Book Description

In 1905, Einstein's Annus Mirabilis, Albert Einstein made three discoveries concerning the foundations of nature which form the basis of his fame as a physicist. These revolutionary papers on the light-quantum hypothesis, Brownian motion, and special relativity, were published in the journal "Annalen der Physik". All three are now established as pillars of modern science and its applications in technology and are an indispensable part of the modern world. This volume presents some of the most significant original papers which Albert Einstein ever wrote. It includes the facsimiles of the three revolutionary papers of 1905. In addition it contains papers which show the consequences of the ground-breaking ideas of these seminal papers from E=mc2 to the quantum theory of specific heats. It also features Einstein's first exposition of his new general theory of relativity. Introducing the original German papers the science historians Jürgen Renn (MPI for the History of Science, Berlin), David C. Cassidy (Hofstra University, Hempstead), Michel Janssen (University of Minnesota), and Robert Rynasiewicz (John Hopkins University) complement and comment the collection with topical articles.