Einstein by Philipp Frank Read Free Book Online Page B

broken but mechanically obedient automatons with all the naturalness driven out of them; here he found people whose behavior was not so much determined by artificial, externally imposed rules, but was rather in consonance with their natural impulses. To him their actions appeared more in accord with the laws of nature than with those of any human authority.
    This paradisal state of delight, however, could exist only as long as Einstein was able to forget completely — as he did for a while — the urgent demands that the practical necessities of life made upon him. The need for a practical occupation was particularly urgent since his father was again unsuccessful in Italy. Neither in Milan nor in Pavia did his electrical shop succeed. Despite his optimism and happy outlook on life, he was compelled to tell Albert: “I can no longer support you. You will have to take up some profession as soon as possible.” The pressure that had hardly been released appeared to have returned. Had his departure from the gymnasium been a disastrous step? How could he return to the regular path leading to a profession?
    Einstein’s childhood experience with the magnetic compasshad aroused his curiosity in the mysterious laws of nature, and his experience with the geometry book had developed in him a passionate love for everything that is comprehensible in terms of mathematics and a feeling that there was an element in the world that was completely comprehensible to human beings. Theoretical physics was the field that attracted him and to which he wanted to devote his life. He wanted to study this subject because it deals with the question: how can immeasurably complicated occurrences observed in nature be reduced to simple mathematical formulæ?
    With his interest in the pure sciences of physics and mathematics and the training required for a more practical profession, together with the fact that his father was engaged in a technical occupation, it seemed best that young Einstein should study the technological sciences. Furthermore, since he lacked a diploma from a gymnasium but had an excellent knowledge of mathematics, he believed that he could more easily obtain admission to a technical institution than to a regular university.
     
6.
Student at Zurich
    At that time the most famous technical school in central Europe outside of Germany was the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich. Einstein went there and took the entrance examination. He showed that his knowledge of mathematics was far ahead of that of most of the other candidates, but his knowledge of modern languages and the descriptive natural sciences (zoology and botany) was inadequate, and he was not admitted. Now the blow had fallen. What he had feared ever since leaving Munich had come to pass and it looked as though he would be unable to continue in the direction he had planned.
    The director of the Polytechnic, however, had been impressed by Einstein’s knowledge of mathematics and advised him to obtain the required diploma in a Swiss school, the excellent, progressively conducted cantonal school in the small city of Aarau. This prospect did not appeal very much to Einstein, who feared that he would again become an inmate of a regimented institution like the gymnasium in Munich.
    Einstein went to Aarau with considerable misgiving and apprehension, but he was pleasantly surprised. The cantonal school was conducted in a very different spirit from that of the Munich gymnasium. There was no militaristic drilling, and the teaching was aimed at training the students to think and work independently. The teachers were always available to the students for friendly discussions or counsel. The students were not required to remain in the same room all the time, and there were separate rooms containing instruments, specimens, and accessories for every subject. For physics and chemistry there were apparatuses with which the student could experiment. For zoology there were a small museum