Albert Einstein (German: IPA: [ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n] (Audio file) (help•info); English: IPA: /ˈælbɝt (-ət) ˈaɪnstaɪn/) (14 March 1879 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2. Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect."[1]
Einstein's many contributions to physics include his special theory of relativity, which reconciled mechanics with electromagnetism, and his general theory of relativity, which was intended to extend the principle of relativity to non-uniform motion and to provide a new theory of gravitation. His other contributions include advances in the fields ofrelativistic cosmology, capillary action, critical opalescence, classical problems ofstatistical mechanics and their application to quantum theory, an explanation of theBrownian movement of molecules, atomic transition probabilities, the quantum theory of amonatomic gas, thermal properties of light with low radiation density (which laid the foundation for the photon theory), a theory of radiation including stimulated emission, the conception of a unified field theory, and the geometrization of physics.
Einstein published over 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works.[2][3] In 1999 Time magazine named him the "Person of the Century". In wider culture the name "Einstein" has become synonymous with genius, and he has since been regarded as one of the most influential people in human history.[4]
Albert Einstein was born into a Jewish family in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire on 14 March 1879. His father was Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer. His mother was Pauline Einstein (née Koch). In 1880, the family moved toMunich, where his father and his uncle founded a company, Elektrotechnische Fabrik J....