The collected papers of Albert Einstein

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This volume of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein showcases his scientific work from the first decade of his career, highlighting pivotal achievements in twentieth-century physics. It begins with a paper written in 1900 by a twenty-one-year-old Einstein, freshly graduated from the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School in Zurich and struggling to find employment. The collection concludes with an invited lecture from 1909, delivered after Einstein secured his first academic position at the University of Zurich. By this time, he had gained recognition as a significant theoretical physicist, largely due to the groundbreaking works included here, especially the three masterpieces from 1905, often referred to as Einstein's year of miracles. In one paper, he validated the long-held belief that matter consists of discrete atoms, providing methods to measure their numbers and masses. Another groundbreaking paper, which he termed "very revolutionary," proposed that thermal radiation is made up of localized energy particles, or energy quanta, rather than waves. The third, most renowned paper introduced the special theory of relativity, addressing longstanding challenges and necessitating a profound shift in our understanding of space and time.