In March 1905, at approximately eight week intervals, the Editor of the noted German physics journal, Annalen der Physik, received three hand-written manuscripts from a relatively unknown patent examiner in Bern, Switzerland. This patent examiner was the twenty-six year old Albert Einstein and the three papers would set the agenda for twentieth century physics. A fourth short paper was received in September 1905 and contained Einstein's derivation of the formula E=mc^2. These papers changed our lives in the twentieth century and beyond. While to a professional physicist the mathematics in these papers are quite straight forward, the ideas behind them are not. In fact, none of Einstein's contemporaries fully understood what he had done.

"Beginning on the 18th of March, 1905,at approximately eight week intervals, the noted German physics journal Annalen der Physik received three hand-written manuscripts from a relatively unknown patent examiner in Bern. The patent examiner was the twenty-six year old Albert Einstein and the three papers would set the agenda for twentieth century physics. A fourth short paper was received by the journal on the 27th of September. It contained Einstein's derivation of the formula E=mc2. These papers with their many technological ramifications changed our lives in the twentieth century and beyond. While to a professional physicist the mathematics in these papers is quite straight forward, the ideas behind the mathematics are not. In fact, none of Einstein's contemporaries fully understood what he had done. The goal of this book is to make these ideas accessible to a general reader with no more mathematics than one learns in high school.

Introduction: Einstein's Miracle Year.- The Prehistory.- Einstein's Theory of Relativity.- Do Atoms Exist?.- The Quantum.- Epilogue: Afterword.