personal philosophy

Einstein Revealed, Part 1 (1996) is a detailed look into Albert Einstein’s personal life. Part 1 of this NOVA special chronicles his life from birth until about age 26, just after he published his Theory of Special Relativity while working as a Swiss patent clerk. It gives a fascinating look into Einstein’s formative years, his dislike of formal schooling, and his first marriage to Mileva. The documentary artfully combines the interplay between his scientific passions and emotional drives that paint a complex picture of the man whom many regard as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. The actor portraying Einstein does a very convincing job. More than a few of my students actually thought it WAS Einstein in the documentary! All of the 21 questions on this documentary video guide are higher-order in nature. Questions relating to physics are conceptual in nature, with no computations required. Scientific concepts discussed include special relativity, the nature of time, the stretching of space, and the ether.