The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 2: The Swiss Years: Writings, 1900-1909

Hardback

Main Details

Title The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 2: The Swiss Years: Writings, 1900-1909
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Albert Einstein
Edited by John Stachel
Edited by David C. Cassidy
Edited by Jurgen Renn
Edited by Robert Schulmann
SeriesCollected Papers of Albert Einstein
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:692
Dimensions(mm): Height 254,Width 191
Category/GenrePhysics
ISBN/Barcode 9780691085265
ClassificationsDewey:530.092
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Tertiary Education (US: College)

Publishing Details

Publisher Princeton University Press
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publication Date 21 February 1990
Publication Country United States

Description

This volume of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein contains the scientific work Einstein published during the first decade of his career, and includes some of the most significant achievements of twentieth-century physics. The first paper was written in 1900 by the twenty-one-year-old Einstein, newly graduated from the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School, or ETH, in Zurich and still searching in vain for a job. The last paper in this volume is the text of an invited lecture given in 1909 to a major scientific meeting by Einstein after he was appointed to his first academic post at the University of Zurich. He had already been recognized as an important theoretical physicist on the basis of the work reprinted here, particularly the three masterpieces that appeared in quick succession during 1905, Einstein's year of miracles. In one of these papers Einstein showed how one could finally confirm the ancient view that matter is composed of discrete atoms, and even measure the numbers and masses of these atoms.In a second paper, which even he referred to as "very revolutionary," he argued that the observed properties of thermal radiation suggest that it consists not of waves, but rather of localized particles of energy which he called energy quanta. The third and most famous paper set forth the special theory of relativity, solving some long-standing difficulties, but requiring a significant change in our understanding of those basic concepts, space and time.