Einstein's miracle year
Time and space are not fixed
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In 1905 Einstein published on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity and mass–energy equivalence. General relativity, in 1915, described gravity as curvature of spacetime itself, confirmed at the 1919 solar eclipse. Together with quantum mechanics, which Einstein helped ignite and never fully accepted, this forms the foundation of modern physics — and of nuclear power, semiconductors, lasers and satellite navigation.
For children
A young man working at the patent office in Bern wrote four papers in one year that changed physics. He showed that time runs slightly slower when you move fast, and that mass and energy are really the same thing. Without this, the GPS in your phone would be off by kilometres.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org