Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity.
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany and grew up in Munich as a non-practicing Jew.
He was born with a very large head that was oddly shaped. Albert took much longer to learn to talk than other children, and his parents feared he might be retarded, but he was born a genius.
His father and Uncle owned an electrical equipment shop. It gave Albert an introduction to the power of science. He was fascinated by the power of electricity.
He was a sensitive boy and never enjoyed school as a child. One day, when he was sick, his father gave him a magnetic compass. The compass convinced him that there had to be "something behind things, something deeply hidden." Even as a small boy Einstein was self-sufficient and thoughtful. He was very curioious about it and asked many questions about it. At six, Einstein's mother forced him to take violin lessons. At first he objected vehemently, but in time he came to love the music with passion.
His mind was stimulated by his uncle, an engineer, and by a medical student named Tax Talmey who ate dinner once a week at his house. Max would bring Albert books to read. At age 11, Max brought Albert a book on geometry - the mathematical study of measurement in space, of lines, angles, circles and planes. He had a love of mathematics.
In 1894 Einstein's family moved to Milan, Italy but Einstein remained in Munich. A teacher suggested Einstein leave school, since his very presence destroyed the other students' respect for the teacher. The fifteen-year-old boy did quit school in mid-term to join his parents. .
In 1895, he took the entrance examination for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology -- and he failed. Would have allowed him to study for a diploma as an electrical engineer at the EidgenÖssische Technische Hochschule in Zurich. He was advised to study at a Swiss school in Aarau; here his teachers were humane and his ideas were set free.
