Introduction
About This Book
What You’re Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book is Organized
Part I: A Genius Awakens
Part II: On the Shoulders of Giants: What Einstein Learned in School
Part III: The Special Theory of Relativity
Part IV: The General Theory of Relativity
Part V: The Quantum and the Universe
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Icons Used in This Book
Part I. A Genius Awakens
- Who Was Einstein?
In this first chapter, I describe Einstein’s genius, what he discovered, and the importance of his work.
Dissecting That Famous Brain
Touring Einstein's Life
Recognizing his own gifts
Surviving professional disappointment
Becoming famous
Lacking fortune
Playing peaceful politics
Working and playing
Appreciating his contributions
The special theory of relativity
E=mc2
Quantum theory
The general theory of relativity
Standing in Awe
- Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Man
In this chapter, I discuss the formation of the young Einstein and the crucial moments in his young life that might have led to his later development.
Glimpsing Albert's Early Years
Being slow to speak
Heading to the top of the class
Going backward in Greek
Studying holy geometry
Discovering religion
Learning on his own
Dropping Out of High School
Hiking across Italy
Failling the college admission test
Spending a Great Year at a Swiss School
Falling into first love
Performing "thought experiments"
Staying at the top of the class
Becoming a College Rebel
Focusing on physics
Cramming for exams
Falling in Love Again
Finding an intellectual companion
Exchanging letters
Asserting His Independence
Butting heads
Getting his mind in shape
Spending time in Paradise
Measuring the ether wind
Writing his senior thesis
Taking final exams
Moving Forward
- 1905: Einstein’s Miracle Year
In this chapter, I describe the five discoveries of Einstein’s Year of Wonders. This chapter introduces Einstein’s genius by describing the five rapid-fire papers that this unknown twenty-six year old rookie scientist published. The revolutionary ideas introduced here will be covered in more detailed later in the book. I interweave short narratives on his college life.
Turning Physics Upside Down
Entering the Botched Up House of Physics
Looking at light electromagnetically
Adding Newton’s mechanics to the mess
Defining the problem
The First Miracle: The Nature of Light
Determining if light is a wave or a particle
Setting the stage for quantum physics
The Second Miracle: Out With the Ether
The Third Miracle: E=mc 2
Solving the workings of the sun
Waiting for a reaction
Settling in as a Student Scientist
Perusing old love letters
Reading between the lines
Appreciating the Two Lesser Papers
Just a spoonful of sugar
How smoke gets in your eyes
The icing on the cake
Part II. On the Shoulders of Giants: What Einstein Learned in School
- Creating a Clockwork Universe
I start at the beginning (almost) and look at the ideas of the ancient Greeks about matter, motion, and the universe that formed the foundation of the knowledge passed down to Einstein. I discuss Copernicus’s revolution and Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. These ideas made possible Newton’s view of the Universe with which Einstein was fully familiar.
Introducing the First Astronomers
Inventing Science
Getting it right: The ancient Greeks
Shifting their position, unfortunately
Identifying “The Greatest” patterns
Understanding Greek Physics
Battling with Mars: Later Astronomers
Committing Heresy: Copernicus
Sharing the spotlight: Tycho and Kepler
Discovering planetary laws
Identifying the First Modern Scientist: Galileo
Using the tools at his disposal
Inventing how science is done
Forever moving
Understanding the Other Miracle Year
Failing as a farmer
Revealing his genius
Developing Newtonian Physics
Obeying the laws (of motion, that is)
Revealing Newton’s masterpiece
Sharing Genius: Newton and Einstein
Being loners
Seeing the world like Newton and Einstein
- The Arrow of Time
Thermodynamics and the arrow of time were developed almost fully by the time Einstein was in school. His theories would clarify the concept of time, which is intimately related to thermodynamics.
Desperate Measures
The one who dares, wins
Getting even
E=mc 2
Create and destroy
Mess, Laws, and Videotapes
Disorder
Messy rooms and soft drinks
Time flies…only in one direction
That’s Cold!
Can’t ever get there
Needing more room
The Zeroth Law
The Arrow of Time
Dinner and a movie
A bottle of Champagne
You can’t grow younger
- Einstein’s Most Fascinating Subject
“Convert Magnetism into Electricity.” So wrote Michael Faraday in his lab book. His work and that of Maxwell would make possible this conversion and produce electromagnetism. Einstein considered this theory to be the “most fascinating subject” and skipped classes in college to read the original papers where the theory was presented. By the time he graduates from college he has become an expert in this field, which was considered then to be at the frontiers of physics. He would discover an inconsistency between electromagnetism and Newton’s idea of absolute time. To resolve it, he introduces his theory of relativity.
Invisible Forces
Sparks
Wrong Guess
Franklin was still right
Forces and Fields
The electric force
Football fields
Magnetic fields
Making Magnets
Failed class demo
Uneducated Scientist
Applying for a job
The rings
Great Scot
College years
Professor
T-shirt equations
- And There Was Light
Newton though light was made up of little particles. The scientist Thomas Young thought light was a wave. Einstein would later say light had particle properties.
Light Show
Galileo’s lanterns
Late date with a satellite
Going around the boss
How long does it take?
Radio and Television
Jumping sparks
The first radio
Making light
Spectrum
Red Curtains
A hole in the shutters
Mixing colors
Being Young
Making noise
Poor bedside manner
In lockstep
Part III. The Special Theory of Relativity
- Relativity Before Einstein
Contrary to popular belief, Einstein did not invent relativity. The honor belongs to Galileo. I discuss Galilean relativity in this chapter.
Sailing
Gnats for your cruise
Does the Earth move?
The Principle of Relativity
Motion is relative
Bullet train
Galileo’s relativity
Another Relativity
Maxwell spoiled the fun
A strange idea
The Man Who Almost Discovered Relativity
Elastic time
Unrealized hope
- Riding on a Beam of Light
Einstein’s brand of relativity rests on two simple postulates. We are now ready to understand what Einstein called his special theory of relativity. It all began when Einstein tried to imagine what he would see were he to ride alongside a beam of light with the same speed.
Detecting the Ether
Swimming in a river
Michelson and Morley fail
The Seeds of Relativity
Einstein learns physics on his own
Discovering that you’re moving
The hidden clue
At rest in the universe
Einstein sides with Galileo
The Cornerstones of Relativity
Fixing electromagnetism
Looking for a job
Plugging holes
Solving the problem
Two Plus Two Equals Three
Speeding
You see, light always travels at c
Making physics beautiful
- Clocks, Trains, and Automobiles: Exploring Space and Time
Clocks tick at different rates depending on how they move. Relative time applies not just to clocks but to people too. We age differently depending on how fast we move. It’s called the twins paradox and I explain it in this chapter. Distances and shapes also depend on how fast you move when you observe them.
Your Time is not my Time
The butler, the train, and the countess
You and the astronomer see it differently
Time dilation
Moving clocks can’t keep up
Shortening Space
Repair mission
You have more time than you thought
Length contraction
Is It All Real?
You’re a muon!
You can grow young
Not really…you’re growing old faster
We can’t tell you’re moving
Interstellar Travel
Mixing Space and Time
Your space of mine?
- The Equation
We finally get to the most famous equation of all, E = mc 2. We are ready to understand what it means.
Mass
Laziness
Mass is relative
c-Squared
The physics of swinging steel balls
E=mc 2
“The Lord might be laughing”
Run to gain mass
A strong thread
Powering the Sun
Short threads
Sneaking in
Professor Einstein
Looking for a job again
Red tape
A scandal
Offer
Professor of theoretical physics
Part IV. The General Theory of Relativity
- Einstein’s Second Theory of Relativity
Einstein realized from the start that the special theory of relativity was restricted to a special kind of motion. He searched for over a decade for a more general theory of relativity and was finally able to achieve his goal in 1917. Incidentally, the implications of this general theory of relativity, as he called it, were what made him the most famous scientist of the twentieth century.
“The Happiest Thought of My Life”
Limitations of relativity
Falling from the roof
Throwing stones in Kathmandu
Einstein’s Space Lab
Gravity is relative
The Baron’s experiments
Einstein’s thought experiment
Bending Light
Space-time
Meeting a friend in the fourth dimension
New geometry
Not child’s play
A new system of the world
Warped space-time
Expeditions
Cloudy day
Celebrity
The Orbit of Saturn
The planet Vulcan
Aging More Slowly
Speeding clocks
Gravity slows time
The younger traveler
Testing the Theory
- “Black Holes Ain’t So Black”
Einstein’s general theory of relativity shows how light can be trapped in a black hole. Stephen Hawking later on told us that a certain radiation actually leaves the black hole area and can be detected. I explain it all in this chapter.
Schwarzschild Geometry
Measuring spacetime warping
Calculating spacetime warping from the Russian front
The Original Black Hole Idea
Trapped light
Dark stars
Schwarzschild’s Black Holes
Gravity traps light
Einstein doesn’t like them
Collapsing Stars
Extreme stars
Ultimate collapse
New Discoveries
Rotating black holes
Astonishing discoveries: Quasars and Pulsars
The Hunt
“Seeing” black holes
Betting on black holes
How the Universe Makes Black Holes
A star is born
Supernova
Black Holes Ain’t Black
Black holes have no hair
Extreme curvature
“Black holes ain’t so black”
Journey into a black hole
Time Travel
Visiting the past
Wormholes
Time machines
Censorship
- Was Einstein Right About Relativity?
NASA has tested Einstein’s predictions from Mars, from the moon, and from orbit. NASA’s latest effort, Gravity Probe B, was launched this April after thirty-five years of design and testing. The mission will measure, very precisely, how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth, and, more profoundly, how the Earth’s rotation drags space-time around with it. These effects, though small for the Earth, have far-reaching implications for the nature of matter and the structure of the Universe. Gravity Probe B is among the most thoroughly researched programs ever undertaken by NASA.
Early Tests of Relativity
Testing special relativity: life extension
Relativistic time: fly and get younger
Probing Gravity: NASA’s first test of relativity
Testing Relativity with a Martian Rover
Testing the time delay with the Mars spacecraft
Making GPS Work Right
Measuring the Curvature of Spacetime
Spacetime drag: the universe in a bucket
The mission
Was Einstein Right?
Part V. The Quantum and the Universe
- Atoms Before Einstein
The ancient Greeks came up with the idea of atoms. We forgot all about it for two millennia until the nineteenth century, when John Dalton reintroduced it with some backing from experiments.
The Reality of Atoms
Greek atomic physics
With a Grain of Salt
Popping balloons
Elements
The CRT
Plum pudding
Radiation
Probing the atom
Target practice
New model
Collapse
Black Bodies
Nothing else to discover in physics
Tragedies
The Quantum
Catastrophe
Splitting bundles
The Bohr Atom
Marbles on a staircase
New physics needed
- Quantum Leap: God Plays Dice
Relativity was not the only revolutionary theory that Einstein came up with. He also made possible quantum theory. It’s like playing dice with the universe. I explain it in this chapter. After helping create quantum theory, Einstein has second thoughts about its implications. He could never accept that “God would play dice with the universe,” as he put it. He would challenge the scientific community with experiments that only recently have been performed. This chapter tells us what the outcome is.
The Quantum
Einstein’s “revolutionary idea”
Quanta, large and small
Solar cells
Waves of Matter
New way of counting
Electron waves
The New Mechanics of the Atom
The mechanics of the atom
The world is grainy
Wave Mechanics
Uncertainty
The New Physics
Einstein didn’t buy it
Bohr sticks to his interpretation
Einstein was wrong
- Einstein and the Bomb
Of the many applications of the E=mc 2 equation, perhaps the most dramatic was the atomic bomb. I explain where the bomb came from and the connection with Einstein’s theory. I discuss Einstein’s letter to President Roosevelt and his subsequent efforts on pacifism.
Einstein’s Letter
Nuclear Physics in a Nutshell
Unruly particles
Alpha decay
Beta decay
Nuclear Fission
Splitting atoms or making new ones?
Splitting uranium
Liquid drops
The Bomb
Chain reactions
Sensing the force
Atomic bombs
The H bomb
Einstein, the Pacifist
$6,000 to develop the bomb
Absolute pacifist
- Einstein’s Greatest Blunder
This chapter explains Einstein’s equations for the universe and the early models that were developed with them. Uncharacteristically, Einstein was afraid of his own equations and introduced what he called his greatest blunder.
Einstein’s Universe
The edge of the universe
Finite with no edges
Discovering the curvature of the universe
Einstein’s Model of the Universe
A Russian model
The Universe Expands
Island universes
A yardstick for the stars
Galaxies are moving away
- Not a Blunder After All
Einstein’s blunder turned out to be not such a blunder. New theories of the universe turned to Einstein’s correction factor to explain the observations. Einstein’s work led physics and astronomy throughout the twentieth century. It’s still guiding us in the twenty-first century.
Einstein’s Universe
Energy creates gravity
Creating antigravity
The Runaway Universe
The invisible universe: discovering dark matter
Speeding away: discovering the accelerating universe
Einstein Was Right After All: His Cosmological Constant is Back
Gravity changes
Taking a baby picture of the universe: space is flat!
What Is the Cosmological Constant?
Creating particles out of the blue
Nothing flat
Looking to Unify All of Physics
Recasting general relativity into a five-dimensional spacetime
Leaving his work unfinished
Reviving Einstein’s Dream
Unifying the first two fields
Attempting the next step
Tying it all with strings
Part VI. The Part of Tens
- Ten Insights into Einstein's Beliefs on Religion and Philosophy
Although Einstein did not practice a religion, he had a strong belief that the laws of nature manifest a superior being. As a youth, he had a period of strong religious fervor. Later in life, he wrote and talked about religion from a philosophical point of view. His ideas on philosophy were deeply rooted in his understanding of the universe.
Einstein’s Religious Upbringing
What Being Religious Meant to Einstein
Einstein’s Views on Religion and Science
Einstein’s God
Einstein’s View of the Origin of Religion
Einstein and Determinism in Science
Einstein’s Philosophical Readings at the “Olympic Academy”
What Einstein Said About “Thinking”
Einstein on the Principles of Theoretical Physics
Einstein and the Goals of Science
- Ten Women Who Influenced Einstein
The women that influenced Einstein’s life started with his mother Pauline and included his first love, his first wife, his sister, and his long time secretary, Helen Dukas. I present short biographies on these and the other five women that crossed paths with Einstein.
Einstein’s Mother Pauline
Einstein’s Sister Maja
Mileva Maric, Einstein’s First Wife
Einstein’s Daughter, Lieserl
Einstein’s Second Wife, Elsa
Einstein’s Stepdaughter, Ilse Einstein
Einstein’s Other Stepdaughter, Margot Einstein
Einstein’s Secretary, Helen Dukas
Marie Winteler
Marie Curie
Part VII. Appendixes
Appendix I. Glossary
Appendix III. Einstein Timeline
Index |
