Question

"Einstein was a rebel", justify the statement​

Answer 1

Answer:

Albert Einstein is easily one of the most recognizable people in history, and everybody thinks they know why. He’s the guy who, in 1905, completely revolutionized physics, overthrowing the prior order with a stroke of a pen and ushering in the modern era.

Only, he’s not. At least, not in the way you think. Einstein’s best known for the Theory of Relativity, the first part of which was published in 1905, but this was not, in fact, all that revolutionary. His actual revolutionary contribution to physics in that year was his paper on the photoelectric effect. This is somewhat overlooked, though it’s the one thing specifically mentioned in his Nobel Prize citation, and it played an essential role in launching quantum mechanics.

Last week, I gave a talk to the Union College Academy of Lifelong Learning, a program that offers courses for local retirees built around lectures by faculty. This year’s theme was “The Radical Early 20th Century,” so I used Einstein’s role in physics as my subject. The title for the talk (and this blog post) is taken from a line in Abraham Pais’s excellent scientific biography, where Pais writes:

Einstein’s lifelong attitude to the relativity theories: they were orderly transitions in which, as he experienced it, he played the role of the instrument of the Lord, Who, he deeply believed, was subtle but not malicious.

Answer 2

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science.