Inventor Project April 1, 1996 Albert Einstein Essay Example

time of Sir Issac Newton, scientists had been trying to understand the nature of matter and radiation, and how they interacted in some unified world picture. The position that mechanical laws are fundamental has become known as the mechanical world view, and the position that electrical laws are fundamental has become known as the electromagnetic world view. Neither approach, however, is capable of providing a consistent explanation for the way radiation and matter interact when viewed from different inertial frames of reference, that is, an interaction viewed simultaneously by an observer at rest and an observer moving at unifrom speed.

In the Spring of 1905 after considering these problems for ten years, I realized that the crux of the problem lay not in a theory of matter but in a theory of measuerment. At the heart of my special theory of relativity was the realization thet all measurements of time and space depend on judgments as to whether two distant events occur simultaneously. This led me to develope a theory based on two postulates: the principle of relativity, that physical laws are the same in all inertial reference systems, and the principal of the invariance of the speed of light, that the speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant. I was thus able to provide a consistent and correct description of physical events in different inertial frames of reference without making special assumptions about the nature of matter or radiation, or how they interact. This theory is best summed up in the equation E=mc2. Where E is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light squared.

My final work was a

failed attempt at trying to understand all physical interactions, including electromagnetic interactions and weak and strong inetractions. This has come to be known as the Unified Field Theory. Today this theory has still not been proven by modern scientists. Probably the most noticable invention to come from my work was born from necessity. During World War II, it was believed here in the United States that Nazi Germany was attempting to create an atomic bomb. As a result of this believed, and startlingly real, threat the U.S. put forth a major effort at construction of an atomic bomb. Even though I myself had no part in the actual creation of the bomb, many of my theories where used. This invention that came from my ideas does not help society in any way, but it does hinder it considerably. Because of my invention we live in a world that may cease to exist at the touch of a button by a power hungry dictator. My invention is one of the most serious threats to existance of mankind in today's world.

Bibliography

1. Microsoft Encarta 95. Microsoft. IBM PC CD-ROM. 1995
2. Relativity: The Special and General Theory. Shelley Marion Publishing. New York. 1975.