is proud of the progress it has made in man's intellectual development. The search and striving for truth and knowledge is one of the highest of man's qualities - though often, the pride is most loudly voiced by those who strive the least. And certainly we should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead, it can only serve; and it is not fastidious in its choice of a leader. This characteristic is reflected in the qualities of its priests, the intellectuals. The intellect has a sharp eye for methods and tools, but is blind to ends and values. So it is no wonder that this fatal blindness is handed on from old to young and today involves a whole generation." *Excerpt
from:"The Goal of Human Existence" |
"The year 2005 marks the 100th anniversary of what has been termed Albert Einstein's miraculous year. In 1905, Einstein published three of the physics world’s major works, his papers on special relativity, Brownian motion, and the photoelectric effect.
To celebrate the World Year of Physics 2005 and its focus on Einstein, the Evans Library announces its “Still Miraculous After All These Years” display of information resources. Beginning July 1, Library visitors can review a collection of books, government documents, videocassettes, Internet sites, and periodical articles to learn more about the man, his theories, and the effects of those theories on the world."
Source: July
2005 'Information Links'
_____________________________________________________________________________________
A Short Chronology of Albert Einstein's Life
Source: Institute for Advanced Study
1879
"Albert Einstein was born to a middle-class German Jewish family.
His parents were concerned that he scarcely talked until the age of
three, but he was not so much a backward as a quiet child. He would
build tall houses of cards and hated playing soldier. At the age of
twelve he was fascinated by a geometry book." |
 |
 |
1895 "At the age of fifteen Albert quit high school disgusted by rote learning and martinet teachers and followed his family to Italy where they had moved their failing electrotechnical business. After half a year of wandering and loafing, he attended a congenial Swiss school. The next year he entered the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich."
1900 "After working hard in the laboratory but skipping lectures, Einstein graduated with an unexceptional record. For two grim years he could find only odd jobs, but he finally got a post as a patent examiner."
| 1903
Einstein marries a school sweetheart,
Mileva
Maric. Did she contribute in any way to Einstein's theories? |
 |
1905 - The 'Miracle Year'. "Einstein wrote four fundamental papers, all in a few months. The first paper claimed that light must sometimes behave like a stream of particles with discrete energies, 'quanta'.
The second paper offered an experimental test for the theory of heat and proof of the existence of atoms.
The third paper addressed a central puzzle for physicists of the day - the connection between electromagnetic theory and ordinary motion - and solved it using the 'principle of relativity.'
The fourth showed that mass and energy are two parts of the same thing, mass-energy (E=mc2)."
Source: Institute for Advanced Study
|
|
|
Source: Special Theory of Relativity
"It followed from the special theory of relativity that mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing -- a somewhat unfamiliar conception for the average mind. Furthermore, the equation E is equal to m c-squared, in which energy is put equal to mass, multiplied by the square of the velocity of light, showed that very small amounts of mass may be converted into a very large amount of energy and vice versa. The mass and energy were in fact equivalent, according to the formula mentioned above. This was demonstrated by Cockcroft and Walton in 1932, experimentally." - Albert Einstein |
 |
| "If you were traveling at the speed of light it would take about - eight minutes to travel from the earth to the sun. - one second to circle the Earth seven times - 1/10th of a second to go from the United States to Great Britain - 1/1,000,000,000th of a second to get from the heel to the tip of a sneaker. Source: NOVA Online |
Jet
Near Light Speed
|
Einstein resources on display include
The
Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality |
Brian
Greene |
QB982
.G74 2004 |
Einstein for Dummies
|
Carlos I. Calle |
QC16.E
C355 2005 |
Physically
Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Physics |
Selected
and arranged by Carl C. Gaither and Alma E Cavazos-Gaither |
QC5
.P47 1997 |
| From
X-Rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries |
Emilio
Segrè |
QC7
.S4413 |
Einstein's
Legacy: The Unity of Space and Time |
Julian
Schwinger |
QC173.59
.S65 S39 1985 |
The
Einstein Observatory Catalog of IPC X-ray Sources [microform] |
Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory |
NAS
1.15:108401/V.1 |
Inevitable
Inflation in Einstein-Cartan Theory [microform] |
A.
J. Fennelly, James C. Bradas and Larry L. Smalley |
NAS
1.15:101146 |
Ideas
and Opinions |
Albert
Einstein |
AC35
.E526 1974 |
| Letters on Wave Mechanics: Schrödinger, Planck, Einstein, Lorentz |
K.
Przibram, editor |
QC174.2
B6113 1986 |
Einstein:
The Life and Times |
Ronald
W. Clark |
QC16
.E5 C5 1971 |
The
Born-Einstein Letters |
no
author listed |
QC16
.E5 A4513 |
The
Universe and Dr. Einstein |
Lincoln
Kinnear Barnett |
QC6
B33 1950 |
Out
of My Later Years |
Albert
Einstein |
QC16
.E5 A3 |
The
World As I See It |
Albert
Einstein |
AC35
.E528 1949 |
The
New Physics: The Route Into the Atomic Age |
Armin
Hermann |
QC773
.H4813 |
Autobiographical
Notes |
Albert
Einstein |
QC16
.E5 E34 1979 |
Albert
Einstein, Creator and Rebel |
Banesh
Hoffmann |
QC16
.E5 H64 1972 |
Einstein:
His Life and Times |
Shuichi
Kusaka, editor |
QC16
.E5 F7 1953 |
Newton,
Einstein, and Gravity [VHS - video] |
Kate
Porter and David Stone |
QC7
.N49 1994 |
The
Majestic Clockwork [VHS - video] |
Jacob
Bronowski |
QC7
.M24 1973 |
Albert
Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist |
Paul
Arthur Schlipp |
QC16
.E5 S3 1951 V.1 |
Some
Strangeness in the Proportion: A Centennial Symposium to Celebrate the
Achievements of Albert Einstein |
Harry
Woolf, editor |
QC16
.E5 S63 |
Einstein's
Space & Van Gogh's Sky: Physical Reality and Beyond |
Lawrence
LeShan & Henry Margenau |
Available
through Interlibrary Loan |
1909 " Einstein became assistant professor at the University of Zurich, his full-time physics job.
1914 " Einstein moved to Berlin, taking a research post that freed him from teaching duties. He separated from his wife and two sons. When the first World War broke out, Einstein rejected Germany's aggressive war aims, supporting the formation of a pacifist group."
Source: Institute for Advanced Study
What is time?
Is time travel possible?
Click on clock for one answer.
1915 "After a decade of thought, with entire years spent in blind alleys, Einstein completed his general theory of relativity. Overturning ancient notions of space and time, he reached a new understanding of gravity. Meanwhile, he continued to sign petitions for peace."
Source: Institute for Advanced Study
 |
1918 "As Germany collapsed, Einstein became more involved in politics and supported a new progressive party. The next year he remarried. And his general theory of relativity received stunning confirmation from British astronomers: as Einstein had predicted, gravity bends starlight. In the popular eye he became a symbol of science and of thought at its highest." |
Internet Sites of Interest
