10 Things You Might Not Have Known About Albert Einstein
Written by: Daksh Verma, Richard Xu, Andrew Xia, Clement Li
When you hear the name “Albert Einstein” what do you think about? Do you think about his contributions to mathematics and sciences such as E=mc² or the theory of relativity? Or do you think of a genius, possibly one of the smartest men who walked this earth? Or do you think about what hair products he used to get his hair to become the epitome of chaos? Behind the brilliant scientific mind of Einstein, lies another intriguing personality. Regardless, here are 10 Fun Facts about Einstein that you might have never known about.
1. ALBERT EINSTEIN WAS THOUGHT TO BE STUPID
Perhaps one of the better known obscure facts about him, Einstein was thought to be mentally deficient by his parents. When he was first born, his head was abnormally large and misshapen. In addition to this, he didn’t begin to speak until he was four years old and didn’t speak in full sentences until he was nine, leading his parents to believe that he was “mentally retarded” (Koczela, 2014, para. 1 & 2).
Moreover, there have been many claims that he was a failing student. some of these claims have been found to be false such as Einstein failing math and physics. In fact, it was found that Einstein only failed the non-science subjects (language, botany, zoology) but excelled at math and physics with flying colours (Roos, n.d.).
“I never failed in mathematics. Before I was 15 I had mastered differential and integral calculus”
- Einstein (Roos, n.d.).
2. EINSTEIN PAID FOR A DIVORCE WITH HIS FIRST WIFE USING HIS NOBEL PRIZE MONEY
Einstein’s marriage to Mileva Marić was on edge in the 1910’s, and they would eventually break ties in 1919, with Einstein having to pay an annual fee and whatever amount of prize money he would receive from his 1922 Nobel Prize victory (Andrews, 2015).
3. EINSTEIN WAS QUITE THE PLAYER
Einstein was extremely popular with the girls. He had rotating relationships with more than ten different women throughout his life; he frequently had more than two mistresses at a time (The Telegraph, 2017). There was one Margarete, one Toni, one Estel, one… nevermind, there are too many to count (Alok, 2006).
4. THE FBI RECORDED A… REALLY LONG FILE ON EINSTEIN
Right before Einstein’s 3rd visit to the United States in 1933, the FBI decided to start making a file on him (Andrews, 2015). This file would end up spanning 1,427 pages, focusing mostly on his pacifist affiliations. The POTUS at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, wanted Einstein to never be able to visit America again, but that was overturned in court (Walsh, 2020).
5. EINSTEIN LOVED CLASSICAL MUSIC
Einstein was an adept musician and was also deeply fond of classical music. He began to learn to play the violin at the early age of five. Fun fact: Einstein once threw a chair at his music teacher because of the pressure and the stress during violin practice. In addition to playing the violin, Einstein also learned to play the piano with his mother, Pauline Koch, as his teacher. On a more serious note, he fell in love with Mozart’s music when he was thirteen. In fact, said, “Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe” (Chandler & Mahboob, 2017, para. 4).
6. ONE OF HIS KIDS WAS INSTITUTIONALIZED FOR MOST OF THEIR LIFE
Albert’s second son, Eduard, a.k.a “Tete”, suffered from schizophrenia for his whole life. Despite this, Tete was a great fan of the work of Sigmund Freud. He would never see his father ever again after Einstein immigrated to the United States in 1933.
7. EINSTEIN BELIEVED THAT VEGETARIANISM WAS GOOD
Yes, you heard it all you carnivores out there. Einstein advocated the progression of the human race towards a vegetarian diet. He wrote in a letter to Max Kariel about his guilt of eating meat: “I have always eaten animal flesh with somewhat of a guilty conscience.” He also said that vegetarianism was necessary for human survival and progress.
“Nothing will benefit health or increase chances of survival on earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
- Einstein (Albert Einstein, n.d.).
8. HE ALMOST BECAME THE PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL
Einstein was always vocal in terms of speaking for anti-semitism. So when the Israeli head of state Chaim Weizmann passed away in 1952, they offered Einstein the chance to become their 2nd president in national history. Einstein immediately refused the offer, writing them a letter that said “All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack the aptitude and experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official function” (Lewis, 2020).
9. HE STUDIED A PARROT’S EMOTIONS IN HIS LATER LIFE
In Einstein’s dwindling years, he was interested in a depressed parrot, and used it as an experiment subject, by trying to tell it jokes and make it feel in a better mood (Lewis, 2020).
10. ALBERT EINSTEIN HAD HIS BRAIN TAKEN WHEN HE DIED
Einstein sadly passed away from an abdominal aortic aneurysm in April of 1955. However, the Princeton pathologist, during Einstein’s autopsy, removed the genius’ famous brain intending to extract from it the secrets of Einstein’s brilliance (Andrews, 2015).
Later on, for further research and study, Einstein’s brain was divided into its respective parts and sent off to a number of scientists. Multiple studies have been conducted and multiple conclusions and theories have been reached, but each one has been disproven thus far (Andrews, 2015).
WORKS CITED
Albert Einstein was a vegetarian Scientist. (n.d.). Happy Cow. Retrieved from https://www.happycow.net/vegtopics/famous/albert_einstein#:~:text=Einstein%20was%20a%20vegetarian%20during,soon%20after%20became%20a%20vegetarian.
Alok, J. (2006, July 11). Letters reveal relative truth of Einstein’s family life. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/jul/11/internationalnews#:~:text=Einstein%20was%20surprisingly%20candid%20to,read%20books%20and%20attended%20concerts.
Andrews, E. (2015, October 26). 9 Things You May Not Know About Albert Einstein. Retrieved September 21, 2020, from https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-albert-einstein
Chandler, J., & Mahboob, T. (2017, March 14). Albert Einstein: 10 things you might not know about his love for music. CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/music/read/albert-einstein-10-things-you-might-not-know-about-his-love-for-music-1.5073973#:~:text=Einstein%20started%20taking%20violin%20lessons,the%20universe%2C%22%20he%20said.
Koczela, A. (2014, March 12). Ten Facts You Should Know about Albert Einstein. Books Tell You Why. Retrieved from https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/10-surprising-facts-about-albert-einstein
Lewis, D. (2020, May 19). 25 Incredible Facts About Albert Einstein. Retrieved from https://www.thefactsite.com/albert-einstein-facts/
Roos, D. (n.d.). 10 False History ‘Facts’ Everyone Knows. How Stuff Works. Retrieved from https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhistory.howstuffworks.com%2Fhistory-vs-myth%2F10-false-history-facts8.htm
The Telegraph. (2017, April 28). Albert Einstein, sex-crazed love rat? New miniseries shows the physicist juggling many mistresses. National Post. Retrieved from https://nationalpost.com/news/world/albert-einstein-sex-crazed-love-rat-new-miniseries-shows-the-physicist-juggling-many-mistresses
Walsh, A. (2020, May 07). 10 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Einstein. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/04/einstein-facts-science-genius/
