Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein is a hero because he was a very thoughtful man, and he created three theories that changed our view of the world.

Albert had a few good traits that helped him become successful. First, he was thoughtful. He thought about the hungry children in the world, and he donated money to them. Next, he wanted world peace. His friend and he called on educated people from all countries to forget their differences and help promote world peace. Lastly, he hated war. He never supported war in any way. He tried to make people rethink their views of war. Albert had some very good traits.

Albert Einstein had an unusual childhood. He was never the normal kid. When Albert was born in March 14, 1879, his mother was worried about him. His skull was pointed! The doctor told her he was just fine, but she was still worried. It was weeks before Albert's skull began to look normal to her. When he was five years old, he was very amazed by something nobody would usually think twice about. It is a round plastic case with a red jiggling needle inside. Everybody called it a compass. Albert was dumbfounded when he turned it around, and it always pointed north. When Albert was in religious school to learn the Jewish ways, his friends were always marching around the playground pretending to be soldiers. But Albert wanted nothing to do with soldiers. Later, when Albert was still young, his mother wanted to teach him how to play the violin. He liked it, but like any other kid, he never wanted to practice. But, he played the violin whenever he had the chance. Albert had a very unusual childhood.

Albert was very curious about light. When he was sixteen, he wondered what it would be like to be riding at the speed of light. He made a video in his mind, and when it played, he would be flying on a stream of light, racing around the earth. Einstein was always daydreaming in his classes. He was also failing in his classes. One time, he handed in a poorly written paper to his teacher, and his teacher said "Albert, you will never amount to anything." When his teachers yelled at him for making a dumb mistake, he would give them a little sarcastic smirk. Albert had little hope of passing in school. He began to hate it. Albert had a plan to drop out, but he got expelled before he could use his plan. He was insulted. Albert's family moved to Italy, and he was enchanted by it. He enrolled in Zurich High School, and he loved it, too. His teachers liked his curiosity about science and physics, and encouraged him to keep it up, unlike his old teachers. But, Albert was still himself. He still gave a sarcastic smirk once in a while, but he respected his teachers, and they respected him. He loved his new school.

Much later, something great happened to Albert. At age twenty, he got married to Mileva. They had kids. After a while, Mileva started to feel lonely. She was with the babies, of course, but Albert always had his nose in a notebook while jotting down notes. But, Mileva got over it soon. Albert and Mileva loved each other.

Albert was interested in something. Albert was interested in molecules. Back then, scientists didn't have a microscope powerful enough to see molecules. In fact, no one knew about them. But Albert did. At that time, scientists were wondering about something they called Brownian motion. When you put pollen in water, it would jump around and fly everywhere. Nobody understood why, though. But Albert did. Albert had the chance to prove molecules were real, and reveal the answer to the Brownian motion. Albert said that the reason the pollen was moving is because water molecules were pushing the pollen around, causing it to move everywhere. After he showed other scientists his calculations, they understood his answer. The theory was soon published. Albert had a very interesting theory.

Despite just finishing the Brownian motion theory, Albert still had something else on his mind. Light. Albert created a theory that says light is made up of quanta, or bits of energy. When light hits a mirror, the quanta bounce off the mirror exactly the same, causing a reflection. The reason it doesn't reflect off walls, is because it is rough, and has tiny molecular bumps. When it hits that, quanta spreads everywhere, not straight. A mirror is completely flat. For example, light bounces off a mirror completely straight, and you see the light exactly as it is. When you look at a wall, light is bouncing everywhere, making it a messed up reflection. It's so spread apart, you don't notice anything. The theory was called the photoelectric effect. It was soon published. Albert won the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics for his theory.

Albert wasn't fully satisfied. So, he created another theory. Albert said that if you put a two mile per hour toy car on a one hundred mile per hour train, the car would be going at one hundred two miles per hour. But if someone put a lamp on a train, the speed of the light would always stay the same. The speed of light is never relative. Later on, all of Albert's theories were published. Albert had created three great theories.

After creating his theories, there was a life shattering experience. Mileva died. Albert cried at night, all alone. But, soon after, Albert got married again. He got married to Elsa. When World War 1 began, and Albert decided to live in Germany again to give support. He became a German citizen again, and he tried to create world peace and end the war. Some people learned from him on that. But of course, some people didn't. Albert did take a good impact on world peace, though. After the war, somebody was talking to Einstein about a project. This man was making an explosive, now known as the atomic bomb. Albert said that his idea was foolish. But Albert had to help, so he helped the man create it.

Albert got older. His children had kids. Albert spent time with his grand kids as much as possible. But then, something awful occurred. An atomic bomb was dropped on Japan! "Oh Weh!" Albert would holler. It was an expression of sorrow that went beyond words. That was the end of World War 2. Albert hated war.

As Albert got even older, he was sailing and spending time with his grandkids. He later died on April 8, 1955. He was dearly missed. Albert had a great life. I learned something from how Albert lived. I learned from him to ask questions when you are curious. That is how Albert got so smart. That is what I learned.

Albert Einstein is my favorite hero.