Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), German-born physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century.

During his stay at the Patent Office, and in his spare time, he produced much of his remarkable work and in 1908 he was appointed Privatdozent in Berne. In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, returning to Zurich in the following year to fill a similar post. In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton. He became a United States citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945.

Einstein always appeared to have a clear view of the problems of physics and the determination to solve them. He had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to his goal. He regarded his major achievements as mere stepping-stones for the next advance.

At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his special theory of relativity stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. He dealt with classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum theory: this led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He investigated the thermal properties of light with a low radiation density and his observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light.

In his early days in Berlin, Einstein postulated that the correct interpretation of the special theory of relativity must also furnish a theory of gravitation and in 1916 he published his paper on the general theory of relativity. During this time he also contributed to the problems of the theory of radiation and statistical mechanics.

In the 1920's, Einstein embarked on the construction of unified field theories, although he continued to work on the probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory, and he persevered with this work in America. He contributed to statistical mechanics by his development of the quantum theory of a monatomic gas and he has also accomplished valuable work in connection with atomic transition probabilities and relativistic cosmology.

After his retirement he continued to work towards the unification of the basic concepts of physics, taking the opposite approach, geometrisation, to the majority of physicists.

Einstein's researches are, of course, well chronicled and his more important works include Special Theory of Relativity (1905), Relativity (English translations, 1920 and 1950), General Theory of Relativity (1916), Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926), and The Evolution of Physics (1938). Among his non-scientific works, About Zionism (1930), Why War? (1933), My Philosophy (1934), and Out of My Later Years (1950) are perhaps the most important.

The touchstones of the era — the Bomb, the Big Bang, quantum physics and electronics — all bear his imprint. He was the embodiment of pure intellect – the genius among geniuses who discovered, merely by thinking about it, that the universe was not as it seemed.

References in The Big Bang Theory
The opening theme of The Big Bang Theory (The History of Everything'') uses a. Two frames later E = mc2 appears.''

In the Pilot, Leonard consoles Penny with the wave-particle duality, "No, it’s not crazy it’s, uh, uh, it’s a paradox. And paradoxes are part of nature, think about light. Now if you look at, light is a wave, as confirmed by the double slit experiment, but then, along comes Albert Einstein and discovers that light behaves like particles too."

In "The Fuzzy Boots Corollary", Leonard reveals he wants a genetically altered cat, stating, "I’ve been thinking about names, I’m kind of torn between Einstein, Newton and Sergeant Fuzzyboots."

In "The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization", Leonard mentions, "It’s from the Institute for Experimental Physics. They want us to present our paper on the properties of super solids at the topical conference on Bose-Einstein condensates."

''In "The Bat Jar Conjecture", Penny asks a question that acknowledges the Einstein-Lense-Thirring effect, "What artificial satellite has seen glimpses of Einstein's predicted frame dragging?" (Sheldon answers, "Gravity Probe B".)''

''In "The Euclid Alternative", Sheldon bemoans, "I just don’t see why I need a driver’s license, Albert Einstein never had a driver’s license." Howard quips, "Yeah, but Albert Einstein didn’t make me wet myself at 40 miles an hour." Penny also snaps, "Yeah, and I never wanted to kick Albert Einstein in the nuts."''

In "The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation", Sheldon cites Einstein's cosmological constant, "But I would like to remind you that in science, there’s no such thing as failure. There once was a man who referred to his prediction of a cosmological constant as the single biggest blunder of his career. That man’s name was, surprise, surprise, Albert Einstein. Kripke rudely declares, "Yeah, but wesearch into dark energy pwoved that Einstein’s cosmowogical constant was actually wight all along, so you’re still, surpwise, surpwise, a woser."

In "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary", Leonard jokes regarding time dilation, "How about that? Einstein was wrong. ...Approaching the speed of light doesn’t slow down time. Approaching them does."

''In "The Maternal Congruence", Sheldon notes, "For a non-physicist, you have a remarkable grasp of how electric dipoles in the brain’s water molecules could not possibly form a Bose condensate." This is a reference to Bose-Einstein condensates.''

''In "The Einstein Approximation", Sheldon says, "When Albert Einstein came up with special relativity, he was working at the patent office." He finds a similarly menial job where his basal ganglia are occupied with a routine task, freeing his prefrontal cortex to work quietly in the background on his problem.''

In "The Lunar Excitation", Sheldon refers to Albert Einstein establishing the theoretic foundation for the laser in his paper Zur Quantentheorie der Strahlung (On the Quantum Theory of Radiation) in 1917.

In "The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification", Sheldon shows Leonard a modified photograph of the 1911 Solvay Conference featuring Albert Einstein.

In "The Boyfriend Complexity", Sheldon states, "Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By that standard, Penny is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs."

In "The Thespian Catalyst", Howard reads a student review of Sheldon's lecture, "Does Einstein’s theory explain why time flies when you’re having fun, but when you’re listening to Dr. Cooper, it falls out of the sky, dead?"

''In "The Wildebeest Implementation", Leonard asserts, "Excuse me, but Einstein had a pretty busy sex life." Sheldon responds, "Yes, and he never unified gravity with the other forces. If he hadn’t been such a hound dog, we’d all have time machines."''

''In "The Roommate Transmogrification", though no direct reference is made to Einstein, mass-energy equivalence is cited as Penny uses innuendo with regards to Raj, "You know, if we weren’t friends, and you hadn’t brought up that creepy pornography story, I’d be on you like the speed of light squared on matter to make energy." Raj then exclaims, "Hey, you totally got that right! E equals M C squared."''

In "The Rhinitis Revelation", the Einstein Field Equations, $$R_{\mu \nu} -\frac{1}{2}R\,g_{\mu \nu} + \Lambda\,g_{\mu \nu} = {8 \pi G \over c^4} T_{\mu \nu}$$, are visible on the kitchen whiteboard in tensor notation.

In "The Speckerman Recurrence", Sheldon accuses Dr. of stealing Einstein's cosmological constant.

In "The Vacation Solution", Sheldon states, "Maybe that’s because I’m not being challenged. It’s the same reason Einstein failed math."

In "The Higgs Boson Observation" and henceforth, Sheldon has an Albert Einstein Bobblehead on his office desk.

''In "The Holographic Excitation", Leonard adopts the guise and accent of Einstein at a Halloween party. After Bernadette points out his costume, Leonard employs his German accent which upsets Penny, "Ja, und later she’s going to arrest me for goink fashter zen da shpeed of light." He later instructs Howard about his amorous activities with Penny in the form of a euphemism, "Just explaining the theory of relativity. Twice."''

In "The Parking Spot Escalation", Sheldon boasts, "I have been solely responsible for this university’s six loop quantum gravity calculations, I have changed the way we think about Bose-Einstein condensates, and I am also the one who got Nutter Butters in the cafeteria vending machine."

In "The Egg Salad Equivalency", Sheldon refers to himself as "Dr. Einstein Von Brainstorm."

''In "The Cooper/Kripke Inversion", Leonard consoles Sheldon, "You just got stuck on a wrong path. It happened to Einstein; he got stuck on the unified field theory for decades." Sheldon retorts, "Oh, don't play the Einstein card! His great breakthroughs happened when no one knew anything. Everything was a great breakthrough."''