Bull Tiger Biographical Library · Giant Hundred -- Einstein

Author: Zhang Wu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-10-01
Features: We are delighted to recommend the "Giant Biographies Series" to young friends. At the turn of the century, having such a premium series accompany you is a joy in wisdom. We believe that from the footsteps of these giants and masters, you can learn how to properly handle success and failure, comfort and hardship, joy and pain, smoothness and tribulation, and understand how to approach life, how to be a person, how to pursue knowledge, how to shape oneself, and how to shape the future.
Principal of Peking University: Zhao Yulin
Party Secretary: Dong Lingsheng
Principal of Tsinghua University: Zhao Qinggang
The lives of every great figure with global influence are deeply moving stories. Their rich experiences and life insights, their spirit of struggle and elements of success, their pursuit of excellence and ability to seize opportunities, undoubtedly have a great inspirational and educational role for today's youth.
Principal of Tianjin Nankai: Kang Xiuyan
By carefully reading this series, you will feel as if you see their expressions, gestures, ideals, beliefs, aspirations, and sentiments, which will help you learn how to be a person, how to pursue knowledge, and how to build a career.
Principal of Fudan University: Cao Tianren
Albert Einstein is one of the greatest physicists of the modern era. He loved physics and dedicated his life to theoretical research. He is known as the "Copernicus of the 20th century" and the "Newton of the 20th century." Einstein grew up during a period of rapid change in physics. Through the efforts of physicists like him, the development of physics entered a new historical era. The classical physics theory system established by Galileo and Newton had nearly 200 years of development. By the mid-19th century, with the discovery of the law of conservation and transformation of energy, the establishment of thermodynamics and statistical physics, and especially the discoveries of Faraday and Maxwell in electromagnetism, physics had achieved remarkable accomplishments. These achievements led many physicists to believe that the fundamental theoretical problems in the field of physics had been solved, leaving only minor details for future generations to supplement and develop. However, history took a different course. A series of new phenomena that classical physics could not explain followed: the aether drift experiment, the radioactivity of elements, the motion of electrons, blackbody radiation, the photoelectric effect, and more. Faced with this new situation, physicists generally attempted to resolve contradictions by patching up the old theory framework. However, the young Einstein was not bound by tradition. Building on the work of Lorentz and others, he fundamentally transformed the basic concepts of space and time. This theoretical breakthrough opened a new era in physics. The most important contribution of Einstein's life was the theory of relativity. In 1905, he published a paper titled "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," proposing the principle of special relativity and the invariance of the speed of light, establishing special relativity. This theory included Newtonian mechanics as a special case of low-speed motion. It revealed the essential unity of space and time as forms of material existence, profoundly exposed the unity of mechanical and electromagnetic motion in kinematics, and further revealed the unity of matter and motion (the equivalence of mass and energy). It developed the principle that matter and motion are inseparable and laid the theoretical foundation for the use of atomic energy. After years of arduous effort, in 1915, he established general relativity, further revealing the relationship between four-dimensional spacetime and matter. He pointed out that spacetime cannot exist independently of matter, and its structure and properties depend on the distribution of matter. It is not a flat Euclidean space but a curved Riemann space. According to Einstein's theory of gravity in general relativity, he inferred that light does not travel in a straight line but curves in a gravitational field. This theoretical prediction was confirmed by British astronomers during a solar eclipse in 1919, causing a sensation worldwide. In 1938, Einstein made significant progress in the movement problem of general relativity, deriving the equations of motion from the field equations, thereby further revealing the unity of spacetime, matter, motion, and gravity. The study of general relativity and the theory of gravity has gained attention since the 1960s due to the great advancements in experimental technology and astronomy. Additionally, Einstein's contributions to cosmology, unified field theory using gravity and electromagnetism, and quantum theory have also advanced the development of physics.
Einstein was not only a great scientist but also an outstanding thinker with a deep philosophical spirit. At the same time, he was an upright person with a strong sense of social responsibility. He lived in the political whirlpools of Germany and the United States and experienced two world wars. He deeply understood the impact of a scientist's work on society and the responsibility intellectuals have toward society. Einstein was deeply committed to using science for the benefit of humanity, but he witnessed the immense destruction caused by science and technology in the two world wars. Therefore, he believed that the issue of war and peace was the most pressing problem of the modern era, and he devoted the most of his life to speaking on this topic. His most public statements on political issues were his signing of a declaration against World War I in 1914. His last public statement on political issues was the "Russell–Einstein Manifesto" signed in April 1955, which still called for people to unite and prevent a new world war from breaking out. In the gallery of 20th-century thinkers, Einstein is the embodiment of justice, kindness, and truth. His character shines as brightly as the sun, moon, and stars, and his scientific contributions will be revered by humanity for all generations.