Einstein's Scientific Achievements

Albert Einstein made many significant contributions to physics in his lifetime. In 1905 Einstein published four papers that contributed greatly to the founding of modern physics these papers are often called the Annus Mirabilis (Extraordinary Year) papers. He sent these papers to Annalen der Physik, the top German physics journal. In March of 1905, Albert Einstein proposed that light could act as if it consists of independent particles of energy. Einstein’s idea appeared as though it went against the universally accepted theory of light. It was thought that light consists of smoothly oscillating electromagnetic waves. However, he demonstrated that particles of energy, or light quanta as he called it, could help physicists better understand the phenomena they were studying. In May of 1905, the kinetic energy theory stated that heat was a result of atoms in motion. This theory was very well known and accepted, but Einstein suggested a way for the theory to be tested. He proposed that if particles were placed in a liquid the particles would start to move around. Einstein said this was because of the irregular bombardment by the liquid's atoms. He solidified the theory of kinetic energy and created a new technique for studying the movement of atoms. In September of 1905, Einstein, because of the theory of relativity, had a new idea. It can be summed up in this excerpt of a letter Einstein wrote to a friend: "The relativity principle in connection with the Maxwell equations demands that the mass is a direct measure for the energy contained in bodies; light transfers mass". He showed this in the famous equation E=mc². In this equation, “E” stands for energy “m” stands for mass and “c” stands for the speed of light.