Author: Abdul Wahab

Albert Einstein is widely known and famous scientists for his efforts in many scientific discoveries. He is considered to be the most creative and intelligent people of the 20^th century. He is well known for very famous equation, E = MC², which describes the relationship between energy and mass.

Early Life

Albert Einstein was a German and was born on the 14^th of March 1879. His childhood was mostly spent in Munich, Germany where he also got his early education. He was very interested in the field of math and science from his childhood, and always topped these two subjects. In other subjects, he was a poor student due to lack of interest. Einstein learned a lot from his dad, in the field of electricity and science, who managed an electronics company. Due to poor performance in schools and Einstein’s independent study habit, authorities of the school asked him for leaving the schools so that his strange behaviors couldn’t affect other students.

For further studies, Einstein tried to apply in the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. But he was not able to clear the entrance exam in the first attempt due to his poor performance in subjects of art, zoology, botany. Next year, he again tried for the admission in the same institute and successfully cleared the test. After his admission, he also secured the citizenship of Switzerland in 1900. When he completed his graduation at Zurich, he applied for a teaching post to pursue his career as a teacher, but couldn’t get. Instead, he got a job at a patent office to meet his homely expenditure.

Scientific Contribution and Discoveries

Albert Einstein had contributed a lot in the field of science and discovered many aspects of our physical world. Some of his contributions and discoveries are the theory of relativity and the photoelectric effect.

Theory of Relativity – Einstein’s Very Famous Discovery

Einstein is most famous for his work on the theory of relativity and an equation, E = MC², which a part of the theory. This theory was a revolution in science that changed the perception of our physical world. His theory was a backbone is many inventions, such as the atomic bomb. Theory of relativity explains that all the physical quantities are not absolute but they are relative. His theory also explains that anything having mass can’t reach the speed of light. Also, the time dilates (slows down) for an object traveling near the speed of light.

Photoelectric Effect

Einstein didn’t found the photoelectric effect, but he explained the phenomenon behind the effect. In the photoelectric effect, if a certain frequency of light is illuminated on a certain metal enclosed in a vacuum glass tube, the metal will emit the electrons at a certain voltage. No one really understood, how it works. But, Einstein explained the effect by considering light as particles. He said that light is made of tiny packets of energy, called photons, which carries certain energy according to their frequency. When they hit the metal and their energy is equal or greater than the work function of that metal, the electron will be emitted from the metal. Einstein got a Nobel Prize for his explanation on photoelectric effect – not for the theory of relativity.

Facts

• Albert Einstein had to leave for the United States because he was a Jew, and Jews were disliked by Hitler in Germany.
• Einstein got the citizen of the United States in 1940 – around 7 years after his immigration to the US.
• Presidency of Israel was offered to Einstein in 1952, but he never accepted it. Although he was a Jew, he criticized the war against innocent Palestinians.

Galileo Galilei was one of the greatest scientists and astronomers who discovered many scientific facts and astronomical objects. He was also famous for developing and improving the refractive telescopes which allowed him to discover many new objects in the space – including moons of Jupiter. Galileo also proved that planets in our solar system orbit the sun. This great discovery gave him life imprisonment, instead of the honor.

Early Life

Galileo Galilei was born in the house of Vincenzo Galileo that was a famous music composer. He grew up with his 5 siblings in the time of Italian Renaissance. Galileo learned some skills from his father in his early childhood and became a good lutenist (player of lute). He was moved to Florence along with his family at the age of 11 years. In Florence, he got his formal education from Camaldolese monastery. He also became a good musician and later became interested in becoming a doctor. For this reason, in 1581 he got the admission in the University of Pisa to study medical science.

When Galileo entered the university, his interest diverted more towards physical science and mathematics. He began experimenting in the field of physics and noticed the behavior of a swinging lamp. He noted that it always takes the same amount of time for the lamp to swing back and forth, regardless of its distance traveled. The behavior of a swinging lamp couldn’t be described by laws of physics at that time. To understand the behavior of the swinging lamp, he experimented on pendulums and developed some mathematical equation to describe the motion of swinging objects. In 1585, Galileo was selected for a teaching post and left the university to pursue his career as a teacher.

In 1632, Galileo published a book to describe the motion of planets in the orbits. He described in his book that, planets in the solar system orbit the Sun – not the Earth. The result of his work proved very disastrous for him. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment. It is because his views were against the Catholic Church. Later on, he got some relieve and was allowed to leave the jail and live in a house arrest for the rest of his life.

Scientific Contribution and Discoveries

Galileo Galilei contributed a lot in the field of physics, astronomy, and mathematics. He experimented many physical laws developed by people before him, such as Muslim scientists from medieval age and thinkers of the Roman Empire (e.g. Aristotle). He always did his experiments in steps and developed early scientific methods.

Tower of Pisa Experiment – A famous experiment

Before Galileo Galilei, there was a belief that when two objects with different weights are dropped, the object having more weight will fall on the ground earlier than the lighter object. To test this traditional law, Galileo took two objects with different weights and climbed to the top of the Tower of Pisa. He dropped two round objects from the same height at the same time. He found that two objects reached the ground at the same time – disproving the traditional belief. He concluded that gravity is the same for every object and doesn’t depend on the weight of the object.

Building and Improving Telescope

In 1609 Galileo Galilei received news that there is a device in Holland which uses glass lenses and can show the distant objects nearer, known as a telescope. Galileo started to make this device on its own without ever observing the device with his own eyes. He successfully made the first version of his refractive telescope and pointed it to the sky in the night.

He observed that the telescope showed the moon much closer and other objects in skies much larger. He then started to study the objects in the sky every night and continued to improve his telescope. He found moons of the Jupiter, also called Galilean moons, with his telescope. Galileo’s telescopes became very famous in Europe and were called as Galilean Telescopes. (Learn more about the invention of the telescope)

Facts

• Catholic Church regretted on their behavior many years after the death of Galileo and said that Galileo was very ill-treated.
• With the telescope, Galileo found that planet Saturn has rings orbiting around it.
• Galileo developed a design of pendulum that could be used to keep time.

Isaac Newton is a big name in the field of science and mathematics who has developed many laws of physics, some of which are the law of gravitation and laws of motion. He also founded new branch mathematics, called calculus, which very important branch of mathematics in these days. Other than this, Newton worked on optics and built a new telescope that worked on reflection of light, instead of refraction.

Early Life

Isaac Newton was born on 4^th January of 1643 in England. He was the only child of his father that was a farmer and died before his birth. After the birth of Newton, her mother went to remarry with a person who was a minister. Due to remarriage, she left the Newton to his grandmother for further care. But at the age of 12, Newton’s mother came back because her second husband also died.

Newton got his early education from the king’s school while her mother was living with her second husband. But at the age of 12 when her mother came back, she pulled-out the Newton from the school so that he can become a farmer. Newton was not able to become a good farmer, so he was again sent back to the same school to get the education further.

In 1661, Isaac Newton successfully enrolled in a college at Cambridge for graduation. But after a few years, the Great Plague was spread throughout the Cambridge and Newton had to leave that area. He returned to his home at Woolsthorpe and remained isolated most of the time for study. During that time, Newton had developed several theories and laws, some of which are gravitation of Earth, laws of motion, and calculus.

Later on, Newton became a professor at Cambridge where he spent most of his time during the last years of his life. Due to his scientific contributions, Newton was also made the president of the Royal Society in 1703.

Scientific Discoveries and Contribution

Isaac Newton has contributed so much to science and mathematics that he was considered as the best scientists by Albert Einstein. Newton spent most of his time isolated from people for studying, some of his discoveries that he made are:

• Law of Gravitation – Many people agree that Newton started to think about gravity when an apple from the tree fell on his head. He started to think about falling of apple and worked-out on this phenomena and gave a law, called the law of universal gravitation. This law defined the attractive force of Earth and the motion of planets around the Sun.
• Three Laws of Motion – Newton developed three laws of motion which described the motion of objects. The most famous law is the 3^rd law of motion, which states that every action has a reaction equal in the amount but opposite in the direction.
• Reflective Telescope

  

  Before Newton, people and astronomers used telescopes that contained lenses made of glass to refract the light for focus. These refractive telescopes were actually developed by Galileo Galilei and had certain limitations. Newton designed a new kind of telescope, called reflective telescope, which used mirrors for focusing the light – instead of traditional glass lenses. Today, most of the ground-based telescopes used on the Earth are the reflective telescopes that work on the same principle of Newton. (Learn more about the invention of the telescope)

• Calculus – Newton was also a very famous mathematician who spent most his time solving mathematical expressions. He developed a new kind of math that could deal with “rates of change”. He called his newly developed math as fluxions that today we know as calculus. Calculus is very important to understand the dynamic systems that constantly change their state. For example, the motion of the planets, chemical reactions, and the motion of rockets.

Facts

• Newton was a premature baby when her mother gave birth to him. He was so weak that the chances of his survival were very low.
• Newton also spent his time doing chemical experiments from the time of alchemy (Arab chemists).
• Newton was a great scholar because he studied the work of scientists before him from times of Aristotle, Arab Muslim scientists, Galileo Galilei, and Copernicus.

Today, we all have electric lightings installed in our homes to lighten our houses in darkness. Electric lightings were first used in houses after the invention of the incandescent light bulb, whose credit goes Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison developed and improved the idea of electric lightning and made it economically viable so that people can use it. Thomas Edison is one of the most famous and great inventors who invented many things other than the light bulb, such as phonograph that recorded voice.

Early Life

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor who was born on 11^th February of 1847 in Ohio. Thomas Edison was the youngest child of his parents among their 7 children. His Father was a political worker in Canada, and his mother was a teacher at a school. Thomas Edison in his childhood became very ill and got ear infection which made it difficult for Edison to hear. He got his early education from his mom at the home because listening to the teachers in the school was difficult for him.

At the age of 11 years, Thomas Edison got interested in self-learning and read many books on many subjects. He started to sell the newspaper on a train to earn some money. He also set up a chemistry lab in the same train where he sold newspapers. One day, a glass jar which contained phosphorus (a chemical element) somehow fallen in the train and caught fire which burned some parts of the train. When the conductor of the train caught Thomas Edison, he slapped him very forcefully near his ear which resulted in further loss of his hearing sense.

At the age of 15, he got the job of a telegraph operator. This job made the young Edison interested in electrical science and allowed him to perform experiments on electricity. Edison shifted himself to New York at the age of 22 years where he developed his first invention, called Universal Stock Printer. From now and onwards, his journey of inventions began.

Famous Inventions

Thomas Edison was one of those inventors who became very rich from their inventions. Many people think that he became famous only because of the light bulb. But in reality, he built a complete system to power a light bulb in everyone’s home which includes sockets for the bulb and a power company to supply electricity to homes.

Here are some famous inventions of Thomas Edison:

• Light Bulb – The idea and some working model of light bulb were already present before Thomas Edison. But there was no inventor who could make the light bulb that can be lit for longer. He was able to develop a light bulb that was durable and reliable. He also developed several other things that were required to power-up a light bulb, which includes safety fuses, ON/OFF keys, and bulb holders. (Click here to find out the complete story of light bulb invention)
• Photograph – Thomas Edison became a famous inventor of his time when he designed and demonstrated a phonograph that could record and play sound. He invented phonograph before the invention of the light
• Motion Picture – Edison was also interested in moving pictures and made a device that could project images on the screen. His device also changed several frames in each second to display short movies.

Facts

• Dot and Dash were the nicknames of Edison’s eldest kids.
• There are more than 1,000 patents registered on the name of Thomas Edison.
• “Marry had a little lamb” were the first words that he spoke from his mouth that he recorded with the help of his phonograph.