Albert Einstein Google Doodle

Way back in 2003 Google launched a Albert Einstein Google Doodle celebrating what would have been his 124^th birthday. The Albert Einstein Google Doodle, which appeared on March 14^th, was a slight makeover of the trademark Google logo. In the Albert Einstein Google Doodle the first “O” was transformed to resemble Einstein himself. Additionally, the end of the Albert Einstein Google Doodle featured what is perhaps his most commonly known equation, e=mc².

Einstein was born in the town of Ulm which was situated in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, in the German Empire on March 14^th 1879. His father was both a salesman and an engineer. The family were non-observant Jews.

In 1895 aged 16 Einstein sat the entrance exams for the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich.

Whilst he passed the physics and mathematical sections of the exam with exceptionally high marks, he failed the general part of the exam. The Principal of the Polytechnic advised young Einstein to attend the Aargau Cantonal School in Switzerland.

Einstein attended this school between 1895 and 1896 in order to complete his secondary education. In the January of 1896, with his father’s approval, he renounced his citizenship in the German Kingdom of Wurttemberg. This was done in order to avoid compulsory military service in the German army. The same year he completed his education at Aargau Cantonal School receiving generally good grades.

In the subjects of mathematics and physics he received a top grade of six. Upon receiving these results he enrolled on a four year Maths and Physics teaching diploma at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich.

It was here that Einstein was to meet his future wife, Mileva Maric. Both she and Einstein studied the same course.

In 1900 Einstein graduated and was awarded the Zurich Polytechnic teaching diploma.

Mileva however did not graduate as she failed the examination due to a poor mark in the mathematics section on theory of functions.

Correspondence between the two which was discovered in 1985 revealed the couple had a daughter which they referred to as “Lieserl”. According to the correspondence Lieserl was born in during the first half of 1902 in Novi Sad where Mileva had gone to live with her parents. However Mileva later returned to Switzerland without a child. The true name and fate of Einstein’s daughter are still unknown. However historians suspect she either died of scarlet fever of was in fact adopted.

The couple married in the January of 1903. They had two sons, Hans Albert Einstein born in May 1904 and Eduard Einstein who was born in July 1910. Einstein and Mileva divorced in 1919 as they had being living apart for over five years.

In 1905 after completing his dissertation, “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions”, Einstein was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich. The same year, which has become known as Einstein’s “annus mirabilis” or miracle year, he published four ground breaking papers.

These papers studied the equivalence of mass and energy, Brownian motion, special relativity and the photoelectric effect. These publications began to gain Einstein prestige among the intellectual realm. Just three years later, in 1908, Einstein had become recognised as a leading contributor to science and received a position lecturing at the University of Bern. 1921 saw Einstein being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The Prize was awarded due to the explanation of the photoelectric effect which he provided.

At this time the study of relativity was still considered to be controversial.

Einstein was visiting America when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in February 1933. He decided not to return to Germany due to the rise of Nazism. He returned to Europe with his second wife, Elsa, in March. Upon landing in Belgium Einstein was informed that his cottage had been raided by the Nazis. In addition his personal sailing boat had also been confiscated. He landed in Antwerp on March 28^th, the same day he went to the German consulate where he handed in his passport and officially renounced his German citizenship.

Einstein’s books were some of the most sought after for the Nazi book burnings which began in April 1933. The same month the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels pronounced, “Jewish intellectualism is dead.” In addition, a bounty of $5000 was placed on Einstein’s life in a list of assassination targets released by Nazi Germany. In 1935 Einstein made the decision to flee Europe to live in America where he took steps to secure U.S. citizenship. This was not a decision he took lightly as he had a number of offers for University professorship in Europe including the University of Oxford.

In 1939 he joined a group of Hungarian scientists including Leo Szilard. The group was attempting to alert Washington on the very real threat posed by German attempts to develop the atom bomb. Einstein made use of his extensive connections within the Belgium Royal Family to gain an audience with the personal envoy to the White House’s Oval Office. From this position he was able to present then President Roosevelt with a letter co-signed with Szilard. The letter warned of that if Germany was successful in developing an atomic bomb Hitler would not hesitate to use it.

Many historians argue that this letter marked the beginning of the Manhattan Project. The Project saw America entering a race with Germany to build and develop the atom bomb. The Manhattan Project was a success as America became the only country to successfully build, develop and test an atom bomb during the Second World War. However signing the letter was not an easy moral decision for Einstein who had been a committed pacifist. In 1954 a year before his death Einstein spoke of his regret to his friend Linus Pauling. He said, “I made one great mistake in my life- when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made.”

Einstein experienced internal bleeding which was caused by rupturing of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The rupture occurred on April 17^th 1955. Einstein was offered treatment but refused, stating “I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.” He died on April 18^th 1955 aged 76.

In addition to his contributions to science, one of his lasting legacies are his philosophical quotes which are frequent posted on social media platforms to this day.

These quotes include;

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

“When you are courting a nice girl and hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure of the former.”

“Before God we are all equally wise- and equally foolish.”

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”