Albert Einstein

noun

physicist born in Germany who formulated the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity; Einstein also proposed that light consists of discrete quantized bundles of energy (later called photons) (1879-1955)

• Syn: ↑Einstein

• Derivationally related forms: ↑Einsteinian (for: ↑Einstein)

• Instance Hypernyms: ↑physicist

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Albert Einstein [Albert Einstein]

(1879–1955) a ↑physicist, born in Germany, who was possibly the greatest scientist of the 20th century. In 1905 he published his theory of ↑relativity. This led to the ↑equation giving the relationship between ↑mass and energy, E= mc 2, which is the basis of ↑atomic energy. Einstein suggested how it could be used for making weapons, but after ↑World War II he spoke publicly against nuclear weapons. By 1917, he had become famous all over the world. He was given the Nobel Prize for ↑physics in 1921. When Hitler came to power, Einstein, who was Jewish, went to live in the US, becoming a US citizen in 1940. In 1933 he wrote a book called Why War? with Sigmund Freud. He became a professor at ↑Princeton University in 1934, and he spent the rest of his life looking, without success, for a theory that combined those of ↑gravitation and ↑electromagnetism. In 1952 he was offered the ↑presidency (= the position of president) of the state of Israel, but did not accept it.