Mathematician:Albert Einstein

Mathematician

German-born mathematician and physicist. Probably the most famous scientist of all time.

Nationality

German

History

• Born: 14 March 1879, Ulm, Württemberg, Germany
• 1933: Moved to the United States
• Died: 18 April 1955, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Theorems and Definitions

• Einstein Summation Convention

• Theory of Relativity:
  • Special Theory of Relativity
  • General Theory of Relativity

• Various equations and formulas deriving from the above:
  • Einstein's Mass-Velocity Equation
  • Einstein's Law of Motion
  • Einstein's Mass-Energy Equation

• Einstein-Hilbert Action (with David Hilbert)
• Einstein-Hilbert Equations (with David Hilbert)

Results named for Albert Einstein can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Albert Einstein can be found here.

Publications

• 1905: Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt ("On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light") (Annalen der Physik Vol. 322: pp. 132 – 148)
• 1905: Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen ("On the Motion Required by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid") (Annalen der Physik Vol. 322: pp. 549 – 560)
• 1906: Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen ("A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions") (Annalen der Physik Vol. 324: pp. 289 – 306)
• 1906: Zur Theorie der Brownschen Bewegung ("On the Theory of the Brownian Movement") (Annalen der Physik Vol. 324: pp. 371 – 381)
• 1907: Theoretical Observations on the Brownian Motion (Zeit f. Elektrochemie Vol. 13: pp. 41 – 42)
• 1908: Elementary Theory of the Brownian Motion (Zeit f. Elektrochemie Vol. 14: pp. 235 – 239)
• 1908: Consequences for the constitution of radiation following from the energy distribution law of black bodies
• 1920: Ether and the Theory of Relativity
• 1921: Geometry and Experience
• 1926: Investigations on the Theory of the Brownian Movement (translated by A.D. Cowper)
• 1945: The Influence of the Expansion of Space on the Gravitation Fields surrounding the Individual Stars (with Ernst Gabor Straus)
• 1946: A Generalization of the Relativistic Theory of Gravitation, II (Ann. Math. Vol. 47: pp. 731 – 741) (with Ernst Gabor Straus)  www.jstor.org/stable/1969231

Notable Quotes

But there is another reason for the high repute of mathematics: it is mathematics that offers the exact natural sciences a certain measure of security which, without mathematics, they could not attain.

-- Quoted in 1937: Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics: They Say: What Say They? : Let Them Say

How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought independent of existence, is so admirably adapted to the objects of reality?

-- Quoted in 1937: Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics: They Say: What Say They? : Let Them Say

... common sense is, as a matter of fact, nothing more than layers of preconceived notions stored in our memories and emotions for the most part before age eighteen.

-- Quoted in 1993: Richard J. Trudeau: Introduction to Graph Theory: $1$. Pure Mathematics: Why study pure mathematics?

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Albert Einstein": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1937: Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): They Say: What Say They? : Let Them Say
• 1993: Richard J. Trudeau: Introduction to Graph Theory ... (previous) ... (next): $1$. Pure Mathematics: Why study pure mathematics?
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Einstein, Albert (1879-1955)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Einstein, Albert (1879-1955)
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Einstein, Albert (1879-1955)