12/25/2010

What Did Albert Einstein Invent?

Albert Einstein without question remains a significant part of history. Throughout the course of his lifetime, he contributed to several breakthroughs and inventions. Although many are documented, surely there are a few missed at some point. In any case, here is a review of some of the inventions notable to Albert Einstein's life.

A Brief History

Albert Einstein continues to exist as one of the greatest physicists ever known. The man of supreme scientific intelligence arrived into this world on March 14, 1879 in Germany. Ultimately, he advanced the world's way of thinking in regards to the physical world.

Six weeks following his birth, his family left Württemberg for Munich. This became the location where he started his early academics. His father, Hermann Einstein worked as an engineer and salesperson. When he was five, his father gave him a compass. Many attribute this time in his life as the starting point for his success as an adult. His father's gift led to an early fascination with trying to discover why the compass always pointed north.

Albert Einstein attended the University of Zurich, receiving his doctorate in 1905. This followed a presentation on his theoretical dissertation, which introduced a novel type of calculation for determining the size of molecules. The same year also became his most successful year with making discoveries.

Albert Einstein's Inventions

Most of Einstein's inventions were rather discoveries and theories. Regardless, his accomplishments throughout history are many. In general, most of his contributions were to the four major areas of science. These areas are known as energy, gravity, light, and time.

Brownian Motion

The Brownian motion is among the first of Albert Einstein's contributions. Originally, in 1827 the botanist Robert Brown discovered floating plant spores in motion under a microscope. From this, he postulated that the random movement related to molecules hitting the spores. However, Einstein became the first to offer statistical predictions in support of the random distribution and the motion of particles in fluid. Later experiments confirmed his theory.

Special Theory of Relativity

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity provided one of the first dependable explanations on the interaction of radiation and matter when observed concurrently by bystanders moving at a consistent speed and the bystanders at standstill. He based this theory according to the principle of relativity. From this, he derived the correct description of physical events within various inertial frames of reference. This lead to his creating the famous formula E=MC².

Einstein's inventions after 1905

1911 - Why Is the Sky Blue?

Einstein determined this in 1911 by determining the detailed formulas calculations for light dispersion from molecules. Later this was confirmed by the experiment "Why Is the Sky Blue?"

1916 - General Theory of Relativity

In 1916, Einstein expanded on his special theory of relativity. In turn, this resulted in the general theory of relativity. By doing this, it allowed for the theories application across uniform and non-uniform systems of motion. Ultimately, the general theory is concerned with the large-scale affects of gravitation.

Essentially, the theory determines the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass. It further allows for a deeper understanding on a gravitational field forms by curvatures produced in space-time time material bodies, which is further determined by its curvature. Ultimately, it gives a deeper understanding into the meaning of gravity.

1921 - Law of Photoelectric effect

He discovered this law through his general theory of relativity.

1924 - Bose-Einstein Condensate

The Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) has to do with the phase of matter relating to solid gas, liquid, and plasma. This resulted when the 1924 Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose sent a paper to Einstein on the Pank Law from which Einstein generalized the theory to an ideal gas of identical atoms or molecules in which the numbers of particles are conserved. Within the same year, he predicted that at extremely low temperatures the particles would lock together or overlap in the lowest quantum state of the system, resulting in the Bose Einstein statistics.

1926 - Einstein Refrigerator

The refrigerator he invented in 1926 worked as an absorption refrigerator and required no moving parts or electricity to operate. All it required was heat to work. Therefore, it only needed something such as a small gas burner. His former student jointly helped with his invention of the refrigerator.

Overall, Albert Einstein lived as one of the most acclaimed physicists of our time. Ultimately, he lived as a great thinker, discoverer, and inventor. The above are just a handful of how many theories and inventions he created.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Powered by Blogger