Porter 1Drew PorterDr. GobenUnited States HistoryMarch 3, 2014Albert EinsteinWhy is the sky blue? Many people know the correct answer to this question: there are millions of particles in the sky, and the visible length of the electromagnetic spectrum is absorbed by these particles (Rosenberg). The only particles that come out are blue. Today this information is readily available, but before about 1900 it was unanswered. Not only was the question of the color of the sky unanswered, but many other questions about the then unusual subject of physics had not even been asked. What was the turning point? America was forever changed by the discoveries of the father of the new physics, Albert Einstein. Before most people were intelligent enough to ask the most difficult questions in physics, Einstein had already calculated, tested, and published the answers in his theories of General Relativity and Special Relativity. Einstein's theories weren't just new things to put in a physics textbook; he actually developed very useful inventions and ideas for America. Albert Einstein changed, altered, or influenced the history of the United StatesEinstein was born on March 14, 1879. He moved to Switzerland to attend college at the Federal Polytechnic School to teach Physics and Mathematics. After college, he tried several times to get a teaching job, but was denied! He returned to school to earn his doctorate while working as a technical assistant at the Swiss Patent Office. In his spare time at work he developed some of the equations that he later published. After recognizing his talent, the Polytechnic offered him a job as a physics teacher. Einstein traveled to some different point (where) the center of the sheet of paper before the one on the back. Who is right? Did the bolts hit at the same time or did the bolt hit the front of the train first? Einstein claims that both are right in his Theory of Simultaneity (Bergson). Another interesting concept made possible in the fourth dimension in space is another theory of time travel. If scientists could find a way around the problem of mass and energy equivalence resulting from accelerating a particle to the speed of light, then time travel might be possible. Einstein developed a formula that corresponds time to distance and speed. In the fourth dimension, if matter were capable of reaching the speed of light, Einstein concluded that it could indeed travel in negative time (Hawking). Albert Einstein's contributions to American progress in physics and general thought. He was the instrumental figure in the development of an atomic bomb.