He was the greatest genius of his time, a man whose contributions to science and mathematics have been matched by just a handful of others throughout history.
Even so, Albert Einstein is nowadays mostly associated with just one simple formula: E = mc2. Many call it the most famous formula in the world, and even people who have no idea what mass-energy equivalence is still know that one formula.
However, as these twenty-five surprising Albert Einstein facts prove, there was a lot more to the man than a mathematical formula — which he doesn’t even deserve total credit for…
He isn't completely responsible for E = mc2 -- at least not in the way you think he is.
The most important part of the equation -- the suggestion of an equivalency between mass and energy -- had been proposed by a number of scientists including Friedrich Hasenöhrl, Henri Poincaré, and Oliver Heaviside years, even decades, before Einstein published his theory in 1905. Even the equation itself, in a slightly different version, had been published more than once before Einstein, who was indeed able to simplify the equation and put it into the form that made it famous.
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He never actually failed math.
This is a popular “fact” often promoted on the internet, perhaps in an attempt to humanize Einstein's genius. However, it is simply not true. Overall, Einstein was an average student, but math was one area where he excelled, unsurprisingly.
Wikimedia Commons
He isn't completely responsible for E = mc2 -- at least not in the way you think he is.
The most important part of the equation -- the suggestion of an equivalency between mass and energy -- had been proposed by a number of scientists including Friedrich Hasenöhrl, Henri Poincaré, and Oliver Heaviside years, even decades, before Einstein published his theory in 1905. Even the equation itself, in a slightly different version, had been published more than once before Einstein, who was indeed able to simplify the equation and put it into the form that made it famous.
Wikimedia Commons
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He never actually failed math.
This is a popular “fact” often promoted on the internet, perhaps in an attempt to humanize Einstein's genius. However, it is simply not true. Overall, Einstein was an average student, but math was one area where he excelled, unsurprisingly.
Wikimedia Commons
3 of 26
He did, however, fail his university entrance exam.
In 1895, a 16-year-old Einstein took the entrance exam for the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics school. While he had exceptional scores in physics and math, his other scores weren't good enough and he failed the exam as a whole.
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He aided in the development of nuclear weapons -- although not quite in the way that some think.
His involvement in this matter is often misinterpreted, with some claiming that he helped create the atomic bomb. In reality, what he did was write a letter to President Roosevelt encouraging him to begin work on such a weapon, which led to the creation of the Manhattan Project that was ultimately responsible for the bomb. Although a dedicated pacifist and, later, an anti-nuclear weapons spokesman, Einstein was convinced that America needed the atomic bomb before the Nazis.
