History UsefulNotes / AlbertEinstein

Born in Ulm, Germany, Einstein was the son of an engineer. He was gifted in math and science from an early age. The urban legend that he [[BookDumb failed mathematics in high school]] is [[CommonKnowledge completely untrue]]. He did fail the entrance examination to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich first time around, but that was because the exam was in French, a language he read poorly.[[note]]Which must have been infuriating for him, since Zürich is a German-speaking city and German was the language of instruction at the Institute. On the other hand, [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Wernher von Braun]] did fail ninth-grade algebra, so you can use that to cheer your kid up about bad grades if you like. UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison and Creator/StanleyKubrick also did poorly in school, so they're also good for encouragement.[[/note]] [[TeenGenius He first started thinking about relativity at the age of 16]], as he tried to imagine how a light wave would look if he traveled with it at the speed of light.[[note]]The idea of relativity was sort of "in the air" when Einstein was growing up in TheGayNineties, as the similarly-multitalented Austrian Ernst Mach was articulating it at the time. There is no question, however, that Einstein's contributions were revolutionary [[/note]]

In the US, Einstein became something of a pop culture icon, with newspapers and reporters beating a path to his door. He also became [[FriendToAllChildren something of a star amongst children]], who wrote him thousands of letters about all manner of topics. Einstein was an influential member of the civil rights, pacifist, and Zionist movements; David Ben-Gurion even offered him the (mostly ceremonial) post of President of Israel (its powers are similar to those of the [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor British Monarch]]). He turned it down (much to Ben-Gurion's relief, as a pacifist saint is not exactly something that a fledgling nation beset by enemies needs), and the post went to Chaim Weizmann (himself a scientist).

However, on April 17th, 1955, he suffered a severe bout of internal bleeding from an aneurysm that he previously had surgery for. However, he refused any further surgery, saying "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," and die he did the very next morning. He was 76 years old.

* Tom Conti portrays Einstein in ''Film/{{Oppenheimer}}''.

* Despite having a hideous hairstyle, [[KavorkaMan he was quite a lady man who always had sex frequently]].

Einstein left Germany for the US during the early rise of Nazism, where his Jewish heritage made him an easy target. In 1939, he signed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein-Szilard_letter a famous letter]] to [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt Roosevelt]] supporting the opening of research into the atomic bomb. Einstein was never involved in the Manhattan Project because the FBI was deeply suspicious of his staunch pacifism and supposed "[[RedScare communist sympathies]]"; during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, [[BigBrotherIsWatching the FBI kept very close tabs on him]] and even considered kicking him out of the country. In fact, he had almost nothing to do with the letter: It was written by Leo Szilard in consultation with fellow Hungarian physicists Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner, and they asked Einstein to sign it only because [[WolverinePublicity his famous name would draw attention]], and Einstein later said he wouldn't have signed the letter if he had known for certain the Nazis weren't developing one.

In the US, Einstein became something of a pop culture icon, with newspapers and reporters beating a path to his door. He also became [[FriendToAllChildren something of a star amongst children]], who wrote him thousands of letters about all manner of topics. Einstein was an influential member of the civil rights, pacifist, socialist, and Zionist movements; David Ben-Gurion even offered him the (mostly ceremonial) post of President of Israel (its powers are similar to those of the [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor British Monarch]]). He turned it down (much to Ben-Gurion's relief, as a pacifist saint is not exactly something that a fledgling nation beset by enemies needs), and the post went to Chaim Weizmann (himself a scientist).

Born in Ulm, Germany, Einstein was the son of an engineer. He was gifted in math and science from an early age. The urban legend that he [[BookDumb failed mathematics in high school]] is [[CommonKnowledge completely untrue]]. He did fail the entrance examination to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich first time around, but that was because the exam was in French, a language he read poorly.[[note]]Which must have been infuriating for him, since Zürich is a German-speaking city and German was the language of instruction at the Institute[[/note]][[note]]On the other hand, [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Wernher von Braun]] did fail ninth-grade algebra, so you can use that to cheer your kid up about bad grades if you like. UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison and Creator/StanleyKubrick also did poorly in school, so they're also good for encouragement.[[/note]] [[TeenGenius He first started thinking about relativity at the age of 16]], as he tried to imagine how a light wave would look if he traveled with it at the speed of light.[[note]]The idea of relativity was sort of "in the air" when Einstein was growing up in TheGayNineties, as the similarly-multitalented Austrian Ernst Mach was articulating it at the time. There is no question, however, that Einstein's contributions were revolutionary [[/note]]

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', Doc Brown's 1985 dog is called Einstein, who is his first living test subject for his time-travel experiments, and much of the movie takes place in 1955, the same year Einstein died. Doc also keeps a portrait of Albert Einstein in his home, alongside Thomas Edison, Sir Isaac Newton, and Benjamin Franklin.

* After getting the shit kicked out of him, the time cop of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' finds Einstein, whom he believes to be Rick, and assaults him shouting "you dont mess with time". Upset, Einstein states that he will mess with time, writing E=mc2 on his board as he gets up.
* Einstein is a recurring character on ''WesternAnimation/PegPlusCat'', along with other {{Historical Domain Character}}s. One episode is dedicated to him celebrating Hanukkah with Peg and Cat.

Born in Ulm, Germany, Einstein was the son of an engineer. He was gifted in math and science from an early age. The urban legend that he [[BookDumb failed mathematics in high school]] is [[CommonKnowledge completely untrue]]. He did fail the entrance examination to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich first time around, [[CripplingOverspecialization but that was because the exam was in French, a language he read poorly]].[[note]]Which must have been infuriating for him, since Zürich is a German-speaking city and German was the language of instruction at the Institute[[/note]][[note]]On the other hand, [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Wernher von Braun]] did fail ninth-grade algebra, so you can use that to cheer your kid up about bad grades if you like. UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison and Creator/StanleyKubrick also did poorly in school, so they're also good for encouragement.[[/note]] [[TeenGenius He first started thinking about relativity at the age of 16]], as he tried to imagine how a light wave would look if he traveled with it at the speed of light.[[note]]The idea of relativity was sort of "in the air" when Einstein was growing up in TheGayNineties, as the similarly-multitalented Austrian Ernst Mach was articulating it at the time. There is no question, however, that Einstein's contributions were revolutionary [[/note]]

* Many people still try to debunk his theories, find some flaws or paradoxes in them. For some reason, they believe that relativity is still the front edge of modern physics, even though his theories are more then a century old by now. Just for comparison, 1903 is the year when the Wright brothers made their "Flyer 1", the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft. Compare modern airliners with the Flyer 1, and you'll get a general idea of how much more advanced modern physics is compared to theories of relativity.

[[caption-width-right:300: The man who shaped the whole [[The20thCentury Twentieth Century]].]]

Einstein died in 1955. He spent most of the time after his arrival at the United States attempting to explain the then-modern physics with field theories. He never believed in quantum theories and remained their opponent until his death (see "God does not play dice"). The task was completed more than 10 years after his death in 1967, with the introduction of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Model Standard Model]].

* Following from the above, please note that Einstein '''never said most of the stuff people credit him with saying.''' He never said that standardized testing was like teaching a fish to climb a tree, that insanity is repeating the same method expecting different results, or that the extinction of bees would spell the destruction of civilization. Website/TheOtherWiki has a [[https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein good resource here]] with verifiable quotes that he made, and statements that he probably never made. Please consult it when you see an Einstein quote on the Internet.

[[caption-width-right:300: The man who shaped the whole [[TheTwentiethCentury Twentieth Century]].]]

* Following from the above, please note that Einstein '''never said most of the stuff people credit him with saying.''' He never said that standardized testing was like teaching a fish to climb a tree, that insanity is repeating the same method expecting different results, or that the extinction of bees would spell the destruction of civilization. Wiki/TheOtherWiki has a [[https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein good resource here]] with verifiable quotes that he made, and statements that he probably never made. Please consult it when you see an Einstein quote on the Internet.

* Many people still try to debunk his theories, find some flaws or paradoxes in them. For some reason, they believe that relativety is still the front edge of modern physics, even though his theories are more then a century old by now. Just for comparison, 1903 is the year when the Wright brothers made their "Flyer 1", the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft. Compare modern airliners with the Flyer 1, and you'll get a general idea of how much more advanced modern physics is compared to theories of relativity.

Einstein left Germany for the US during the early rise of Nazism, where his Jewish heritage made him an easy target. In 1939, he signed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein-Szilard_letter a famous letter]] to [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt Roosevelt]] supporting the opening of research into the atomic bomb. Einstein was never involved in the Manhattan Project because the FBI was deeply suspicious of his staunch pacifism and supposed "[[RedScare communist sympathies]]"; during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, [[BigBrotherIsWatching the FBI kept very close tabs on him]] and even considered kicking him out of the country. In fact, he had almost nothing to do with the letter: It was written by Leo Szilard in consultation with fellow Hungarian physicists Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner, and they asked Einstein to sign it only because [[WolverinePublicity his famous name would draw attention]].

* ''IQ'' (1994 film). Walter Matthau plays Albert Einstein as a romantic matchmaker between his (fictional) niece Catherine and local auto mechanic Ed Walters.

After graduating, a friend got him a job at a patent office, a quiet post that gave him plenty of unsupervised free time to work on physics. Nothing special happened until 1905, dubbed ''[[GratuitousLatin Annus Mirabilis]]''[[note]]"Wonderful Year"[[/note]], when he published four papers, in which he explained the photoelectric effect (which eventually got him a Nobel prize, and provided a ''major'' breakthrough in quantum mechanics), Brownian motion (which proved the existence of atoms once and for all--a scientific mystery that has been around since the days of classical Greece), special UsefulNotes/{{relativity}} (a theory explaining the previously observed fact that light travels at the same apparent speed regardless of the speed of the observer, which predicts some bizarre consequences, like that two observers moving relative to each other will not agree on how quickly time passes), and matter-energy equivalence (where we get the equation E = mc[[superscript:2]])[[note]]Simply put, energy is matter, matter is energy. Matter is ''kind of'' like concentrated, solid energy.[[/note]] Needless to say, the papers had a revolutionary impact on science, most notably kicking off the age of nuclear energy.

Theoretical physicist, patent clerk, statesman, philosopher, amateur violinist, father of modern physics, superstar, one of the smartest humans in history, and the most famous scientist of the 20th century. Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 -- April 18, 1955) [[TropeCodifier was single-handedly responsible for pretty much every genius-related trope]] in 20th-century[=/=]21st-century media: [[AbsentMindedProfessor the brilliant yet witty and genial old man]], [[EinsteinHair the fly-away hair]], [[CloudCuckooLander the mild loopiness and absent mindedness]], etc, etc.

No relation to actor Creator/AlbertBrooks, who was born Albert Lawrence Einstein.

Born in Ulm, Germany, Einstein was the son of an engineer. He was gifted in math and science from an early age. The urban legend that he failed mathematics in high school is completely untrue. He did fail the entrance examination to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich first time around, [[CripplingOverspecialization but that was because the exam was in French, a language he read poorly]].[[note]]Which must have been infuriating for him, since Zürich is a German-speaking city and German was the language of instruction at the Institute[[/note]][[note]]On the other hand, [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Wernher von Braun]] did fail ninth-grade algebra, so you can use that to cheer your kid up about bad grades if you like. UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison and Creator/StanleyKubrick also did poorly in school, so they're also good for encouragement.[[/note]] [[TeenGenius He first started thinking about relativity at the age of 16]], as he tried to imagine how a light wave would look if he traveled with it at the speed of light.[[note]]The idea of relativity was sort of "in the air" when Einstein was growing up in TheGayNineties, as the similarly-multitalented Austrian Ernst Mach was articulating it at the time. There is no question, however, that Einstein's contributions were revolutionary [[/note]]

Einstein left Germany for the US during the early rise of Nazism, where his Jewish heritage made him an easy target. In 1939, he signed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein-Szilard_letter a famous letter]] to [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt Roosevelt]] supporting the opening of research into the atomic bomb. Einstein was never involved in the Manhattan Project because the FBI was deeply suspicious of his staunch pacifism and supposed "communist sympathies"; during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, [[BigBrotherIsWatching the FBI kept very close tabs on him]] and even considered kicking him out of the country. In fact, he had almost nothing to do with the letter: It was written by Leo Szilard in consultation with fellow Hungarian physicists Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner, and they asked Einstein to sign it only because [[WolverinePublicity his famous name would draw attention]].

* Einstein received his Nobel prize for his explanation of the photoelectric effect, not relativity. At the time of the awarding, physical proof for relativity was still somewhat scant, and the more conservative members of the award committee disliked relativity and held up the award process for a few years. Eventually, they compromised and awarded the prize for the photoelectric effect, a safer option. Many treated this as an AwardSnub. On the other hand, Einstein's work on the photoelectric effect is an important theoretical basis for modern image sensors, which are...well...let's just say that the camera in every phone and computer today is just one of many applications of this technology. [[VindicatedByHistory Thus, in retrospect, the Nobel committee may have been right about giving him the award for this]], as the photoelectric effect might just be Einstein's most significant contribution to daily-use technology.

* Einstein received his Nobel prize for his explanation of the photoelectric effect, not relativity. At the time of the awarding, physical proof for relativity was still somewhat scant, and the more conservative members of the award committee disliked relativity and held up the award process for a few years. Eventually, they compromised and awarded the prize for the photoelectric effect, a safer option. Many treated this as an AwardSnub.

Born in Ulm, Germany, Einstein was the son of an engineer. He was gifted in math and science from an early age. The urban legend that he failed mathematics in high school is completely untrue. He did fail the entrance examination to The Zürich Institute of Technology first time around, [[CripplingOverspecialization but that was because the exam was in French, a language he read poorly]].[[note]]On the other hand, [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Wernher von Braun]] did fail ninth-grade algebra, so you can use that to cheer your kid up about bad grades if you like. UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison and Creator/StanleyKubrick also did poorly in school, so they're also good for encouragement.[[/note]] [[TeenGenius He first started thinking about relativity at the age of 16]], as he tried to imagine how a light wave would look if he traveled with it at the speed of light.[[note]]The idea of relativity was sort of "in the air" when Einstein was growing up in TheGayNineties, as the similarly-multitalented Austrian Ernst Mach was articulating it at the time. There is no question, however, that Einstein's contributions were revolutionary [[/note]]

* He was JustForFun/OneOfUs. The next time you feel bad because you're obsessed with a "kid's" show, remember Einstein was a fan of the early 1950's TV puppet show and ''WesternAnimation/BeanyAndCecil'' precursor ''Time for Beany'', which was a kid's show heavy on ParentalBonus. He reputedly interrupted a high-level conference by announcing, "You will have to excuse me, gentlemen. It's ''Time for Beany''." He was also noted to be a fan of comics, several times during his days as a patent clerk he was often found reading them rather than working.