title: Einstein's Miraculous Year: Five Papers That Changed the Face of Physics
author:  Albert Einstein 
description: The <i>anno mirabilis</i> was 1905, when an obscure patent examiner published several papers. This volume consists of translations of Einstein's revolutionary papers that year, with introductions by physicist Roger Penrose and others that explain why these papers are among the most important scientific documents of this century--if not all time. As a group they are notable for bridging mechanical theories of physics--particles whizzing around--and the relativistic view. In the former category, Einstein figured out the sizes of molecules, and that their bombardments kept microscopic particles in motion, both mysterious matters hitherto. The relativity papers announce the two things everyone knows about Einstein besides his iconic appearance, that energy and mass are equivalent and that time is not absolute. That the soul of this book is Ph.D.-level mathematics doesn't disqualify it from public libraries: mightn't some wunderkind of the future fondly remember in her memoirs the day she discovered Einstein's actual equations in the stacks? <i>Gilbert Taylor</i>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](index-1_1.jpg)
  
  
  Einstein’s Miraculous Year
  
  
  
  
  
  _**Image Not Available**_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Einstein’s
  
  
  Miraculous Year
  
  
  !
  
  
  _Five Papers That Changed_
  
  
  _the Face of Physics_
  
  
  E D I T E D A N D I N T R O D U C ED B Y
  
  
  John Stachel
  
  
  _W I T H T H E A S S I S T A N C E O F_
  
  
  Trevor Lipscombe, Alice Calaprice,
  
  
  and Sam Elworthy
  
  
  _A N D_
  
  
  _W I T H A F O R E W O R D B Y_
  
  
  Roger Penrose
  
  
  P R I N C E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
  
  
  Copyright © 1998 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton
  University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
  
  
  In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester, West Sussex
  
  
  _All Rights Reserved_
  
  
  _Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data_ Einstein’s miraculous
  year : five papers that changed the face of physics / edited and introduced by
  John Stachel ; with the assistance of Trevor Lipscombe, Alice Calaprice, Sam
  Elworthy ;
  
  
  with a foreword by Roger Penrose.
  
  
  p.
  
  
  cm.
  
  
  ISBN 0-691-0