Albert Einstein Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

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Albert Einstein Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Who was Albert Einstein?
A: Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics).

His work is also known for its influence on what?
A: The philosophy of science.

He is best known to the general public for what formula?
A: His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation".

What did he receive the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for?
A: "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory.

Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was what?
A: No longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field.

This led him to develop his special theory of what?
A: Relativity during his time at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern (1902–1909), Switzerland.

However, he realized that the principle of relativity could also be extended to what?
A: Gravitational fields.

What did he publish a paper on in 1916?
A: General relativity with his theory of gravitation.

He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of what?
A: Particle theory and the motion of molecules.

He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of what?
A: The photon theory of light.

In 1917, he applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of what?
A: The universe.

Where did Einstein live between 1895 and 1914?
A: In Switzerland.

He acquired Swiss citizenship in what year?
A: 1901, which he kept for the rest of his life after being stateless for more than five years.

In 1905, he was awarded what?
A: A PhD by the University of Zurich.

The same year, he published four groundbreaking papers during his renowned what?
A: Annus mirabilis (miracle year) which brought him to the notice of the academic world at the age of 26.

What did Einstein teach at Zurich between 1912 and 1914?
A: Theoretical physics.

Because of his Jewish background, Einstein did not what?
A: Return to Germany.

He settled in the United States and became what?
A: An American citizen in 1940.

On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to what?
A: The potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type" and recommending that the US begin similar research.

This eventually led to what?
A: The Manhattan Project.

Einstein supported the Allies, but he generally denounced the idea of using what?
A: Nuclear fission as a weapon.

He signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto with British philosopher Bertrand Russell, which highlighted what?
A: The danger of nuclear weapons.

He was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, until when?
A: Until his death in 1955.

Einstein published how many scientific papers?
A: More than 300.

How many non-scientific works?
A: More than 150.

His intellectual achievements and originality have made the word "Einstein" synonymous with what?
A: "genius".

Where was Albert Einstein born?
A: In Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire.

When was he born?
A: On 14 March 1879.

Who were his parents?
A: His parents were Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer, and Pauline Koch.

In 1880, the family moved to where?
A: Munich, where Einstein's father and his uncle Jakob founded a company that manufactured electrical equipment.

The Einstein’s were non-observant Ashkenazi Jews, and Albert attended what?
A: A Catholic elementary school in Munich, from the age of 5, for three years.

The twelve year old Einstein taught himself what?
A: Algebra and Euclidean geometry over a single summer.

Einstein also independently discovered his own original proof of what?
A: The Pythagorean Theorem at age 12.

His passion for geometry and algebra led the twelve year old to become convinced that what?
A: Nature could be understood as a "mathematical structure".

In January 1896, with his father's approval, Einstein renounced what?
A: His citizenship in the German Kingdom of Württemberg to avoid military service.

At 17, where did he enroll?
A: In the four-year mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Zürich Polytechnic.

Einstein's future wife, a 20-year old Serbian woman Mileva Marić, also did what?
A: Enrolled at the Polytechnic that year.

Over the next few years, Einstein and Marić's friendship developed into what?
A: Romance and they read books together on extra-curricular physics in which Einstein was taking an increasing interest.

An early correspondence between Einstein and Marić was discovered and published in 1987 which revealed that the couple had what?
A: A daughter named "Lieserl", born in early 1902 in Novi Sad where Marić was staying with her parents.

Marić returned to Switzerland without the child, whose real name and fate are what?
A: Unknown.

The contents of Einstein's letter in September 1903 suggest that the girl was what?
A: Either given up for adoption or died of scarlet fever in infancy.

When did Einstein and Marić marry?
A: In January 1903.

What happened in May 1904?
A: Their son Hans Albert Einstein was born in Bern, Switzerland.

When was their son Eduard born?
A: In July 1910.

The couple moved to Berlin in April 1914, but Marić returned to Zürich with their sons after learning what?
A: That Einstein's chief romantic attraction was his first and second cousin Elsa.

They divorced on 14 February 1919, having lived apart for how long?
A: Five years.

Eduard had a breakdown at about age 20 and was diagnosed with what?
A: Schizophrenia.

His mother cared for him and he was also committed to asylums for several periods, finally being committed permanently after what?
A: Her death.

In letters revealed in 2015, Einstein wrote to his early love Marie Winteler about his marriage and his strong feelings for her.
Einstein married Elsa Löwenthal in 1919, after having a relationship with her since when?
A: 1912.

How was she related to Einstein?
A: She was a first cousin maternally and a second cousin paternally.

They immigrated to the United States in what year?
A: 1933.

Elsa was diagnosed with heart and kidney problems in 1935 and died when?
A: In December 1936.

After graduating in 1900, Einstein spent almost two frustrating years searching for what?
A: A teaching post.

Einstein evaluated patent applications for a variety of devices including what?
A: A gravel sorter and an electromechanical typewriter.

In 1903, his position at the Swiss Patent Office became permanent, although he was passed over for promotion until what?
A: He "fully mastered machine technology".

Einstein became a full professor at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague in April 1911, accepting what?
A: Austrian citizenship in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to do so.

During his Prague stay, he wrote how many scientific works, five of them on radiation mathematics and on the quantum theory of solids?
A: 11.

Einstein joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Princeton, where he campaigned for what?
A: The civil rights of African Americans.

He considered racism what?
A: America's "worst disease.

In 1946 Einstein visited Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a historically black college, where he was awarded what?
A: An honorary degree.

Einstein gave a speech about racism in America, adding what?
A: "I do not intend to be quiet about it."

A resident of Princeton recalls that Einstein had once paid what?
A: The college tuition for a black student.

While traveling, Einstein wrote daily to whom?
A: His wife Elsa and adopted stepdaughters Margot and Ilse.

The letters were included in the papers bequeathed to whom?
A: The Hebrew University.

Margot Einstein permitted the personal letters to be made available to the public, but requested what?
A: That it not be done until twenty years after her death (she died in 1986).

Einstein had expressed his interest in the plumbing profession and was made an honorary member of what?
A: The Plumbers and Steamfitters Union.

Einstein has been the subject of or inspiration for many what?
A: Novels, films, plays, and works of music.

He is a favorite model for what?
A: Depictions of mad scientists and absent-minded professors.

On 17 April 1955, Einstein experienced what?
A: Internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which had previously been reinforced surgically by Rudolph Nissen in 1948.

He took the draft of a speech he was preparing for a television appearance commemorating the State of Israel's seventh anniversary with him to the hospital, but he did not what?
A: Live long enough to complete it.

Einstein refused surgery, saying what?
A: "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly."

He died in Princeton Hospital early the next morning at what age?
A: 76, having continued to work until near the end.