Class 9 Beehive Chapter 4
Chapter 4: A Truly Beautiful Mind
Thinking about the Text (Page 50)
Q1. Here are some headings for paragraphs in the text. Write the number(s) of the paragraph(s) for each title against the heading. The first one is done for you.
| (i) Einstein’s equation | 9 |
| (ii) Einstein meets his future wife | 7 |
| (iii) The making of a violinist | 3 |
| (iv) Mileva and Einstein’s mother | 10 |
| (v) A letter that launched the arms race | 15 |
| (vi) A desk drawer full of ideas | 8 |
| (vii) Marriage and divorce | 11 |
Q2. Who had these opinions about Einstein?
He was boring.
Answer: His playmates.
He was stupid and would never succeed in life.
Answer: A headmaster.
He was a freak.
Answer: His mother.
Q 3. Explain what the reasons for the following are:
1. Einstein is leaving the school in Munich for good.
Einstein left the school in Munich because he did not like the discipline of the school. He hated the school’s regimentation and often clashed with teachers.
2. Einstein wanting to study in Switzerland rather than in Munich.
2. Albert’s parents moved to Milan and left their son with relatives. After prolonged discussion, Einstein got his wish to continue his education in German-speaking Switzerland. Actually, it was more liberal than Munich.
3. Einstein seeing in Mileva an ally.
3. Einstein saw in Mileva Marie an ally against the “Philistines”—those people in his family and at the university with whom he was constantly at odds. He found that she was a “clever creature.”
4. What do these tell you about Einstein?
4. These tell us that Einstein was a genius and had the capabilities to achieve his targets. Moreover, he had his own view of life. He liked freedom too much.
Q4. What did Einstein call his desk drawer at the patent office? Why
Answer: Einstein called his desk drawer at the patent office the “bureau of theoretical physics.”. Einstein was actually developing his own ideas in secret, and his drawer had all the evidence that could reveal the secret.
Q5. Why did Einstein write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt?
Answer: With the emergence of the Nazis in Germany, Einstein emigrated to the United States. It was the fact that the Nazis had the ability to develop the atomic bomb. It could destroy the whole world. So he warned Franklin D. Roosevelt in his letter.
Q6. How did Einstein react to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Answer: The atomic bomb devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was deeply shaken by the extent of the destruction and wrote a public letter to the United Nations.
Q7. Why does the world remember Einstein as a ‘world citizen’?
Answer: The world remembers Einstein as a ‘world citizen’ because he believed in universal peace. When there was the rat race for becoming an atomic power, he was worried about the aftermaths of the bomb. He was really a world citizen who was concerned with humanity.
Q8. Here are some facts from Einstein’s life. Arrange them in chronological order.
[ ] Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity.
[ ] He is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
[ ] Einstein writes a letter to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and warns against Germany’s building of an atomic bomb.
[ ] Einstein attends a high school in Munich.
[ ] Einstein’s family moves to Milan.
[ ] Einstein was born in the German city of Ulm.
[ ] Einstein joins a university in Zurich, where he meets Mileva.
[ ] Einstein dies.
[ ] He provides a new interpretation of gravity.
[ ] Tired of the school’s regimentation, Einstein withdraws from school.
[ ] He works in a patent office as a technical expert.
[ ] When Hitler comes to power, Einstein leaves Germany for the United States.
Answers:
[1] Einstein was born in the German city of Ulm.
[2] Einstein attends a high school in Munich.
[3] Einstein’s family moves to Milan.
[4] Tired of the school’s regimentation, Einstein withdraws from school.
[5] Einstein joins a university in Zurich, where he meets Mileva.
[6] He works in a patent office as a technical expert.
[7] Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity.
[8] He provides a new interpretation of gravitation.
[9] He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
[10] When Hitler comes to power, Einstein leaves Germany for the United States.
[11] Einstein writes a letter to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and warns against Germany’s building of an atomic bomb.
[12] Einstein dies.