17 Of Albert Einstein's Greatest Achievements Revealed To You!

Sridevi Tolety
Jan 05, 2023 By Sridevi Tolety
Originally Published on Jan 24, 2022
Edited by Kelly Quinn
Fact-checked by Shruti Thapa
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One can not shortlist Albert Einstein's greatest achievements in modern physics to a few numbers.

Einstein is a famous modern-day physicist whose discoveries laid the foundation of many scientific research and developments.

Albert Einstein was one of those exemplary scientists who proved to the world that there is more to this world than attaining scores in the modern education system. He strongly believed, practiced, and preached to explore the world around beyond school books, and truly, that ideology earned him the Nobel prize.

Did you know that Einstein's applied for the job of a maths and physics teacher and was rejected? It's often believed that an IQ score of 160 is the highest known IQ, which is what Albert Einstein and Hawking are thought to both have.

Though Einstein never took this test, an estimate through his exemplary works defines him as a man with a superlative IQ. It is to be noted that even a said genius cannot score more than 140 in the Mensa test for IQ.

Albert Einstein's Biggest Discovery

Albert Einstein's discoveries are really fascinating and are a thing of awe for many physicists. His many discoveries have laid a foundation for many future studies.

His papers and research are found to lay the foundation for many physics analyzes and developments. So yes, we really can not categorize one single discovery as his biggest discovery. Thus forming the basis of solar cell works.

But we can say that the theory of the photoelectric effect is one of his best works as it fetched him the Nobel Prize. And this was one of Albert Einstein greatest achievements, that made history.

This theory explains the emission of electrons from a metal when light hits an object. And these he termed as the photoelectrons.

Inconsistencies between Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell's equations inspired Einstein to publish his famous work 'On The Electrodynamics Of Moving Bodies.' As objects approached the speed of light, his concept transformed the way mechanics worked.

Did you know that Einstein wrote general theory after special theory to improvise his proposals?

Einstein extended Planck's concept of radiation. Light is a beam of particles with energies depending on their frequencies.

The photoelectric effect proposed by Einstein said that when this light beam of photons collides with the metal with sufficient energy, they collide with the atoms to knock them off, thus producing the photoelectric effect. The amount of energy carried by the light photons is proportional to a wave's frequency is determined by the particle's energy.

Albert Einstein is, in fact, one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century.

Though he, as a scientist, was not directly involved in the invention of the atomic bomb, his letter to then US president began the initiation. He later spoke publicly to strongly condemn the use of the atomic bombs, which led to mass destruction in Japan.

Multiple discoveries are credited to Einstein. His enthusiastic and curious mind constantly explored the world around him. The constant quest brought into light many facts of the world in both theoretical forms and mathematical equation forms. Even amidst a crowd, Einstien would happily spend his time writing down his equations.

What is Albert Einstein most famous for?

This is an interesting question to answer. Is he most famous for E = mc2, where he questioned the theory of light, or is he famous for so many multiple discoveries, small and large, that he made during his lifetime?

Was he famous for his lesser-known inventions or famous for his letter to President Franklin Roosevelt that led to the invention of the atom bomb?

Did you know that Albert Einstein beautifully explained the blue color of the sky? The scattering of the light from the sun is the reason for the appearance of the blue color of the sky.

The electromagnetic field of light and the electric dipole moments in molecules in the atmosphere that come in contact with the light is the reason for the blue color of the sky. His Brownian motion concept helped prove the existence of molecules. And surprisingly, scientists were unable to reconcile the findings with Maxwell's wave theory of light.

He proposed mechanics of objects that could approach the speed of light. And this concept became known as Einstein's special theory of relativity.

From an early age, Albert Einstien didn't show any interest in the regular way of teaching and learning of modern-day education. He disagreed with an education system that emphasized the method of mugging up things without satisfying the curiosity of growing minds.

He had exceptional talent to understand mathematical and physical equations and concepts, and to further develop them with logic.

This naturally led to improving his knowledge and quenching his thirst for understanding the world around him by exploring and investigating mathematical equations. He mastered Euclidean geometry when he was just 12 years of age.

Did you know that the group of Einstein and his friends called themselves Olympia Academy? They met to read and discuss books on science.

A Timeline Of Albert Einstein's Greatest Achievements

Let us begin from the time he was born until he left this world, leaving behind his accomplishments for the world to benefit from them.

From Ulm, Germany, in the year 1879, Albert Einstein began his journey of life. He did his schooling in Munich.

Surprisingly, he took medical training in his schooling years. Later, in 1896, he enrolled in the Federal polytechnic school in Zurich, graduating in 1900. But he found happiness in a patent office, where he took up his job in 1902.

Simultaneously, he started studying the electromagnetism theories of James Clerk Maxwell. And during this period, he submitted his first paper on thermodynamics.

Already in love with science and mathematics, there was no looking back for him. 1905 was his miracle year, Annus mirabilis when he did outstanding work and developed his paper on the special theory of relativity.

In 1909, young Einstein got a teaching job at the University of Zurich. In 1911, he was the youngest physicist among those who received the invitation for the first-ever physics Solvay Conference in Brussels.

He started his work on gravity and proposed his theory of gravity in 1913. And as he enjoyed his work, he explored other areas of physics and studied them. His interest turned out to be a boom for the world.

Albert Einstein became world-famous with his theory of relativity. The publication on the general theory of relativity was one of his greatest works.

Did you know that though the theory of relativity is the greatest work of Einstein, he was not awarded the Nobel prize for it?

By 1916, Einstein had generalized the concepts of Special Relativity and Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation in his work, characterizing gravity as a space-time feature. When special relativity theory began to collapse, this theory enhanced our understanding of how the universe's large-scale structure was put up.

In 1921, he then received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. The noble prize was awarded to him in 1922 because of a few criteria issues of the award category in 1921.

Simultaneously, his exemplary work in theoretical physics was well appreciated, and later the same was pivotal in the evolution of quantum theory.

Albert Einstein proposed the Brownian motion of the particles in his paper. By 1927, he started working with Neils Bohr to develop the foundation of quantum mechanics.

When the Nazi party was rising in Germany, he chose to go to America and joined the Institute of Advanced Studies in New Jersey and stayed there even after the end of World War II.

The famous Einstein Szilard letter to the then President Franklin Roosevelt for nuclear research changed the course of history when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Did you know that America built its first atomic bomb in the year 1945, a product of the Manhattan Project?

In 1550 he took his last breath.

Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for discovery of Photoelectric Effect.

Other Albert Einstein Interesting Facts

Let us go through some of the interesting facts about Albert Einstein. This section will discover how a scientist worked to prove another wrong by proving his theories right. Are you confused? Then read on.

Einstein's greatest blunder was that he did not believe in himself. Yes, he questioned his own equations proving the world's steady expansion. His theory of relativity changed the way people thought about space, time, gravity, and the cosmos.

As a result, Einstein included cosmic constants in his equations, thus freezing the cosmos with his equations. This is where Einstein went astray.

Interestingly, Hubble proved Einstein right by proving him wrong. Hubble proved that the world is constantly expanding according to Einstein's equation and theory of relativity which led to understanding the universe and formulating advanced studies. It is said that Hubble personally convinced Einstein that the universe is expanding.

Did you know that Einstein issued a paper in 1917 in which he used general relativity to model or explain the entire universe's behavior? Some of the strangest and most important conclusions in contemporary astronomy have come from the general relativity theory.

Three of Einstein's seminal publications are those in which he defined the photoelectric effect hypothesis, which served as a stepping stone to quantum theory, explained Brownian motion, established special relativity, and demonstrated mass-energy equivalence. His contributions to theoretical physics were exceptional.

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Written by Sridevi Tolety

Bachelor of Science specializing in Botany, Master of Science specializing in Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs

Sridevi Tolety picture

Sridevi ToletyBachelor of Science specializing in Botany, Master of Science specializing in Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs

With a Master's degree in clinical research from Manipal University and a PG Diploma in journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Sridevi has cultivated her passion for writing across various domains. She has authored a wide range of articles, blogs, travelogues, creative content, and short stories that have been published in leading magazines, newspapers, and websites. Sridevi is fluent in four languages and enjoys spending her spare time with loved ones. Her hobbies include reading, traveling, cooking, painting, and listening to music.

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Fact-checked by Shruti Thapa

Bachelor of Arts specializing in English

Shruti Thapa picture

Shruti ThapaBachelor of Arts specializing in English

With a passion for American, British, and children's literature, Shruti is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree at Garden City University, Bengaluru. Her fluency in Nepali, Hindi, and Mandarin demonstrates her linguistic abilities and global perspective. In addition to her literary pursuits, she has a keen interest in non-fiction literature, aesthetics, early childhood education, and Egyptian history. Shruti's research paper 'Bringing Art Illustrations In Education And Pop Culture' showcases her proficiency in these areas and her dedication to academic excellence.

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