Einstein's Big Idea

1944 Nobel Prize

Awarded to Otto Hahn for the discovery of nuclear fission despite the fact that Meitner and Frisch had discovered it

Law of Conservation of Mass

A law which states that total mass is never lost when a substance experiences physical alteration

Nuclear fission

A nuclear reaction in which a large nucleus spontaneously splits into smaller nuclei while releasing energy

Mass of radioactive nuclei becoming energy

A possible example of E=mc^2 found within the atoms of certain elements

Manhattan Project

A secret project in the United States to build an atom bomb based on the knowledge of nuclear fission; Meitner was invited to join, but she declined

Theory of Relativity

Albert Einstein's idea which states the relationship between energy and mass; explains how energy can become mass and vice versa

E=mc^2

An equation proposed by Albert Einstein which shows the relationship between energy and mass

The Big Bang

Another example of E=mc^2 where, in an explosion, pure energy was converted matter, forming stars

Sir Humphry Davy

English chemist and inventor from Cornwall who experimented with nitrous oxide and was astonished at how it made him laugh, so he nicknamed it "laughing gas"

Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier

French chemist; wife of Antoine Lavoisier who contributed to his work and translated certain works

1920s-1930s

Golden Age of Nuclear Research; Meitner and Hahn raced to create atoms with larger nuclei than what was known then

Royal Society

Michael Faraday was elected as a member of this society in 1824

Antoine Lavoisier

Often called the 'Father of Modern Chemistry' as he proved that mass is never lost, no matter what kind of physical transformations a substance undergoes

Lise Meitner & Otto Hahn

Scientists who worked with nuclear chemistry to prove E=mc^2; relationship began with unequal footing for Meitner

James Clerk Maxwell

Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon.

Mileva Marić

Serbian physicist and mathematician and the first wife of Albert Einstein from 1903 to 1919. She was the only woman among Einstein's fellow students at Zürich Polytechnic and was the second woman to finish a full program of study at the Department of Mathematics and Physics.

Lise Meitner

Swedish-Austrian physicist considered radioactivity and nuclear physics in her works; discovered nuclear fission alongside Otto Hahn and Otto Frisch

speed of light

The fixed speed which the spectrum of visible light waves travel at; 3.00*10^8; discovered by Albert Einstein while contemplating how long it took for light to reach clock towers at varying distances

Electromagnetism

The relationship between electricity and magnetism

1905 - Albert Einstein

Year in which Albert Einstein had an incredible outpouring of new scientific ideas which he published as papers

Émilie du Châtelet

a French natural philosopher and mathematician who translated Isaac Newton's 1687 book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

celeritas (c)

a Latin word meaning swiftness; used to represent the speed of light in Albert Einstein's equation for the theory of relativity

Michael Faraday

an English chemist who was a pioneer in electromagnetism and helped design early electric motors

Compasses

instruments which Michael Faraday used in early experiments about electric fields/forces