名人教英文：albert einstein &theory of relativity 爱因斯坦与相对论
with the help of his friend, marcel grossman, albert einstein got a job in bern, switzerland, at the patent (专利权) office as a third class examiner. his job was to be part of a technical team looking at new inventions and deciding if they deserved a patent. a patent is a document certifying that the invention worked and was original. einstein loved to work with new inventions. his skill and enthusiasm soon got him promoted to second class technical expert.
mileva maric was a physicist like einstein. she too had big dreams for her profession. she enjoyed discussing scientific theories with einstein. she was intelligent enough to understand him. four years older than einstein, she was bright, energetic, and quick. they were married in january 1903. the young couple rented an apartment with a view of the alps (阿尔卑斯山). einstein was pondering the nature of light, concluding that it was made up of individual particles of energy, which he called photons (光子). the scientific world at the time thought light was transmitted in waves.
the einstein's first son, hans albert, was born on 14 may 1904. einstein was very happy as a father. he often wheeled his infant son down the street in a baby carriage.mileva einstein was a perfectionist (完美主义者). soon, she was taking care of the baby and the house while einstein was writing scientific articles and thinking about atoms (原子) and molecules (分子). at the time, no one knew for sure if atoms and molecules even existed.
atoms and molecules are the smallest particles in nature. they are often invisible, even under a microscope. einstein wanted to prove that these invisible particles behaved just like larger, visible particles. he noticed that larger particles moved around when in a liquid. he thought they were being hit by smaller, invisible particles. the only way to prove his theory was through mathematics.
the motion of particles was called brownian motion (布朗运动).
einstein published an article, on the movement of small particles, in 1905. he proved the existence of molecules and their motion. for this discovery, albert einstein was awarded a doctor of philosophy degree from the university of zurich.
1905 was an incredible year for einstein. it came to be called a "wonderful year." he published a number of research papers that changed science forever. while working full time at the patent office, he produced revolutionary theories about space, matter, and time. einstein turned his attention to the study of light. the speed of light had been verified (证实) as 186,000 miles a second. now einstein concluded that the speed of light in free space was the only fixed thing in the universe. everything else is relative. this was called his "theory of relativity".
according to einstein, time is variable. for example, if someone walked beside a man bouncing a ball, the path of the ball would look straight up and down. but if you stood still, and the man walked past you bouncing the ball, the ball would appear to move diagonally up and down. so it would seem as if the ball went a longer distance in the same amount of time. the idea of time and space, then, depended on the observer and where he was.
another example is a sailor raising a flag on a ship. to the sailor standing at the base of the flagpole, the flag moves straight up. but to an observer on shore, the flag moves forward and up at the same time. time and space are relative. they depend on the observer's frame of reference.
einstein published his article on special relativity in the annals of physics. some scientists were upset and thought this 26-year-old upstart (傲慢的新人) was tampering with (扰乱) newton's fixed laws. others, however, knew einstein's insights were important. they increased our understanding of the universe. (2 of 4)