Albert Enistein Biography : The Father Of Quantum Theory

[Mytoon]

Albert Einstein is probably the world’s most famous scientist but how much about him do you really know? Here is a short biography of the father of quantum theory.

 

https://youtu.be/A5iR8zkFxp8

Edited April 6, 2017 by Mytoon

[DrKrettin]

Perhaps you could spell his name correctly in the thread title

[exchemist]

Albert Einstein is probably the world’s most famous scientist but how much about him do you really know? Here is a short biography of the father of quantum theory.

 

https://youtu.be/A5iR8zkFxp8

I know a reasonable amount, but then my degree is in chemistry, so the early history of quantum theory was something we all learned. What many people do not realise is that his Nobel Prize was awarded, not for Relativity but for the Photo-Electric Effect. 

 

Another thing I know about him is that the notion, popular with cranks, that Einstein was rejected by the "mainstream" science community, is nonsense. He was a professor by the age of 30.  :)

[DrKrettin]

I notice that this promotion of a video does not always meet with approval, even with correct spelling.

[exchemist]

I notice that this promotion of a video does not always meet with approval, even with correct spelling.

No but it's short (2 1/2 mins) and obviously a school project or something. 

[sanctus]

First time I hear of Einstein referred to as the father of quantum Theory, otherwise nothing new in the video.

[exchemist]

First time I hear of Einstein referred to as the father of quantum Theory, otherwise nothing new in the video.

Yes. It seems to me that quantum theory had many fathers  - in fact was a collaboration over about twenty years, among around a dozen major  figures. I think it is very hard to identify a single father figure. Names that come immediately to mind include Planck, Bohr, Einstein, Schroedinger, Born, Pauli, Heisenberg, Dirac, and there were plenty more*.  

 

If I had to nominate anyone it might be Max Planck, simply because it was his empirical treatment of black body radiation, as requiring energy to be emitted only in multiples of "h" x frequency, h being now called Planck's Constant, that was the first real sign of what was to come.  

 

But was it not Einstein who was the first to use the word "quantum"? I don't believe Planck coined that term. 

 

 

* Later note: How could I have forgotten the Duc Louis de Broglie! He was the one who first articulated the idea that all matter was associated with a wave, with a frequency proportional to its momentum.

Edited April 7, 2017 by exchemist

[exchemist]

No he didn't, I think it was used in publication by Philip Lenard. Though I am sure it was used before this officially. 

Ah yes, it seems what I was thinking of was that Einstein was the first to speak of light quanta "lichtquanta": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum

Edited April 7, 2017 by exchemist

[exchemist]

You'll understand, how pompous it was for the early scientists to dismiss his work so easily, when only a handful of people truly understood Einsteins relativity. It was only in the face of evidence, ''Einstein'' became the household name for intelligence. 

But it did not take long for his talents to be recognised. His annus mirabilis papers came out in 1905 (the year he got his PhD), he was a lecturer at Bern by 1908 and a professor by 1909.

 

Considering the very challenging and revolutionary nature of his contributions, it seems to me that the science community moved with commendable speed to accept and honour him. 

Edited April 7, 2017 by exchemist

[exchemist]

Well, to some degree and maybe not to another degree. If they really truly accepting his most important theory of all, relativity, he should have got a nobel prize. Why he never got one remains a great mystery in the scientific community.

He did get the Nobel Prize in 1921, though, for "services to theoretical physics and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".  

 

If you read the presentation speech: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/press.html  it looks as if, in 1921, relativity was still "in the works" as far as its complete acceptance and implications were concerned - although Eddington's confirmation for it was already done by then it is true, whereas the edifice of quantum theory had progressed a lot, building in part on his work on the photo-electric effect. So possibly that was an uncontroversial achievement they could single out. 

[DrKrettin]

Yes that's right. 

 

But this is why I stated it is unusual he did not actually get the Nobel for his greatest work, relativity.

 

Perhaps this was because after one or two blunders, the Nobel committee decided to become cautious and award the prizes in physics, chemistry and medicine only when a discovery or theory is widely accepted, and that they were not sure about relativity until it was too late. This is just my guess.

[exchemist]

One blunder turned out to be right in the end of the day, another one led to the discovery of quantum entanglement. The man was an underrated genius (in the early years) and I am all too aware of scientific jealousy, which may have been a main factor. 

I still think I would dispute that idea that he was underrated. It seems to me his ideas were picked up very fast. As I observed before, he was made professor within 4 years of his 1905 papers coming out. That is pretty good going, especially for a previously unknown young man, who was not even 30 years old.