Introduction

      Have you ever thought about who are the smartest people in the world? Well, I will give you three clues to describe one of the smartest people who ever lived.

     CLUE #1: He has the worst, wackiest hair! 

     CLUE #2: He is famous for the equation E=mc2.

     CLUE #3: He is an important scientist with many theories that are still used today by other scientists and inventors.

    If you guessed it was Albert Einstein, you are correct! I'm going to tell you all about his life and why Albert Einstein was so important. 

Einstein's Early life

      Einstein's family was Jewish. He was born in Ulm, in Wurttemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. 

    Einstein is known today as a genius, but did you know that he did not start talking until he was about two years-old. This was much, much later than most babies, who usually start talking when they are one year-old.

    Einstein was brilliant in math and physics, and he also loved music and played the violin.

     But did you know that Einstein struggled in school?  He actually dropped out of school because he did not like the strict rules and the way that schools limited him by focusing on memorization of facts instead of creative thinking and problem solving. 

Einstein's Important Theories

      In 1905, Einstein published his first article about light. At the time lots of people including scientists thought that light traveled in waves or tiny particles called photons. 

    Einstein is one of the most influential scientists of all time.  His discoveries from more than one hundred years ago are still used today in the inventions of all kinds of electronic devices, such as computers. 

     Einstein is probably most well-known for developing his Theory of Relativity and for his famous equation E=mc2. The E stands for ENERGY and the M stands for the MASS of matter. The big idea of this theory is that mass can be converted into energy.

     This idea was important to the eventual development of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, in which a small amount of mass inside of an atom is converted into energy.

Thinking in a Different Way

     Einstein was important because his brain could think in a different way which challenged and changed some of the ways that other scientists had been thinking for hundreds of years.

     For example, Einstein thought some important science theories such as Isaac Newton's idea of gravity were not quite correct. So he fixed these mistakes in his theory of special relativity, and we still use his theories today. 

Nobel Prize in Physics

    Einstein received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921 as an award for the important work and ideas he discovered as a scientist, especially for the Law of Photoelectric Effect.

     The Law of Photoelectric Effect describes how photons escape from materials whenever light shines on them. This idea was very important to the invention of new technologies many years later, such as the invention of solar cells to change light energy from the sun into electricity.

Einstein's Inventions

      Einstein invented several household devices and sound reproduction devices and an electromagnetic pump. He also said how and why some photons are able to form an electric current.

    He also invented an absorption refrigerator. The Einstein Refrigerator did not use electricity. There were not any plugs or motors or moving parts like in a modern refrigerator. In Eistein's invention, you heated up one end, and the other end became cold,

The Atomic Bomb

     Because Einstein was Jewish, he had to escape Nazi Germany before Adolf Hitler started imprisoning Jewish people in concentration camps and killing millions of Jewish people in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.

    In 1933, Einstein moved to the United States of America. He was 61 years old when he became a citizen of the United States. This was important because his ideas were needed to help invent the weapons that would help win World War II. 

     Einstein spoke to President Franklin Roosevelt about the importance of building the Atomic Bomb before Nazi Germany did during World War II.

    Later in his life, Einstein regretted his part in developing the Atomic Bomb because of the incredible and dangerous destructive force of nuclear weapons. He spoke about world peace and feared that atomic weapons were a threat to the survival of humanity. 

Conclusion

     Albert Einstein was important because of his Theory of Relativity, his inventions, and his correction of Isaac Newton's Theory of Gravity. He is also important to the invention of the atomic bomb to win World War II.

      I think Albert Einstein was one of the most important scientists who ever lived because he could think in a creative way, and he could look at the world with a different perspective in order to invent new ideas and change the way that humans think.