A Truly Beautiful Mind

Chapter Summary

The story follows the life of Albert Einstein and presents him as a fairly ordinary person like everyone else. The story perfectly catches glimpses of Einstein's likes and dislikes, his problems and his streaks of rebellion during his lifetime. This story outlines how great a person Einstein was along with a great scientist, physicist and mathematician in his lifetime.

“A Truly Beautiful Mind” starts off by describing the early life and education of Albert Einstein, followed by his life choices and the journey of becoming one of the stalwarts of science in the world. This story allows the readers to understand it is not only the special abilities which make a person great, but it is also their great qualities in person, that make them distinctive.

Einstein called as “Brother Boring

The playmates of Einstein called him Brother Boring as he had no idea of what to do with the children. In his young days, he uttered every single word twice and due to repeated rejections from his playmates, he was enforced to play by himself all his childhood. Upon joining the school for education, Einstein received negative opinions from his headmaster. His headmaster said to have said he will never make a success at anything to Einstein’s father. Despite these obstacles, Einstein started playing the violin in school and soon he became a gifted amateur violinist, eventually maintaining the skills all his life.

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in the German city of Ulm. There was no indication of geniuses for the person after he was born. On the contrary, his mother thought that he was a freak as his head was unusually bigger than his body after he was born. Initially for his mother, he was not a genius but just a freak due to his distinctive physical appearance.

Reasons for Einstein leaving school in Munich

After joining the high school in Munich, Einstein found the school regiment to be extremely tough to cope with. Despite scoring good marks in almost every subject, he often got into clashes and arguments with his teachers. The extreme regimentation of the school made him stifled and eventually he decided to leave the school for good. Followed by his decisions, he left the school in Munich for the greater good.

Reasons for Einstein to study in Switzerland

Einstein decided to continue his further education in German-speaking Switzerland after a prolonged discussion with his relatives. He found the German-speaking Switzerland to be more liberal than Munich and developed a wish to continue his education there. He was gifted in Mathematics and possessed a great interest in physics which further fuelled his decision to study in Zurich after completing high school education. In addition, science was not the only thing that held Einstein in the University of Zurich. There was a fellow student, Mileva Maric in his class who caught his attention during his education there; he found Maric to be a clever creature and this also served as another motivation for Einstein to pursue his education at the University of Zurich and get the degrees from there.

What did Einstein call his desk drawer at the patent office and why?

At the patent office, Einstein called his desk drawer the bureau of theoretical physics jokingly. He was actually developing his own idea of physics while working and kept all his theoretical works in the desk drawer. He was also assessing others’ inventions and developing a distinctive understanding of those inventions. He actually wrote them down on paper and used the desk drawer for storing them. At a point in time, he realised that the desk drawer has become filled with his theoretical works on his own thoughts. Therefore, he jokingly decided to call the desk drawer the bureau of theoretical physics.

Why did Einstein write a letter to Franklin Roosevelt?

Einstein wrote a letter to American President Franklin. D. Roosevelt on August 2, 1939 and warned him about the fatality of the atomic bombs. He added that it can destroy a whole port along with some of the external territories. He described how powerful the bomb was and what possible consequences it can cause to humanity. His words did not fail to have an impact on the Americans. They started working on a secret nuclear project where they developed their own nuclear bomb.

Einstein’s Reaction on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

After developing the nuclear weapon, America dropped them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. This incident and the destruction followed by it shook Albert Einstein from his inside. This time he wrote a public missive to the United Nations regarding the fatality of the nuclear weapon and their repeated manufacturing in some of the countries of the world. Unlike the letter to Roosevelt, it did not impose any form of impact on the United Nations but over time, Einstein repeatedly became vocal about the fatality of nuclear weapon and campaigned against the making of nuclear weapons on a global scale.

The World remembering Einstein as a “World Citizen”

Albert Einstein was not only a genius, but also a human being who taught many lessons about the tropes of humanity during his lifetime. He was celebrated as a visionary world citizen for his genius contributions to science where he invented the Theory of Relativity and instigated many possible branches of science that modern people study to understand the universe more clearly. He was also a philanthropist who campaigned against the making of nuclear weapons and repeatedly knocked the United Nations regarding the formation of a world government that can foster peace and democracy throughout the world. The contribution of Albert Einstein toward the development of the world is unimaginable and it constitutes the person as a world citizen in the history of humanity.

FAQs

Q1. What are the contributions of Albert Einstein to the world of science?

Ans. Albert Einstein invented the theory of relativity for the world which covers the impact of gravity and force in the real world. He also contributed fairly to the development of quantum mechanics which eventually became a strong pillar of modern physics.

Q2. Why did Einstein have a truly beautiful mind, distinctive from anyone else in the world?

Ans. Einstein was not only a genius who contributed to the development of science, but he was a truly beautiful mind who constantly thought for the greater good of humanity. His way of seeing things and his concerns for humanity made him distinctive from anyone else in the world.

Q3. Since when did Einstein fear that the Nazis can build atomic weapons?

Ans. After the Nazis came into power in 1933, Einstein discovered nuclear fission in Berlin and migrated to America. Since then, Einstein started fearing the development of atomic weapon in Germany.