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in 1905, Einstein, a 26-year-old patent clerk, wrote five papers which changed how humanity views reality

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completely unexpected

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he certainly was a good physics student but up to this point had done nothing extraordinary

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the five papers

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1. March 1905: light quantum

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"On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light"

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introduced the idea of the light quantum

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seminal paper in quantum mechanics

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dominated much of physics throughout the 20th century

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a heuristic proposal

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was a particle theory of light

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went against the well established by this time 100 years previously when Thomas Young set forth the modern wave theory of light

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but the wave theory of light dealt with light as it was traveling

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shown that some experimental results could be explained that otherwise could not be explained

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2. April 1905: size of molecules

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"A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions"

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became his doctoral dissertation

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the most ordinary, mundane paper

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demonstrated the size of sugar molecules

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became the most cited paper

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not revolutionary but certainly influential

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3. May 1905: existence of atoms

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"Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen"

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explained a phenomenon known as Brownian Motion

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particles jiggle around in water

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early observes might have some kind of vital force in them

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Brown showed that you can put almost any substance in water and it will be bumped around

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showed you could track the motion of the particles

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developed the theory that explained the "random walk" of these motions

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made experiences which enabled scientists to verify this

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there was still much skepticism about the talk of atoms

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backed up later by experiments

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Oswald was a skeptic of atoms (the professor whom Einstein's father wrote to)

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Einstein's paper changed what he believed was true regarding this topic

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4. June 1905: special theory of relativity

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"The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"

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Einstein had friend at patent office

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talked about latest physics problems

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one of these talks made him realize that time is suspect

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Einstein was working at the patent office probably dealing with patents which had to do with time, e.g. with telegraph signaling systems

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the synchronization of clocks was an important issue

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5. September 1905: E=mc²

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"Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?"

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an addendum to the June 1905 paper

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essential the addition was E=mc²

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energy = mass x speed of light squared

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one has to remember that all five of these papers were written by an unknown, 26-year-old patent clerk

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each one had profound implications of how we understand reality

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did this in a time when his life was in turmoil

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but he had been thinking of these issues certainly since the early 1890s

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a mixed reception

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there were some early experimental results that showed it was false