‘The search for truth is more precious than its possession’;Albert Einstein, also known as ‘The Father of The Nuclear Age,’; perhaps one of the most brilliant minds ever to exist was a very quiet man. ‘Einstein’s Theory of Relativity revolutionized scientific brought with new conceptions of time, space, mass, motion, and gravitation’; (Unknown, World Book Inc. )Albert Einstein contributed more than any other scientist to the modern vision of physical reality. His theory of relativity is held as human thought of the highest quality. (http://www-history.
mcs. st-andrews. ac. uk/history/Mathematicians/Einstein. html)Interested in human affairs and was one of the first supporters of a World Government, and had great compassion for people who were politically oppressed or economically oppressed.
He was also fond of classical music, and was a great player of the violin. He was born to Hermann and Paulina Koch Einstein on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Wrttemberg Germany. As a young boy at the age of five his father Hermann, showed him a little pocket compass. Einstein was deeply impressed by the mysterious behavior of the compass, because it always pointed at the same direction no matter what direction he was holding the compass itself. He later said ‘something deeply hidden had to be behind things.
‘; He attended public school in Munich, Germany and also in Aarau, Switzerland. Later Einstein Studied mathematics and physics at the Swiss Polytechnic institute in Zurich. From 1902 until 1909, Einstein worked as an examiner at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. This job gave him much time for scientific research. Einstein became a Swiss Citizen in 1905.
In 1933 while visiting the U. S. and England, Nazi Germany took seize of Einstein’s property and deprived his of his citizenship. Einstein on the other hand had been invited to study at Princeton, NJ at the Institute for Advanced Study. Einstein gladly accepted the invitation and lived there until his death in 1955.
His influential letter to President Roosevelt on August 2, 1939 started the Manhattan Project and through this project, without his influence many more Allied Power lives would have been lost in WWIIAlbert Einstein’s study of Physics and Mathematics was ingenious. Although I do not know much about the great mathematicians of the 20th century, I feel as if Albert Einstein contributed most to modern math than any other modern mathematician that I know of. His study of Physics and the progress he made in the understanding of physics gave him world-renowned attention. In 1922 he won the Nobel Peace Prize in Physics giving furthermore recognition.
Einstein also won medals such as the Gold Medal, Copley Medal of the Royal Society, and the Barnard Medal. Albert Einstein’s explanation of physics also gained him a lot of influence in the world of physics and of military personal because of the potentials of nuclear energy that were being explored. Einstein’s work in the field of physics helped explain atomic physics such as his most famous theory, ‘The Theory of Relativity. ‘; His findings on the theory of relativity (E=mc^2) helped show the potential of nuclear energy. With all of his findings and his own personal feelings on WWII Einstein felt he needed tell President Roosevelt about the potentials of a Nuclear Bomb and how the Germans were working on a bomb using Nuclear Energy. In the year 1939, Einstein and several other physicist worked together to write a letter to President Roosevelt about the need to start a nuclear program.
Only Einstein’s signature was on the letter showing that to me that he was the only person bold enough to stand up for what he believed in firmly, just like John Hancock and his famous signature in the Declaration of Independence. Einstein’s Letters to Roosevelt whom he sent stated,(Partial Letter One)Sir:Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration.
I believe therefore that it is my duty to bringto your attention the following facts and recommendations: In the course of the last four months it has been made probable -through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard inAmerica – that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future. This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable – though much less certain – that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.
(Partial Letter Two)Since the outbreak of the war, interest in uranium has intensified in Germany. I have now learned that research there is carried out in great secrecy and that it has been extended to another of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, the Institute of Physics. (Albert Einstein, Ronald W. Clark. Einstein)What these letters did was, it sparked the start of the Manhattan project. The Manhattan Project was a covert operation to build an atomic bomb to use as soon as possible.
The Manhattan project was not know to the public and the details of it were not shared with Einstein himself. J. Robert Oppenheimer created the first atomic bomb, he was a scientist, philosopher, bohemian and radical, he was the man chosen to direct the construction of the first nuclear weapon by the U. S.
(Pentis Building, The Place Where the First Atomic Bomb was built)The Manhattan Project was the code name for the US effort during the War. It was named after the Manhattan Engineer District of the US Army Corps. Started by the letter from Albert Einstein and other refugee physicists in the US, the program was slowly organized after nuclear fission was discovered by German scientists, in 1938, and many US scientists feared the chance that Hitler would attempt to build a fission bomb. ‘ The object of the project is to produce a practical military weapon in the form of a bomb in which the energy is released by a fast neutron chain reaction in one of more of the materials known to show nuclear fission.
‘; (Robert Serber April, 1943)The Outcome of this project and Einstein’s idea was the first atomic bomb, a. k. a. Little Boy and the second atomic bomb, a. k.
a. Fat Man. The first bomb Little boy was dropped on the city of Hiroshima at 8:45 a. m.
August 6, 1945. Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets wrote ( Newsweek)’ A bright light filled the plane. ‘; ‘We turned back to look at Hiroshima. The city was hidden by that awful cloud;#8230; boiling up, mushrooming.
‘; ‘For a moment, no one spoke. Then everyone was talking. ‘; ‘Look at that!, Look at that!’; Exclaimed the co. -pilot, Robert Lewis, pounding to Tibbets’s shoulder.
Lewis said he could taste atomic fission: it tasted like lead. Then he turned away to written in his journal. ‘My God,’; he asked himself, ‘what have we done?’; (Special Report, ‘Hiroshima: August 6, 1945)the point where the atomic bomb exploded was approximately 2,000 ft above the building that is now called the A- bomb dome. This act of power from the US showed the world that the US was not a country to be messed with. It led to a quick end with Japan. Now the Axis Powers had lost a greatly needed ally in the war.
Also now the Russians who agreed with the Allied Powers to help fight off the Japanese in the Pacific could put all of their resources and man power into the fight against the Axis Powers in Europe. This act by the US was not a humane thing to do, but is war humane anyhow? This act helped end the war with Japan and it saved many US lives because now the US did not have to send in ground troops into Japanese territory before their surrender. Not only for the years during the war but for years to come it showed how far superior American technology and the might of our country. Without Einstein’s influence many more Allied Power lives would have been lost in WWII. I feel most importantly that the fact he was of Jewish decent is what most importantly helped the US in a very odd way.
Einstein was asked by the Germans to lead in their research for the atomic bomb, but he refused obviously because of their intentions against the Jewish people. Also if Einstein had decided to join the German program they would probably have been ready to build the atomic bomb. President Roosevelt also would probably have never been called to the attention of the probability of the Germans building an atomic bomb and have never received the key letter from Einstein or anyone else to start the Manhattan Project. Even though Einstein did not participate in the building of the atomic bomb I feel he was the foremost major contributor in the completion of the atomic bomb. For reasons such as; He was a pioneer in the science of physics, he could have joined the enemy in the atomic race, the US might have even never know about the possibility of an atomic bomb, and Albert Einstein held enough stature and prestige to persuade a president on such a costly weapon that has had no prior use and which was being built primarily on theories.
