Albert Einstein has been the subject of, or inspiration for, many works of popular culture.
Einstein is a favorite model for depictions of absent-minded professors; his expressive face and distinctive hairstyles have been widely copied and exaggerated. Time magazine's Frederic Golden wrote that Einstein was "a cartoonist's dream come true." [1]
"Einstein" has become a byword for an extremely intelligent person. It may also be used ironically when someone states the obvious or demonstrates a lack of wisdom or intelligence (as in "Way to go, Einstein!")
Many quotes that have become popular via the Internet have been misattributed to him, including "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result". [2] [3]
In 1999, leading physicists voted Einstein the "greatest physicist ever". [4]
His birthday, March 14, is also Pi Day, so called because 3/14 (March 14 in shorthand month-day format) corresponds to 3.14, the first three digits of the number Pi. The town of Princeton, New Jersey, where Einstein lived for more than 20 years, celebrates March 14 every year as "Princeton Pi Day and Einstein Birthday Party." [5]
The children's television show Little Einsteins and the educational toys and videos of the Baby Einstein series both use Einstein's name, though not his image.
Iranian cartoonist and humorist Javad Alizadeh publishes a column titled "4D Humor" in his Persian monthly Humor & Caricature, which features cartoons, caricatures and stories on Einstein-related topics. [6] In 1991, he published in the column a comic book on Einstein's life and work, inspired mainly by the theory of relativity. [7]
On Einstein's 72nd birthday on March 14, 1951, United Press photographer Arthur Sasse was trying to persuade him to smile for the camera, but having smiled for photographers many times that day, Einstein stuck out his tongue instead. [8] This photograph became one of the most popular ever taken of Einstein, [9] [10] often used in merchandise depicting him in a lighthearted sense. Einstein enjoyed this photo and requested UPI to give him nine copies for personal use, one of which he signed for a reporter. On June 19, 2009, the original signed photograph was sold at auction for $74,324, a record for an Einstein picture at the time. [11] The photo was sold again on July 27, 2017 for $125,000. [12]
Salesforce acquired a 20-year license in 2016 for $20 million to be the only business-oriented software company permitted to use his likeness. Einstein's likeness is used as a company mascot and his name is used for the company's artificial intelligence features. [13] [14]
Einstein bequeathed his estate, as well as the use of his image (see personality rights), to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, [15] which from the mid-1980s has sponsored the Einstein Papers Project with the Princeton University Press. Einstein actively supported the university during his life and this support continues with the royalties received from licensing activities. GreenLight licences the commercial use of the name "Albert Einstein" and associated imagery and likenesses of Einstein, as agent for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As head licensee, the corporation can control commercial usage of Einstein's name and theoretically ensure compliance with certain standards (e.g., when Einstein's name is used as a trademark, the ™ symbol must be used). [16]
In 2012, Judge Howard Matz of a United States district court found that although a General Motors advertisement featuring Einstein's image was “tasteless” it was not illegal. Judge Matz wrote, “the obviously humorous ad for the 2010 Terrain having been published 55 years or more after Einstein's death, it is unlikely that any viewer of it could reasonably infer that Einstein, or whoever succeeded to any right of publicity that Einstein may have had, was endorsing the GMC Terrain.”
Hebrew University asked that publicity rights be extended to the 70 years associated with copyright protection. Judge Matz declined, stating “the Ninth Circuit recently noted that Marilyn Monroe considered herself to belong 'to the Public and to the world,’ ” Matz wrote. “There is no evidence that Albert Einstein saw himself that way, but he did become the symbol and embodiment of genius. His persona has become thoroughly ingrained in our cultural heritage. Now, nearly 60 years after his death, that persona should be freely available to those who seek to appropriate it as part of their own expression, even in tasteless ads.” [17]
There is a persistent popular belief that Einstein was left-handed, [18] but there is no evidence that he was, and the belief has been called a myth. [19] [20] Einstein wrote with his right hand, [21] and authoritative sources state flatly that he was right-handed. [20] [22] An autopsy on Einstein's brain showed a symmetry between the two hemispheres, rather than a left-sided dominance as is typical of most right-handed people or a right-sided dominance as found in most left-handed people. [19]
Several schools, colleges, and universities are named after Einstein, including in Germany, Honduras, and the United States. [23]
Einstein has been the subject of or inspiration for many novels, films and plays, such as Steve Martin's comedic play Picasso at the Lapin Agile . [24] He was the subject of Paul Dessau's 1974 opera Einstein and in 1976 in Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach , [25] and his humorous side is the subject of Ed Metzger's one-man play Albert Einstein: The Practical Bohemian . [26] He features prominently in Daniel Kehlmann's play about Kurt Gödel, Ghosts in Princeton (2011). [27]
Einstein was portrayed by Ludwig Stössel in the 1947 film The Beginning or the End .
He was the subject (along with Arthur Eddington) of the BBC Two film Einstein and Eddington , featuring David Tennant as Eddington and Andy Serkis as Einstein, and detailing Einstein's development of his theories and Eddington's attempts to prove them [28] and in Yahoo Serious's intentionally inaccurate biography of Einstein as an Australian in the film Young Einstein , although the movie is fictionalized. [29]
An Einstein-like character appears in Nicolas Roeg's 1985 film Insignificance . Set in New York in 1953, the film includes a scene in which "The Professor" (played by Michael Emil), the character evidently representing Albert Einstein, discusses Relativity with "The Actress" (Theresa Russell), a Marilyn Monroe-like character. [30]
Einstein was portrayed by Walter Matthau in the 1994 romantic comedy I.Q . [31]
In the 2001 film A.I.: Artificial Intelligence , he was portrayed as a holographic personality called Dr. Know (voiced by Robin Williams). [32]
In the film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian , he and the other bobbleheads live in the Air and Space Museum.
The 2009 film The Nutcracker in 3D includes a character named Uncle Albert (played by Nathan Lane) who resembles Einstein, speaks with a German accent, and recites Albert Einstein quotes, but is never explicitly identified as Einstein. [33]
The Star Wars character Yoda's wrinkles were modeled after Einstein's, to give the impression of exceptional intelligence. [34]
In the movie Back to the Future , the character of Dr. Emmett 'Doc' Brown, played by actor Christopher Lloyd and portrayed as a brilliant scientist, time traveler and inventor, has a dog called "Einstein", named after Brown's favorite scientist, as well as bearing a superficial resemblance to him. Lloyd also credited Einstein as being his inspiration for the character. [35] [36]
In the 2011 film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon , the Autobot character known as Que sports an Einstein-inspired head design, including his wild hairstyle, dapper mustache, and eyes. However, his accent is often confused for being German because of these similarities. Like his G1 counterpart and Einstein alike, he is one of the most intelligent members of his team, and is an accomplished scientist and inventor. However, his onscreen name "Que" was derived from Professor Q, a James Bond character, who also inspired Wheeljack/Que's overall character.
Einstein was portrayed by David Shackleton in the 2018 comedy Holmes & Watson .
In the 2023 film Oppenheimer , Einstein was portrayed by Tom Conti. [37]
A holographic representation of Einstein, played by Jim Norton, appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation . He first appears to debate physics with Reginald Barclay in "The Nth Degree". Norton returns in the first part of "Descent". The episode starts on the Enterprise with a game of poker being played by holodeck representations of Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, and Stephen Hawking (portrayed by himself). All are programmed by Lt. Commander Data, playing as the fourth person in the game. [38]
In the cartoon series Dexter's Laboratory , Einstein is boy genius Dexter's hero.
In the television series Voyagers! , in an episode titled, "The Travels of Marco...and Friends", the story begins with Bogg and Jeff landing in New York, 1930, and saving Einstein from a potentially-fatal accident.
In the television series The Super Mario Bros. Super Show , Einstein was played by Ed Metzger.
In the television series Touched by an Angel , Einstein was played by Harold Gould.
In the television series Eureka , the town of Eureka was established when President Harry S. Truman commissioned development of a top-secret lab, staffed by Albert Einstein, after World War II and it became home to the scientists and their families working there. [39]
In the Rick and Morty episode, "A Rickle in Time", time-traveling monsters beat up Einstein, whom they had mistaken for Rick Sanchez. [40]
Einstein is portrayed in the 2017 National Geographic period drama television series, Genius , by Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Flynn, as the elder and younger Einstein, respectively.
Einstein is portrayed in DC's Legends of Tomorrow by John Rubinstein in the episode "Out of Time" and was mentioned later in "The Curse of the Earth Totem" when he trapped in the ice age due to being displaced.
The German Netflix series Dark begins a with a quote about the perception of time by Einstein.
In 2023, the BBC produced the docudrama Einstein and the Bomb, featuring both stock footage of Einstein and dramatizations where he is played by Aidan McArdle.
He is one of the main characters in the web series Super Science Friends .
The infant multimedia franchise Baby Einstein was named after him. The franchise includes direct-to-video programs, CDs, books, flashcards, toys, and baby gear that specialize in interactive activities for infants and toddlers, created by Julie Aigner-Clark.
The videos show babies and toddlers under four years simple patterns, puppet shows, and familiar objects, such as everyday items, animals, and toys that are often accompanied by reorchestrated classical music written by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and many others, as well as some traditional rhymes constructed for an easy, relaxing way, meant for a baby's ear.
The puppets are all animals who seldom speak, mostly communicating in simple sounds and their respective animal sounds.
Baby Einstein was introduced to the public on June 4, 1996 and remained a small company until Clark sold it to Disney.
Jean-Claude Carrière's 2005 French novel Einstein S'il Vous Plaît (Einstein If You Please) portrays a fictional conversation between Einstein and a student. [41]
Alan Lightman's first book, Einstein's Dreams, consists of short stories which are portrayed as being the dreams of Einstein while he was working on the theory of relativity; these stories explain how time would work in imaginary parallel universes. [42]
Novelist Jacob M. Appel's Einstein's Beach House relates a fictional battle over the settlement of Einstein's estate after his death. [43] [44]
David Bodanis's book E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation describes Einstein's equation which defines mass-energy equivalence, and the other scientists before during and after his time that contributed to the understanding we have about the equation.
Marie Hermanson's Swedish crime novel Den stora utställningen(The Great Exhibition) is set during the 1923 Gothenburg Exhibition where Einstein held his official Nobel Lecture after being awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. In this fictional version of events, Einstein is the intended victim of an antisemitic murder plot and one of the viewpoint characters.
In 1939, the comic strip Alley Oop (launched in December 1932) introduced a time-traveling character named Dr. Elbert Wonmug, who has had several story lines in the strip ever since. "Wonmug" is a play on the English translation of the name "Einstein" -- "ein" meaning one (won) and "stein" meaning a style of drinking mug.
In 1940, Philadelphia artist Louis Hirshman created a caricature of Einstein using found objects, including a wild mop of hair, an abacus chest and shirt collar scribbled with the equation 2+2 = 2+2. In 1977, the piece was purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Albert Einstein's handwriting has been digitised as a font in an art project by typographer Harald Geisler and dancer Elizabeth Waterhouse. The font enables the user to write like Einstein on a computer or smartphone. [50] The project was created in collaboration with the Albert Einstein Archives Jerusalem and presented in 2015 on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter where the campaign was supported by 2334 backers. [51] Each letter of the font is based on Einstein's manuscripts, different variations of each letter are stored in the font and exchanged automatically during typing to create a natural look. [52]
The Albert Einstein font was used to reenact the 1932 letter exchange between Einstein and Sigmund Freud. In 2017, at the 85th anniversary of the exchange, which was published in 1933 under the title "Why War", Harald Geisler presented the project on Kickstarter in collaboration with the Sigmund Freud Museum (Vienna) and the Albert Einstein Archives. [53] Supporters of the project could choose to either receive the letters themselves or send them to politicians typeset in the handwriting of Einstein and Freud. [54]
Einstein is an integral character in the Command & Conquer: Red Alert series, being responsible in Red Alert for altering the course of history using a time traveling device he created to remove Adolf Hitler from existence in an attempt to prevent the horrors of World War II, inadvertently leading to the Soviet Union's rise to power and conflict with Europe. He continues to be featured in the altered timeline in Red Alert and Red Alert 2 developing time travel technology for use by the Allies, and his fictional murder at the hands of the Soviets, also involving a time machine, is a central plot point of Red Alert 3 . [55]
In Mega Man , released in 1987, Dr. Wily's design is inspired by Albert Einstein, and was initially conceived to appear as a tall, thin scientist with a mustache, glasses, balding hair, and lab coat. [56]
In Half-Life , one of the scientist models is based on Einstein's appearance.
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who is widely held as one of the most influential scientists. Best known for developing the theory of relativity, Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from special relativity, has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory.
Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honour.
Mileva Marić, sometimes called Mileva Marić-Einstein, was a Serbian physicist and mathematician. She showed intellectual aptitude from a young age and studied at Zürich Polytechnic in a highly male dominated field, after having studied medicine for one semester at Zürich University. Her studies included differential and integral calculus, descriptive and projective geometry, mechanics, theoretical physics, applied physics, experimental physics, and astronomy. One of her study colleagues at university was Albert Einstein, whose early work Marić is suspected to have possibly contributed to, in particular to the Annus Mirabilis papers.
In physics, mass–energy equivalence is the relationship between mass and energy in a system's rest frame, where the two quantities differ only by a multiplicative constant and the units of measurement. The principle is described by the physicist Albert Einstein's formula: . In a reference frame where the system is moving, its relativistic energy and relativistic mass obey the same formula.
Since the 19th century, some physicists, notably Albert Einstein, have attempted to develop a single theoretical framework that can account for all the fundamental forces of nature – a unified field theory. Classical unified field theories are attempts to create a unified field theory based on classical physics. In particular, unification of gravitation and electromagnetism was actively pursued by several physicists and mathematicians in the years between the two World Wars. This work spurred the purely mathematical development of differential geometry.
Alfred Einstein was a German-American musicologist and music editor. He was born in Munich and fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's Machtergreifung, arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for being the editor of the first major revision of the Köchel catalogue, which was published in 1936. The Köchel catalogue is the extensive catalogue of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
General relativity is a theory of gravitation that was developed by Albert Einstein between 1907 and 1915, with contributions by many others after 1915. According to general relativity, the observed gravitational attraction between masses results from the warping of space and time by those masses.
Emmett Lathrop Brown, Ph.D., commonly referred to as "Doc Brown" or "Doctor Emmet Brown", is a fictional scientist in the Back to the Future franchise. In Back to the Future, he introduces his friend Marty McFly to the DeLorean time machine that he invented using a DMC DeLorean. In Back to the Future Part III he builds another time machine using a steam engine locomotive.
I.Q. is a 1994 American romantic comedy film directed by Fred Schepisi and starring Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, and Walter Matthau. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith. The film, set in the mid-1950s, centers on a mechanic and a Princeton doctoral candidate who fall in love, thanks to the candidate's uncle, Albert Einstein.
Walter William Marseille was a German-American psychoanalyst and graphologist. In 1948 he corresponded with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell, advocating world government.
Thomas Stoltz Harvey was an American pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Albert Einstein in 1955. Harvey afterwards preserved Einstein's brain on the condition that it would be studied for scientific purposes.
Einstein's Brain is a 1994 documentary by Kevin Hull following Japanese professor Kenji Sugimoto in his search for Albert Einstein's brain. It is produced by BBC Films.
Einstein and Eddington is a British single drama produced by Company Pictures and the BBC, in association with HBO. It featured David Tennant as British scientist Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, and Andy Serkis as Albert Einstein. This is the story of Einstein's general theory of relativity, his relationship with Eddington and the introduction of this theory to the world, against the backdrop of the Great War and Eddington's eclipse observations.
Albert Einstein's religious views have been widely studied and often misunderstood. Albert Einstein stated "I believe in Spinoza's God". He did not believe in a personal God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naïve. He clarified, however, that, "I am not an atheist", preferring to call himself an agnostic, or a "religious nonbeliever." In other interviews, he stated that he thought that there is a "lawgiver" who sets the laws of the universe. Einstein also stated he did not believe in life after death, adding "one life is enough for me." He was closely involved in his lifetime with several humanist groups. Einstein rejected a conflict between science and religion, and held that cosmic religion was necessary for science.
German-born scientist Albert Einstein was best known during his lifetime for his development of the theory of relativity, his contributions to quantum mechanics, and many other notable achievements in modern physics. However, Einstein's political views also garnered much public interest due to his fame and involvement in political, humanitarian, and academic projects around the world. Einstein was a peace activist and a firm advocate of global federalism and world law. He favoured the principles of socialism, asserting that it was an ideological system that fixed what he perceived as the inherent societal shortcomings of capitalism.
Einstein's Gift is a 2003 play written by Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen and published in 2003 by Playwrights Canada Press. Through the recollections of Albert Einstein, the play focuses on the life and career of German chemist Dr. Fritz Haber, who helped improve living conditions with his work on nitrogen fixation. His work was later used by the German army to produce the chlorine gas used in the Second Battle of Ypres in the First World War. As Dr. Haber becomes increasingly involved with the German army, the play depicts how his actions and newly forged military connections affect his relationship with his wife, Clara, and his assistant, Otto. As his passion for science intertwines with nationalistic pride, Haber manifests himself as a scientist devoted to a country that never accepted his Jewish origin.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Albert Einstein:
Super Science Friends is an animated web series created by Brett Jubinville and broadcast worldwide on YouTube and on Crunchyroll's VRV Channel in the United States. The series revolves around a group of super-powered scientists, including Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and Tapputi, who are brought together by Winston Churchill to travel through time fighting super-villains. The pilot episode Episode 1: The Phantom Premise was successfully Kickstarted in late 2014, and aired on YouTube in 2016. In 2017, Neil deGrasse Tyson joined the cast for Episode 3: Nobel of the Ball as the MC of the Nobel Prize Awards.
Harald Geisler is an artist known for his typographic projects about the role of writing in society. He was born 1980 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and graduated in 2009 at the University of Art and Design Offenbach am Main.
The Eddington experiment was an observational test of general relativity, organised by the British astronomers Frank Watson Dyson and Arthur Stanley Eddington in 1919. The observations were of the total solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 and were carried out by two expeditions, one to the West African island of Príncipe, and the other to the Brazilian town of Sobral. The aim of the expeditions was to measure the gravitational deflection of starlight passing near the Sun. The value of this deflection had been predicted by Albert Einstein in a 1911 paper; however, this initial prediction turned out not to be correct because it was based on an incomplete theory of general relativity. Einstein later improved his prediction after finalizing his theory in 1915 and obtaining the solution to his equations by Karl Schwarzschild. Following the return of the expeditions, the results were presented by Eddington to the Royal Society of London and, after some deliberation, were accepted. Widespread newspaper coverage of the results led to worldwide fame for Einstein and his theories.