Einstein's Genius

We perceive great artists as being above us, being an idea rather than a person. As such, their exploits are not simply stories, but mythologies that build the artist into something greater than a man (or woman). Their specific ability to interpret the natural world and make beauty from it makes them extremely desirable for the common man to immortalize.

I understand Albert Einstein as an artist. His work in shaping our understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe innovated the very basis of modern science. His ideas created question and searched for answers.

The key to his genius is the thought experiment. Most notably is his thought experiment of chasing a beam of light. As he chased the beam and gained more and more speed until he finally was traveling at the speed of light, the beam of light should appear to slow down until it stopped. This, both then and now, was considered an impossibility of the physical properties of light. As he thought more and more about this apparent contradiction of idea and law, Einstein eventually postulated the theory of special relativity in which the speed of light appears constant no matter the frame of reference. One of the most important scientific moments of the twentieth century.

He was 16 when he first had the thought experiment.