Upstream. Elementary A2. Workbook

One major function he involuntarily served was as a scientific role model. Without Einstein, many of the young people who became scientists after 1920 might never have heard of the existence of the scientific enterprise. The logic behind EinsteinБЂ™s Special Theory of Relativity could have been developed a century earlier, but, although there were some premonitory insights by others, relativity had to wait for Einstein. Yet fundamentally the physics of special relativity is very simple, and many of the essential results can be derived from high school algebra and pondering a boat paddling upstream and downstream. EinsteinБЂ™s life was rich in genius and irony, a passion for the issues of his time, insights into education, the connection between science and politics, and was a demonstration that individuals can, after all, change the world. As a child Einstein gave little indication of what was to come. БЂњMy parents,БЂ«he recalled later, БЂњwere worried because I started to talk comparatively late, and they consulted the doctor because of itБЂ¦ I was at that timeБЂ¦ certainly not younger than three.БЂ«He was an indifferent student in elementary school, where he said the teachers reminded him of drill sergeants ...»