and microscopes for observing minute organisms, and for geography there were maps and pictures of foreign countries.
Abraham Rupert Einstein and Helen Einstein, grandparents of the scientist
( Illustration Credit 1.1 )
Einstein as a child
( Illustration Credit 1.2 )
Einstein and his sister Maja
( Illustration Credit 1.3 )
Here Einstein lost his aversion to school. He became more friendly with his fellow students. In Aarau he lived with a teacher of the school who had a son and a daughter with whom Einstein made trips to the mountains. He also had an opportunity to discuss problems of public life in detail with people who, in accordance with the Swiss tradition, were greatly interested in such affairs. He became acquainted with a point of view different from that which he had been accustomed to in Germany.
After one year at the cantonal school Einstein obtained his diploma and was thereupon admitted to the Polytechnic School in Zurich without further examination. In the meantime, however, he had abandoned the plan of taking up a practical profession. His stay at Aarau had shown him that a position as a teacher of physics and mathematics at an advanced school would permit him to pursue his favorite studies and at the same time enable him to make a modest living. The Polytechnic had a department for training teachers in physical and mathematical subjects, and Einstein now turned to this pursuit.
During the year at the cantonal school Einstein had become certain that the actual object of his interest was physics and not pure mathematics as he had sometimes believed while still in Munich. His aim was to discover the simplest rules by which to comprehend natural laws. Unfortunately, at that time it was just this teaching of physics that was rather outdated and pedantic at the Polytechnic. The students were merely taught the physical principles that had stood the test of technical applications and been accepted in all the textbooks. There was little if any objective approach to natural phenomena, or logical discussion of the simple comprehensive principles underlying them.
Even though the lectures on physics were not marked by any profundity of thought, they did stimulate Einstein to read theworks of the great investigators in this field. Just about this time, at the end of the nineteenth century, the development of physical science had reached a turning-point. The theories of this period had been written in stimulating form by the outstanding scientists. Einstein devoured these classics of theoretical physics, the works of Helmholtz, Kirchoff, Boltzmann, Maxwell, and Hertz. Day and night Einstein buried himself in these books, from which he learned the art of erecting a mathematical framework on which to build up the structure of physics.
The teaching of mathematics was on a much higher level. Among the instructors was Hermann Minkowski, a Russian by birth, who, although still a young man, was already regarded as one of the most original mathematicians of his time. He was not a very good lecturer, however, and Einstein was not much interested in his classes. It was just at this time that Einstein lost interest in pure mathematics. He believed that the most primitive mathematical principles would be adequate to formulate the fundamental laws of physics, the task that he had set for himself. Not until later did it become clear to him that the very opposite was the case: that for a mathematical formulation of his idea concepts derived from a very highly developed type of mathematics were required. And it was Minkowski, whose mathematical lectures Einstein found so uninteresting, who put forth ideas for a mathematical formulation of Einstein’s theories that provided the germ for all future developments in the field.
At this period the Polytechnic enjoyed a great international reputation and had a large number of students from foreign countries. Among them were many from eastern and southeastern Europe who could not or
Abraham Rupert Einstein and Helen Einstein, grandparents of the scientist
( Illustration Credit 1.1 )
Einstein as a child
( Illustration Credit 1.2 )
Einstein and his sister Maja
( Illustration Credit 1.3 )
Here Einstein lost his aversion to school. He became more friendly with his fellow students. In Aarau he lived with a teacher of the school who had a son and a daughter with whom Einstein made trips to the mountains. He also had an opportunity to discuss problems of public life in detail with people who, in accordance with the Swiss tradition, were greatly interested in such affairs. He became acquainted with a point of view different from that which he had been accustomed to in Germany.
After one year at the cantonal school Einstein obtained his diploma and was thereupon admitted to the Polytechnic School in Zurich without further examination. In the meantime, however, he had abandoned the plan of taking up a practical profession. His stay at Aarau had shown him that a position as a teacher of physics and mathematics at an advanced school would permit him to pursue his favorite studies and at the same time enable him to make a modest living. The Polytechnic had a department for training teachers in physical and mathematical subjects, and Einstein now turned to this pursuit.
During the year at the cantonal school Einstein had become certain that the actual object of his interest was physics and not pure mathematics as he had sometimes believed while still in Munich. His aim was to discover the simplest rules by which to comprehend natural laws. Unfortunately, at that time it was just this teaching of physics that was rather outdated and pedantic at the Polytechnic. The students were merely taught the physical principles that had stood the test of technical applications and been accepted in all the textbooks. There was little if any objective approach to natural phenomena, or logical discussion of the simple comprehensive principles underlying them.
Even though the lectures on physics were not marked by any profundity of thought, they did stimulate Einstein to read theworks of the great investigators in this field. Just about this time, at the end of the nineteenth century, the development of physical science had reached a turning-point. The theories of this period had been written in stimulating form by the outstanding scientists. Einstein devoured these classics of theoretical physics, the works of Helmholtz, Kirchoff, Boltzmann, Maxwell, and Hertz. Day and night Einstein buried himself in these books, from which he learned the art of erecting a mathematical framework on which to build up the structure of physics.
The teaching of mathematics was on a much higher level. Among the instructors was Hermann Minkowski, a Russian by birth, who, although still a young man, was already regarded as one of the most original mathematicians of his time. He was not a very good lecturer, however, and Einstein was not much interested in his classes. It was just at this time that Einstein lost interest in pure mathematics. He believed that the most primitive mathematical principles would be adequate to formulate the fundamental laws of physics, the task that he had set for himself. Not until later did it become clear to him that the very opposite was the case: that for a mathematical formulation of his idea concepts derived from a very highly developed type of mathematics were required. And it was Minkowski, whose mathematical lectures Einstein found so uninteresting, who put forth ideas for a mathematical formulation of Einstein’s theories that provided the germ for all future developments in the field.
At this period the Polytechnic enjoyed a great international reputation and had a large number of students from foreign countries. Among them were many from eastern and southeastern Europe who could not or
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