The Relativistic Mind: 15 Fascinating Facts About Albert Einstein

1. The Myth of His Mathematical Failure Is Completely False

Einstein's recollections place his study of calculus between ages twelve and sixteen. He performed strongly in the mathematical and scientific parts of the 1895 entrance examination, even though he failed overall. The familiar maths-failure story is misleading.

2. A Compass Made a Lasting Impression

In his autobiographical recollections, Einstein described the wonder of seeing a compass while ill at about four or five years old. Its needle suggested that something invisible could influence objects.

3. A Geometry Book Was Another Childhood Wonder

Einstein recalled being fascinated by a small book of Euclidean geometry at about twelve. Its demonstrations offered a different kind of certainty from everyday experience.

4. Music Was a Lifelong Companion

Einstein played the violin, and music formed an important part of his life and relaxation. His scientific papers and correspondence also reveal a person who worked through ideas with others.

5. He Failed an Entrance Examination, Then Qualified

At sixteen, Einstein failed the Zurich Polytechnic entrance examination overall despite strong mathematics and science results. He completed secondary schooling in Aarau and entered the Polytechnic in 1896. Admission followed his school-leaving qualification.

6. He Worked at the Bern Patent Office

Einstein became a technical examiner at the patent office in Bern in 1902, after initially struggling to find a teaching position. He pursued physics during this period.

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7. Four 1905 Papers Changed Several Fields

Einstein's celebrated 1905 papers addressed light quanta, Brownian motion, special relativity and the relation between mass and energy. His Brownian-motion analysis offered testable evidence about atoms.

8. His Nobel Prize Was Not Awarded for Relativity

Einstein received the 1921 Physics Nobel for services to theoretical physics, especially his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. The award was announced in 1922 after the 1921 prize had been reserved.

9. He Helped Support Jewish Refugees

In a June 1939 letter to Bernard H. Sandler, Einstein praised work to rescue persecuted Jews and expressed support for mutual assistance. The surviving correspondence documents a practical humanitarian commitment alongside his scientific work.

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10. The FBI Investigated Him

The FBI's own history of its Newark office records an investigation of Einstein over alleged political associations and connections involving his secretary. Investigative records preserve suspicions and claims.

11. He Declined an Approach About Israel's Presidency

In November 1952, ambassador Abba Eban conveyed Ben-Gurion's question about whether Einstein would accept the presidency if elected by the Knesset. Einstein declined.

12. A Letter Records a Sailing-Boat Gift

Einstein enjoyed sailing. In a letter dated July 4, 1929, he reported receiving a sailboat for his fiftieth birthday. This surviving evidence supports the hobby without requiring sweeping claims that he constantly capsized or could never swim.

13. His Second Marriage Was to His Cousin

After divorcing his first wife, fellow physicist Mileva Marić, in 1919, Einstein married Elsa Löwenthal later that same year. Elsa was his first cousin on his mother's side and his second cousin on his father's side, as their mothers were sisters and their grandfathers were brothers. The couple had grown close during Einstein's illness in Berlin, where Elsa nursed him back to health. Their marriage endured until Elsa's death in 1936, providing Einstein with a supportive domestic environment throughout his meteoric rise to international celebrity status.

14. A Pathologist Stole His Brain After His Death

Shortly after Einstein died at Princeton Hospital in 1955, the attending pathologist, Dr. Thomas Harvey, removed his brain during the autopsy without prior permission from the family. Harvey preserved the brain in formalin, sliced it into 240 blocks, and kept it stored in glass jars inside a cider box for decades. He hoped that neuroscientists could study the organ to discover the biological secret behind Einstein's extraordinary intellect. Though the theft caused widespread public outrage, scientific studies of the brain sections later revealed unique anatomical features, including an unusual concentration of glial cells.

15. His Final Words Were Lost in Translation

On April 18, 1955, Albert Einstein suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture and passed away at the age of 76. In his final moments at Princeton Hospital, he muttered his last words aloud in his native German language. Unfortunately, the night nurse attending to him spoke only English and was unable to understand or memorize what he had said. As a result, the final thoughts of history's most celebrated theoretical physicist were lost to time forever, adding a poignant note of mystery to his legendary life.