Topic: Albert Einstein

Age:

13-16

Goals:

The student will learn about Albert Einstein and different points of view.

Lesson structure:

-!it is important that the educator will read the biography appendix,

before had so it may be used to add facts as necessary.

CommentsAccessoriesBasic topicsTimeNum.

Ap.1

illusions

Different points of view10.1

See belowRiddle2.2Association "sun "3.3

Ap.2, Ap.3,

Ap.4

Pics, quotes and facts.

Quotes facts and discussions30.4

Lesson procedure:

1 . Different points of view :

Show the students different illusions, (Appendix 1) and then ask

one of them to go outside .

Draw 8 lines on the board/paper .

Tell the others to say that there are 9 lines. When the student will

return, ask him how many line are there? He/she will say 8 but all the

others will say 9. See how does he/she reacts and if they change their

mind, due to the pressure ..

) Its better to prepare all the others in advance(

2 .A riddle:

a. Me ,myself , I and the number of the most holy.

Being that number is sometimes great,

But sometimes it might be very lonely....(one)

b. Solid and small, smooth or not,

I give the tone a new meaning,

When just add the "s" and me you've got....(stone)

c. Adding the first to the second ,

will reveal the name.

But only in German ,

Meaningful it will become....(one stone= Einstein)

3 .Association "sun:"

Ask the students to write on the board\paper whatever the name Albert

Einstein tells them and add other things they might forget .

) For example: Jewish, atom bomb, relativity, hairstyle, funny, strange,

old, genius etc(.

4 .Quotes:

In Ap.2 you will find few of many quotes by Albert Einstein .

Also there are 18 pictures of different aspects of his life .

The idea is to write\use them (or some of them) on cards and put them

on the floor, picture up.

Every student in his\her turn, will pick one up, read the quote and

discuss it shortly, then, add another card from AP.4 which gives few

facts about different aspects of his life in connection to the quotes.

Appendix:

Ap.1: optical illusions :

A donkey or a gentleman ?

A vase or 2 faces ?

A duck or a bunny?

A woman or a man plays the sax ?

Which is smaller ?

A landscape or a baby?

A young or old lady or a Scott ?

how many legs ?

Ap.2: Einstein's quotes 1 .He who never made a mistake. Never tried anything new.

2 .All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.

3 .An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

4 .Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction .

5 .Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

6 .Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

7 .Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

8 .Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

9 .Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

10 .I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

11 .I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones

12 .I never think of the future - it comes soon enough13 .If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z,

X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.

14 .If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

15 .Imagination is more important than knowledge.

16 .Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow .

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

17 .Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

18 .True religion is living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.

Ap.3: Einstein pictures:

Upper left: a portrait in his 40'sUpper right: a portrait in his 60's Lower left: pastime on his bike.Lower right: a portrait.

Upper left: with his son and second wife.Upper right: in reception in San Diego.Lower left: a caricature as an atomic explosion.Lower right: pastime at sea, sailing

Upper left: with a Bengali pacifist 1930Upper right: in Palestine 1923Lower left: in his 70'sLower right: with a child.

Upper left: an anti-Semitic caricature, against Einstein's entering the U.S Upper right: a famous violinist tells him that his violin is not clean…Lower left: a kid's letter regarding his hair style…

Lower right: with holocaust survivor children in the U.S.

U.S passport :

Roosevelt's answer regarding the atom bomb.

Ap.4: factsEinstein's personal life:

Personality-Albert was born in Germany, to middle class parents. On the contrary to what is normal to think, he was a very good student, especially in science and math. He left school at the age of 16 because he hated the militarism and stress that were there.Albert was a lonely day dreamer kid who grew to be a self confident young man.All his life he was a passionate nonconformist, who rebelled against the acceptable civil norms of that time, and was especially sarcastic when met with high class characters. Also he had a developed sense of humor and especially he love, "Jewish jokes". In his late years he almost totally disconnected himself from matters of the heart, he said that it helped him to be one with his ultimate love- science.

He developed a deep and passionate with Milva, his first wife but never felt those same feeling to his second one, Elsa, but enjoyed the carefree life she gave him.From time to time he found love in affairs with other women.He had 2 girls from his first wife and adopted the 2 boys from his second wife's first marriage.

The pacifist -

Albert, put a huge effort to accomplish the things which were close to his heart.His humanistic passion drove him to fight for peace, freedom and justice.He was a pacifist who stood against fascism .

But when the Nazis grew in power, changed his mind and he preached for standing against them.

President of Israel-?Albert Einstein was given an offer to become the president of the new born state of Israel.In a letter he was given by the Israeli government was written :

" It is important for you to understand, that the young state of Israel, aware that it is small but may achieve the highest level of spiritual

and intellectual state. Therefore we would like to express our highest honor to you".

His reply:" I am thrilled from the offer but also ashamed that I cannot accept it.

All my life I have dealt with objective matters, so I am lacking the tools to deal with subjective matters. Most I am sorry due to the fact me being a Jew, and my strong bonds with my people, which I

understand now, is not safe in this world among the other nations". Some said that his family and friends were joking, that if he would

have said yes, Israel was in trouble …

In the opening ceremony of the first university in Israel:

"A university is a place where the peaks of mankind are being revealed. Science and research strive to find the truth. Therefore a constitution like a university must unite different nations and people. Unfortunately the European universities are beds for chauvinism. In this opportunity of a birth of a new university, I would like to express my hope that this university would be free of this ill manner, and will serve this nation

in the best way it can .

Einstein and the bomb:Albert Einstein understood the threat of the atomic power brings to the world and in the last decade of his life he worked restlessly to bring nations to work together against such wars. He also believed that a great responsibility lies on the back of scientists to explain the threat of nuclear power.Albert also criticized both the U.S and the Soviet Union about the cold war, and

worked to bring the two nation's scientists, in order to work together .In the common belief Einstein is considered to be the father of the atomic bomb but the truth is not even close. In reality the equation E=mc^2, was not necessary in building the bomb. He didn’t even his letter to President Roosevelt, didn’t give birth to project Manhattan. Einstein heard about the bombing of Hiroshima together with the rest of the world in his home .

Einstein's Jewish identity:Jewish nationality- anti-Semitism in the First World War caused Albert to deny any thought of assimilation.Albert Einstein was an immigrant from Nazi Germany to the U.S and felled his time with attempts to find jobs and home for all the scientific emigrants. He was shocked with the monstrosities of the holocaust, and never made peace with Germany till his

dieing day .He felt that it is right to build a home for the Jews in the land of Israel, with agreement from the Arabs who lived here. Until 1947 he called for a Bi-national state, in the land of Israel. After 1947 he said that the new Israeli government must act with moral and justice to the minorities in the land.Einstein felt part of the Jewish world all his life, and never hid his Jewish identity.

Einstein's hobbies and past time:Music-In music, Einstein has found serenity from his stressful life.Ha said that music brought him to the highest level of happiness. In times he used to solve his problems in physics while he was playing the violin. He also said that music had simplicity, clarity and purity found no where else.He especially loved Mozart and Beethoven but hated Wagner. Einstein said that if he wouldn’t have become a scientist he would have become a musician.

Sailing-Einstein chose sailing, as his favorite sport. In Germany he sailed in his boat "Timler"

(dolphin), and at in the U.S in his boat "Tinnef" (garbage in Idish) Sailing let Einstein think more calmly. He didn’t care for speed or racing, and was happy to drift aimlessly or get stuck on his boat. Many times he had a notebook on which he wrote his mathematic formulas. He never learned to swim and didn’t hold a life jacket or a spare engine.

Letter writing-Albert Einstein loved to write letters to kids who wrote him, asking all kind of weird and different questions. Some even gave him practical advises, drew pictures for him and sent pictures. Albert kept many of these letters; in his answers we can find a will to develop their curiosity. His strange appearance always interested the kids, his wild funky hair, never with socks, big coat and a wool hat .

The myth of Einstein -Einstein was a mythical almost, of a man, a universal icon. He was a demon and a saint, a clown and genius, a child and an old man, a wizard and a philosopher. He got famous by night becoming (according to his won humor a "Jewish saint") but also a

target to anti-Semitic attacks for his "Jewish physics ." In shows, movies and commercials, he stood next to Mickey mouse and Merlin Monroe, in the pantheon of cultural icons of the 20th century.His donation to mankind was unique. He worked tirelessly to find solid rules to the universe and nature itself. He turned the common knowledge of space and time .Einstein was the father of the lore of relativity and quantum .

His genius was in his intuition and creativity in understanding nature, with understanding that his research was based upon earlier researches of other scientists .

Ap.5: biography

Albert Einstein

(1879-1955)

One of the greatest physicists of all time, Nobel Prize winner and discoverer of the special and general theory of relativity, Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Wurttemberg, of Jewish parents.

He spent his early years in Munich where his father set up a small electrochemical business. As a boy he was fascinated by algebra and geometry, though he detested the barracks discipline of German schools. In 1896, he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, graduating in 1900 and receiving his doctorate from Zurich in 1905. Unable to get an academic position, he took a post with the patent office in Bern while continuing to pursue his concern with the fundamental problems of physics.

In 1905, he published four brilliant papers in the Annalen der Physik which were to transform twentieth-century scientific thought. He established the special theory of relativity, predicted the equivalence of mass (m) and energy (e) according to the equation e = mc2, where (c) represents the velocity of light; he created the theory of Brownian motion and founded the photon theory of light (photoelectric effect) for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1921.

Einstein joined the German University of Prague in 1910 and then, in 1913, through Max Planck received a Professorship at the Prussian Academy of Science in Berlin.

In 1916, Einstein published his Die Grundlagen der allgemeinen Relativitatstheorie (Relativity, the Special and the General Theory: A Popular Exposition, 1920), which profoundly modified the simple concepts of space and time on which Newtonian mechanics had been based. His prediction of the deflection of light by the gravitational field of the sun was borne out by a British team of scientists at the time of the solar eclipse in 1919, making Einstein a household name.

Throughout the Weimar years he was lionized, especially abroad, though in Germany not only his work but also his pacifist politics aroused violent animosity in extreme right-wing circles. Anti-Semites sought to brand his theory of relativity as 'un-German' and during the Third Reich they partially achieved their objective, when Einstein's name could no longer be mentioned in lectures or scholarly papers, though his relativity theory was still taught.

During the 1920s Einstein traveled widely in Europe, America and Asia and identified himself with various public causes such as pacifism, Zionism, the League of Nations and European unity. When Hitler came to power in January 1933, Einstein was in California and he never returned to Germany, being almost immediately deprived of his posts in Berlin and his membership of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

His property was seized and a price put on his head by Nazi fanatics. His books were among those burned publicly on May 10, 1933, as manifestations of the 'un-German spirit'. As an outspoken opponent of National Socialism his name became synonymous with treason in the Third Reich.

Einstein immigrated to the United States where he became a Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies (Princeton) and an American citizen in 1940. Alarmed at the prospect that Hitler's Germany might acquire an atomic bomb after two German physicists had discovered the fission of uranium, Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt in August 1939, which sparked off the Manhattan project. It was one of the great ironies of his career that the pacifist Einstein, through this action, should have helped initiate the era of nuclear weapons to whose use he was completely opposed.

A lifelong opponent of nationalism, Einstein regarded the Third Reich as a catastrophe for civilization.

Active in Jewish causes he was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, but declined, “being deeply touched by the offer but not suited for the position.”

His simplicity, benevolence and good humor as well as his scientific genius gave Einstein a unique fame and prestige among physicists, even though after the mid-1920s he diverged from the main trends in the field, especially disliking the probabilistic interpretation of the universe associated with quantum theory.

The best-known refugee from Nazism and one of its most adamant critics, Einstein died in Princeton on April 18, 1955.

Born in Ulm, Germany, Einstein grew up in Munich. As a boy, he already showed great interest in and talent for mathematics and physics. His family moved to Italy, and young Albert, unhappy with the authoritarian discipline of the German schools, went on to study at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Of the four graduates in 1900, he was the only one who was not given a position at the Institute; instead, he became a Swiss citizen and took a job at the Swiss patent office in Berne.

In 1905, Einstein was granted a doctorate by the University of Zurich. His thesis, Eine neue Bestimmung der Molekuldimensionen (A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions), Berne, 1905, was his first independently published work (five papers had previously been published in Annalen der Physik). The Library's copy of Einstein's twenty-one-page doctoral dissertation was received on January 18, 1907, as a “Smithsonian Deposit.” In "Subtle is the Lord . . . ” The Science and Life of Albert Einstein (New York, 1982), Abraham Pais, of Rockefeller University, writes:

It is not sufficiently realized that Einstein's thesis is one of his most fundamental papers ... It had more widespread application than any other paper Einstein ever wrote. of the eleven scientific articles published by any author before 1912, and cited most frequently

between 1961 and 1975, four are by Einstein. Among these four, the thesis ... ranks first.

In 1921, Einstein accompanied Chaim Weizmann on a tour of the United States to raise funds for the proposed Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Among other honors, Einstein was received at the White House by President Harding, The Library has a photograph taken at the Farewell Dinner of the American Palestine Campaign. On it are Professor and Mrs. Einstein, financier Felix Warburg, Zionist leaders Robert Szold, Morris Rothenberg, and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, as well as Jefferson Seligman of the banking family. The Prints and Photographs Division also contains a print of a pen and ink drawing of Einstein by Robert Kastor on which is inscribed in Einsteins own hand in German:

Nature has so wonderful a harmony that at times, one can draw conclusions from distant facts about not yet observed phenomena, and do so with such certainty, that he can look forward without fear to comparing these conclusions with observed reality.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein resigned his position in the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences. On October 17 of that year the Einsteins arrived in the United States and settled in Princeton, where Einstein had accepted a professorship at the Institute for Advanced Studies. Five years later, July 13, 1938, he wrote to Dr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress:

My good friend, Professor E. Lowe, informs me that you would like to have one of my manuscripts for the Library of Congress. I am sending you herewith a specially prepared copy of my newest theory which I consider particularly worthy.

Einstein, a Jew fleeing Nazi terror, finding refuge in the United States, expresses his gratitude to this haven which became his home through a gift to the Library of Congress. The enclosed manuscript was “Einheitliche Feldtheorie” (Unified Field Theory), inscribed and dated in Einstein's hand 6 VII (July 6), 1938. Einstein began his pursuit of a unified field theory in 1919 and continued it to the last years of his life.

Five years later, in 1943, his new country now at war with the one he fled, Einstein aided the War Bond campaign by presenting through it another manuscript to the Library of Congress. (A Kansas City life insurance company was awarded the honor of being the official donor for its $6.5 million purchase of bonds.) He described his manuscript in an accompanying note:

The following pages are a copy of my first paper concerning the theory of relativity. I made this copy in November 1943. The original manuscript no longer exists having been discarded by me after its

publication. The publication bore the title Zur Electrodynamic Bewegter Körper.

A. Einstein, 21 XI, 1943

Displayed at left is the first page of a holograph copy of “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Korper,” which Einstein described as his first paper concerning the theory of relativity. He had discarded the original manuscript after it had been published in Annalen der Physic in 1905. In November 1943, Einstein rewrote this paper so that it might be presented to the Library of Congress to help promote the sale of U.S. War Bonds. The Library proudly exhibits its new treasure, noting that it was first published in the Annalen der Physic, Leipzig, 1905, and that it was:

Written by Einstein at the age of twenty-six, while he was living at Berne, Switzerland, the theory, though not immediately recognized as such, represents the first step toward one of the greatest intellectual triumphs of modern times.

In March 1955, a month before he died, Einstein wrote to Kurt Blumenfeld, “I thank you belatedly for having made me conscious of my Jewish soul.” This consciousness had come forty-five years earlier when Blumenfeld directed him to Zionism. Although never a member of a Zionist organization, in 1924 Einstein did become a member of a Berlin synagogue to declare his Jewish identity and he served the cause of Zionism throughout his adult life. He visited Palestine, served on the Board of the Hebrew University, and willed his papers to it. In 1946, Einstein appeared before the Anglo-American Committee of inquiry on Palestine and made a strong plea for a Jewish homeland.

When Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, died, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion invited Einstein to stand as a candidate for the office, but Einstein declined because, he said, though he was deeply touched by the offer, he was not suited for the position. During his final illness, Einstein took with him to the hospital the draft of a statement he was preparing for a television appearance celebrating the State of Israel's seventh anniversary, but he did not live either to complete or deliver it.