EINSTEIN
May 24 - September 2, 2008
 | Exhibition Highlights
Einstein is divided into the following sections:
EINSTEIN'S REVOLUTION
Visitors are introduced to how Albert Einstein’s work in physics radically reconfigured our modern understanding of the universe. In 1919, Einstein shot to international fame when British astronomers observing a solar eclipse confirmed one of the most astonishing predictions of his General Theory of Relativity: that the Sun’s gravity deflects light from distant stars. The classic Newtonian view of gravity as a simple force between objects was overthrown by Einstein’s vision of gravity as the result of objects warping space-time. A large video installation graphically simulates this by distorting the images of visitors by the imaginary gravity of a projected black hole.
LIFE AND TIMES
This section traces Einstein’s personal life, from his birth in Germany in 1879 to his passionate and often chaotic adult life. Einstein’s life was punctuated with love affairs, one of which led to his second marriage to his cousin, Elsa Loewenthal. A short video, narrated by Emmy Award–winning television, film, and stage actor Alan Alda, familiarizes visitors with Einstein’s life and accomplishments and introduces some basic physics concepts encountered in the exhibition.
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 | LIGHT
A kinetic light sculpture using innovative LED technology to create moving light patterns helps visitors visualize Einstein’s most revolutionary theories on the nature of light. This section introduces visitors to the late 19th-century notion of light as a wave moving through a mysterious “ether.” In 1905, Einstein upset this widely accepted notion when he published his Special Theory of Relativity, which recognizes the speed of light as a universal constant (regardless of the observer’s frame of reference), and proposes that space and time are relative and not absolute.
TIME
A tremendous wall display of digital clocks, each ticking off the seconds, hours, and days at a different rate, graphically illustrates Einstein’s radical understanding that the length of any interval of time varies according to how fast the “clock” and the observer are moving. In Einstein’s universe, time travel to the future is a real possibility, and this is lightheartedly underscored with clips from several well-known science fiction movies.
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ENERGY
As a startling postscript to his Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein realized that energy and mass are intimately related. It is this discovery—that mass can be converted to energy and energy to mass—that is expressed in perhaps the most famous mathematical equation ever written: E=mc². Visitors can delve deeper into the reasoning behind the formula by touching individual components of the equation on an interactive “blackboard.”
GRAVITY
Visitors follow Einstein’s steps as he reconsiders gravity not as a force but as the effect of massive objects warping space-time (space is conceived of having four dimensions: length, width, height, and time). On an interactive wall, visitors see the mass of their own bodies warping the images on the screen, just as a bowling ball bends the fabric of a trampoline.
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 | EINSTEIN IN PEACE AND WAR
This section explores Einstein as a complex political figure and a lifelong pacifist whose convictions were painfully reshaped in the horrifying years leading up to World War II. Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt on August 2, 1939, warning him that “it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium” and that the Nazis might be using uranium to build a nuclear bomb. He urged Roosevelt to pursue research into how the U.S. could build the bomb first. Later, Einstein regretted his involvement and spent the rest of his life advocating an end to nuclear weapons.
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| | GLOBAL CITIZEN
Einstein used his worldwide fame to advocate for his deeply held political beliefs. Letters on display show that he was a passionate humanitarian who spoke out against segregation, anti-Semitism, McCarthyism, and nuclear armament. He was also a dedicated Zionist who campaigned for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East while also pleading for cooperation between Jews and Arabs. Einstein always made time to reply to the many letters he received from children all over the world. Several examples of this charming and humorous correspondence are featured on graphic panels in this section.
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| | EINSTEIN'S LEGACY
In the last decades of his life in Princeton, N. J., Einstein searched for a “theory of everything,” a single principle underpinning the entire universe and describing all physical phenomena from the smallest atomic particle to the largest galaxy. This “unified field theory” eluded him, although physicists today continue his quest.
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| | Free Admission for Members
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Cleveland, OH 44114