Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein as a child

Many people know Albert Einstein in three ways: how he didn't speak until was three but became very smart, how he tried getting into college without going to high school, or his intelligence in math and science. Now I will tell you many other things you might not have known about him. Albert Einstein was born on Ulm, Germany on March 14th, 1879. Albert Einstein had speech difficulties until he was three. When he finally started speaking, he would say his words twice. Even after he started school he continued to have speech difficulties until the age of nine. Though Jewish, Albert Einstein went to a Catholic elementary school in Munich because his mother was more interested in education than religion. His mother also insisted that he take violin lessons. Though he disliked it and eventually quit, he loved violin music for the rest of his life. His parents thought he wasn't smart, but as we shall see, they were wrong.

Herman and Pauline Einstein were Albert Einstein's parents. Albert Einstein's father was a featherbed salesman but later started to run an electric company with average success. Pauline Einstein (Albert Einstein mother) was unemployed but ran the family household. Albert also had a sister by the name of Maja Einstein. She was born two years after Albert Einstein was born and had followed in Albert Einstein's footsteps toward higher education. Albert Einstein's father was quite smart as well. Around 1880 the family moved to Munich, also in Germany, where his father and uncle had founded a company that made electrical equipment. They named the company Elektrotechnishe Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie.

Albert Einstein attended a secondary school named The Luitpold Gymnasium. When Albert Einstein was five, his father showed him a pocket compass and Albert was so impressed that an invisible force was moving it and became interested in science. As Albert Einstein got older he started making models and devices which started to show his talent in mathematics as well. In 1894, when Albert Einstein was fifteen, his father's business failed. So the Einstein family moved to Milan, Italy. Then after a couple of months they moved to Pavia, also in Italy. Albert Einstein had been left to finish high school during this time. But in 1895, he went to join his family in Pavia by convincing the school to let him go using a doctor's note.

Instead of finishing high school, Albert decided to apply directly to the Swiss Federal Institute Of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. Since he did not have a high school diploma he had to take an entrance examination. He didn't pass, so his family sent him to Aarau, Switzerland to finish his secondary schooling. In 1896, at the age of seventeen, Albert Einstein graduated. He relinquished (with his father's agreement) his German citizenship so he wouldn't have to do military service. Then, Albert Einstein finally joined the Swiss Federal Institute Of Technology and later, on February 21, 1901, got his Swiss citizenship.

Albert Einstein older

In 1896, Mileva Maric also joined the Swiss Federal Institute Of Technology. Throughout the next few years she and Albert Einstein became close friends and in 1903, they got married and had three children. Albert Einstein graduated from The Swiss Federal Institute Of Technology with a teaching degree in physics. When Albert Einstein graduated, he got a job at a patent office. This wasn't a very hard job for him, so he had plenty of spare time. When he wasn't working he produced much of his extraordinary work. In 1908 he was promoted to a teacher.

In 1905,when Albert Einstein was at the patent office, he published four papers into the Annalen der Phisik. This was a well known physics journal. These discoveries helped humans understand the universe with with such famous theories as E=mc2. Albert Einstein discovered this equation that suggested small amounts of mass could be changed into big amounts of energy.

Albert Einstein is a hero to me because he was one of the greatest scientists in the world and was so smart that his brain was studied even after he died. Even today scientists continue to find that many of his theories might be true.