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EXPLORATIONS – Albert Einstein

时间:2006-03-15 16:00来源:互联网 提供网友:z75531   字体: [ ]
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EXPLORATIONS – Albert Einstein
By Marilyn Christiano

Broadcast: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

VOICE ONE:

This is Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about a scientist who changed the way we understand the universe, Albert Einstein.

VOICE ONE:

 
Albert Einstein changed science. (All Pictures NASA)
In the year Nineteen-Oh-Five, Albert Einstein published some important papers in a German scientific magazine. They included one of the most important scientific documents in history. It was filled with mathematics. It explained what came to be called his "Special Theory of Relativity." Ten years later he expanded it to a "General Theory of Relativity."

Albert Einstein's theories of relativity are about the basic ideas we use to describe natural happenings. They are about time, space, mass, movement, and gravity.

VOICE TWO:

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in Eighteen-Seventy-Nine. His father owned a factory that made electrical devices. His mother enjoyed music and books. His parents were Jewish but they did not observe many of the religion's rules.

Albert was a quiet child who spent much of his time alone. He was slow to talk and had difficulty learning to read.

When Albert was five years old, his father gave him a compass. The child was filled with wonder when he discovered that the compass needle always pointed1 in the same direction -- to the north. He asked his father and his uncle what caused the needle to move.

Their answers about magnetism2 and gravity were difficult for the boy to understand. Yet he spent a lot of time thinking about them. He said later that he felt something hidden had to be behind things.

VOICE ONE:

Albert did not like school. The German schools of that time were not pleasant. Students could not ask questions. Albert said he felt as if he were in prison.

One story says Albert told his Uncle Jacob how much he hated school, especially mathematics. His uncle told him to solve mathematical problems by pretending to be a policeman. "You are looking for someone," he said, "but you do not know who. Call him X. Find him by using the mathematical tools of algebra3 and geometry."

VOICE TWO:

Albert learned to love mathematics. He was studying the complex mathematics of calculus4 when all his friends were still studying simple mathematics. Instead of playing with friends he thought about things such as: "What would happen if people could travel at the speed of light?"

Albert decided5 that he wanted to teach mathematics and physics. He attended the Federal Polytechnic6 Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated with honors, but could not get a teaching job. So he began working for the Swiss government as an inspector7 of patents for new inventions. The job was not demanding. He had a lot of time to think about some of his scientific theories.

VOICE ONE:

From the time he was a boy, Albert Einstein had performed what he called "thought experiments" to test his ideas. He used his mind as a laboratory. By Nineteen-Oh-Five, he had formed his ideas into theories that he published.

In one paper he said that light travels both in waves and in particles, called photons. This idea is an important part of what is called the quantum theory.

Another paper was about the motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or gas. It confirmed the atomic theory of matter.

The most important of Albert Einstein's theories published that year became known as his "Special Theory of Relativity." He said the speed of light is always the same -- almost three-hundred-thousand kilometers a second. Where the light is coming from or who is measuring it does not change the speed. However, he said, time can change. And mass can change. And length can change. They depend on where a person is in relation to an object or an event.

VOICE TWO:

Imagine two space vehicles with a scientist travelling in each one. One spaceship is red. One is blue. Except for color, both spaceships are exactly alike. They pass one another far out in space.

Neither scientist feels that his ship is moving. To each, it seems that the other ship is moving, not his. As they pass at high speed, the scientist in each ship measures how long it takes a beam of light to travel from the floor to the top of his spaceship, hit a mirror and return to the floor. Each spaceship has a window that lets each scientist see the experiment of the other.

VOICE ONE:

They begin their experiments at exactly the same moment. The scientist in the blue ship sees his beam of light go straight up and come straight down. But he sees that the light beam in the red ship does not do this. The red ship is moving so fast that the beam does not appear to go straight up. It forms a path up and down that looks like an upside down "V".

The scientist in the red ship would see exactly the same thing as he watched the experiment by the other scientist. He could say that time passed more slowly in the other ship. Each scientist would be correct, because the passing of time is linked to the position of the observer.

Each scientist also would see that the other spaceship was shorter than his own. The higher the speeds the spaceships were travelling, the shorter the other ship would appear. And although the other ship would seem shorter, its mass would increase. It would seem to get heavier.

The ideas were difficult to accept. Yet other scientists did experiments to prove that Einstein's theory was correct.

VOICE TWO:

Ten years after his paper on the special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein finished work on another theory. It described what he called his "General Theory of Relativity." It expanded his special theory to include the motion of objects that are gaining speed. This theory offered new ideas about gravity and the close relationship between matter and energy. It built on the ideas about mass he had expressed in Nineteen-Oh-Five.

Einstein said that an object loses mass when it gives off light, which is a kind of energy. He believed that matter and energy were different forms of the same thing. That was the basis of his famous mathematical statement E equals m-c squared (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). This statement or formula explained that a great amount of energy could come from a small piece of matter. It explained how the sun could give off heat and light for millions of years. This formula also led to the discovery of atomic energy.

VOICE ONE:

 
The galaxies8 are evidence of a gravity lens--light bent9 by the force of gravity. 
In his general theory of relativity, Einstein said that gravity, like time, is not always the same. Gravity changes as observers speed up or slow down. He also said that gravity from very large objects, such as stars, could turn the path of light waves that passed nearby. This seemed unbelievable. But in Nineteen-Nineteen, British scientists confirmed his theory when the sun was completely blocked during a solar eclipse. Albert Einstein immediately became famous around the world.

 
Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 
In Nineteen-Twenty-One, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was given to him, not for his theories of relativity, but for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric10 effect. This scientific law explained how and why some metals give off electrons after light falls on their surfaces. The discovery led to the development of modern electronics, including radio and television.

VOICE TWO:

Albert Einstein taught in Switzerland and Germany. He left Germany when Adolph Hitler came to power in Nineteen-Thirty-Three.He moved to the United States to continue his research. He worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey11. Einstein became a citizen of the United States in Nineteen-Forty.

VOICE ONE:

Einstein was a famous man, but you would not have known that by looking at him. His white hair was long and wild. He wore old clothes. He showed an inner joy when he was playing his violin or talking about his work. Students and friends said he had a way of explaining difficult ideas using images that were easy to understand.

Albert Einstein opposed wars. Yet he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine to advise him that the United States should develop an atomic bomb before Germany did.

Einstein spent the last twenty-five years of his life working on what he called a "unified12 field theory." He hoped to find a common mathematical statement that could tie together all the different parts of physics. He did not succeed.

Albert Einstein died in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. He was seventy-six years old.

VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
2 magnetism zkxyW     
n.磁性,吸引力,磁学
参考例句:
  • We know about magnetism by the way magnets act.我们通过磁铁的作用知道磁性是怎么一回事。
  • His success showed his magnetism of courage and devotion.他的成功表现了他的胆量和热诚的魅力。
3 algebra MKRyW     
n.代数学
参考例句:
  • He was not good at algebra in middle school.他中学时不擅长代数。
  • The boy can't figure out the algebra problems.这个男孩做不出这道代数题。
4 calculus Is9zM     
n.微积分;结石
参考例句:
  • This is a problem where calculus won't help at all.对于这一题,微积分一点也用不上。
  • After studying differential calculus you will be able to solve these mathematical problems.学了微积分之后,你们就能够解这些数学题了。
5 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
6 polytechnic g1vzw     
adj.各种工艺的,综合技术的;n.工艺(专科)学校;理工(专科)学校
参考例句:
  • She was trained as a teacher at Manchester Polytechnic.她在曼彻斯特工艺专科学校就读,准备毕业后做老师。
  • When he was 17,Einstein entered the Polytechnic Zurich,Switzerland,where he studied mathematics and physics.17岁时,爱因斯坦进入了瑞士苏黎士的专科学院,学习数学和物理学。
7 inspector q6kxH     
n.检查员,监察员,视察员
参考例句:
  • The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
  • The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。
8 galaxies fa8833b92b82bcb88ee3b3d7644caf77     
星系( galaxy的名词复数 ); 银河系; 一群(杰出或著名的人物)
参考例句:
  • Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
  • We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。
9 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
10 photoelectric WNkxd     
adj.光电的,光电效应的
参考例句:
  • Photoelectric spectrophotometers give better result.用光电分光光度计能得到较佳结果。
  • Einstein also explained a baffling feature of the photoelectric effect.爱因斯坦也解释了光电效应里一个令人困扰的现象。
11 jersey Lp5zzo     
n.运动衫
参考例句:
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
12 unified 40b03ccf3c2da88cc503272d1de3441c     
(unify 的过去式和过去分词); 统一的; 统一标准的; 一元化的
参考例句:
  • The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
  • The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。
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