Перевод ALBERT EINSTEIN
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879. He was a quiet child who spent
much of his time alone. He was slow to talk and had difficulty learning to read. Albert did
not like school. The German schools of that time were not pleasant. Students could not
ask questions. Albert said he felt as if he were in prison.
From the time he was a boy, Albert Einstein had performed what he called "thought
experiments" to test his ideas. He used his mind as a laboratory. By 1905, he had
formed his ideas into theories that he published.
In one paper he said that light travels both in waves and in particles, called photons.
This idea is an important part of what is called the quantum theory.
Another paper was about the motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or gas. It
confirmed the atomic theory of matter.
The most important of Albert Einstein's theories published that year became known as
his "Special Theory of Relativity." He said the speed of light is always the same --
almost three hundred thousand kilometers a second. Where the light is coming from or
who is measuring it does not change the speed. However, he said, time can change.
And mass can change. And length can change. They depend on where a person is in
relation to an object or an event.
Ten years after his paper on the special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein finished work
on another theory. It described what he called his "General Theory of Relativity." It
expanded his special theory to include the motion of objects that are gaining speed.
This theory offered new ideas about gravity and the close relationship between matter
and energy. It built on the ideas about mass he had expressed in 1905.
In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was given to him, not for his theories of
relativity, but for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. This scientific law
explained how and why some metals give off electrons after light falls on their surfaces.
The discovery led to the development of modern electronics, including radio and
television.
Albert Einstein taught in Switzerland and Germany. He left Germany when Adolph Hitler
came to power in 1933. He moved to the United States to continue his research. He
worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein became a
citizen of the United States in 1940.
Einstein was a famous man, but you would not have known that by looking at him. His
white hair was long and wild. He wore old clothes. He showed an inner joy when he was
playing his violin or talking about his work. Students and friends said he had a way of
explaining difficult ideas using images that were easy to understand.
Albert Einstein died in 1955. He was seventy-six years old

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