1. E = mc 2 (What the heck does that mean?)

2. * He just wanted to Bee a scientist

3. * Born in Germany in 1879 * Died in the U.S. in 1955 * Married twice (once to a cousin?) * Won the Noble Prize (for the Photoelectric effect) * Lived an unusual life with a somewhat difficult childhood. * Much of his early science accomplished outside the mainstream or “academic” world

4. * Einstein published 4 papers in 1905 at the age of 26 * These papers together changed science as they led to breakthroughs in quantum theory, the existence and size of atoms and molecules, space and time are relative, and the famous equation E = mc 2

5. * Photoelectric Effect * Energy is exchanged in discrete amounts (quanta) * Led to early development of quantum theory * Einstein won the Nobel Prize for this idea

6. * Brownian Motion * Motion of small suspended particles * Led to ideas about existence, size, and motion of atoms and molecules

7. * Special Relativity * Reconciled Maxwell’s equations which resulted in all e/m radiation moving at the speed of light * Speed of light is a universal constant which is unchanged regardless of the reference frame (independent of the motion of the observer)

8. * Matter – Energy Equivalence * E = mc 2

9. * “What would it be like to ride a beam of light?” * Much of Einstein’s life was focused on understanding LIGHT

10. * Special Relativity (Inertial reference frames, no acceleration) * One of his earliest accomplishments * Speed of light is a constant, leading to the ideas that TIME and SPACE are relative *General Relativity (tackling acceleration & Gravity) *Developed after many years of difficult work. *A new explanation for Gravity. *A new explanation for the laws of the universe