SparkNotes: Albert Einstein: Review Quiz

1. What was the name of Einstein's first wife?

(A) Mileva

(B) Maja

(C) Elsa

(D) Ilse

2. In what art was Einstein's mother particularly talented?

(A) Painting

(B) Calligraphy

(C) Ice skating

(D) Music

3. What does the general theory of relativity involve that the special theory does not?

(A) Gravity

(B) Electromagnetic interactions

(C) Eclipses

(D) Quantum theory

4. Of the following people, who was NOT involved in matrix mechanics?

(A) Bohr

(B) Heisenberg

(C) Dirac

(D) Schroedinger

5. Of the following people, who was one of Einstein's closest friends at the patent office?

(A) Szilard

(B) Besso

(C) Weizmann

(D) Planck

6. All of the following people formulated interpretations of Einstein's theory of relativity EXCEPT:

(A) Arthur Eddington

(B) V.A. Fock

(C) Hermann Minkowski

(D) Baruch Spinoza

7. Einstein worked as a professor at all of the following institutions EXCEPT:

(A) Luitpold Gymnasium

(B) Princeton University

(C) University of Berlin

(D) University of Zurich

8. With which of the following theories is the formula E=mc2 most closely associated?

(A) General relativity

(B) Special relativity

(C) The blackbody Effect

(D) Planck's law

9. For which idea did Einstein win the Nobel Prize?

(A) The relativity theory

(B) Quantum theory

(C) Pacifism

(D) Internationalist politics

10. Which of the following concepts did Einstein banish from physics?

(A) The photoelectric effect

(B) Blackbody radiation

(C) The ether

(D) Electromagnetic induction

11. Einstein lectured in all of the following countries EXCEPT:

(A) Brazil

(B) Japan

(C) Israel

(D) England

12. Who had formulated a theory of relativity prior to Einstein?

(A) Aristotle

(B) Schopenhauer

(C) Galileo

(D) Spinoza

13. Einstein developed serious disagreements with all of the following thinkers EXCEPT:

(A) Bohr

(B) Besso

(C) Weber

(D) Heisenberg

14. Einstein was a citizen of all of the following countries at some point in his life EXCEPT:

(A) Germany

(B) Canada

(C) The United States

(D) Switzerland

15. During what period did Einstein begin to question his extreme pacifism?

(A) World War I

(B) World War II

(C) Israel's War for Independence

(D) The Korean War

16. Of the following people, who most strongly influenced Einstein's philosophy of religion?

(A) Rousseau

(B) Schopenhauer

(C) Carnap

(D) Hegel

17. With which of the following areas was Einstein's doctoral dissertation concerned?

(A) Quantum theory

(B) Relativity

(C) Molecular statistics

(D) Nuclear fission

18. How did Einstein's circle of friends in Bern refer to themselves?

(A) The Olympia Academy

(B) The Vienna Circle

(C) The logical positivists

(D) The Muppet Babies

19. Where was Einstein traveling when he learned he had been awarded the Nobel Prize?

(A) Japan

(B) Prague

(C) America

(D) Israel

20. Who was Helen Dukas?

(A) Einstein's wife

(B) Einstein's cousin

(C) Einstein's personal secretary

(D) Einstein's fellow student

21. Of the following people, who was NOT a Zionist thinker who influenced Einstein?

(A) David Ben-Gurion

(B) Chaim Weizmann

(C) Moses Mendelssohn

(D) Abba Eban

22. What was the name of the theoretical physicist who preceded Einstein in his work on the blackbody effect?

(A) Max Planck

(B) Werner Heisenberg

(C) Niels Bohr

(D) J. Robert Oppenheimer

23. In order to understand the photoelectric effect, light must be thought of as:

(A) Waves

(B) Particles

(C) Muons

(D) Atoms

24. Einstein's ideals included all of the following EXCEPT:

(A) Pacifism

(B) Nationalism

(C) Internationalism

(D) Unity

25. Einstein's hobbies as a child included:

(A) Playing the violin

(B) Painting

(C) Skating

(D) Singing French operas

26. From which institution did Einstein resign as a sign of his opposition to Nazi politics?

(A) The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute

(B) The University of Berlin

(C) The Prussian Academy of Sciences

(D) The Institute for Advanced Study

27. Which theory's confirmation propelled Einstein to fame?

(A) General relativity

(B) Special relativity

(C) Quantum mechanics

(D) The photoelectric effect

28. All of the following concepts are components of general relativity theory EXCEPT:

(A) Special relativity

(B) Equivalence principle

(C) General covariance

(D) Compton scattering

29. Who was Lieserl?

(A) Einstein's mistress in Prague

(B) Einstein's illegitimate daughter with Mileva

(C) Besso's wife

(D) Einstein's sister who died at birth

30. Einstein's statement that "God does not play dice" refers to his dissatisfaction with:

(A) Quantum mechanics

(B) Jewish theology

(C) Schopenhauer's "cosmic religious feeling"

(D) Spinoza's impersonal God

31. Einstein's equivalence principle deals with the equivalence of:

(A) Inertial and gravitational mass

(B) Mass and energy

(C) Space and time

(D) Radius and curvature

32. Which of the following events happened first?

(A) Einstein resigned from the Prussian Academy of Sciences

(B) Einstein became famous for his general relativity theory

(C) Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt

(D) Einstein won the Nobel Prize

33. In his 1905 paper on special relativity, Einstein refers to:

(A) The Michelson-Morley experiment

(B) The Eotvos experiment

(C) Faraday's magnet-coil experiment

(D) Gravitational red-shift

34. The Law for the Restoration of the Career Civil Service was targeted at:

(A) Anti-Semites

(B) Illegal aliens

(C) Foreigners

(D) Non-Aryans

35. Einstein relied on Marcel Grossman for help with

(A) Mathematics

(B) Astrophysics

(C) International politics

(D) Science journalism

36. Who was Elsa Lowenthal?

(A) Einstein's wife

(B) Einstein's cousin

(C) Einstein's nurse

(D) All of the above

37. Where was Einstein born?

(A) Munich, Germany

(B) Berlin, Germany

(C) Ulm, Germany

(D) Stuttgart, Germany

38. When did Einstein move to the United States?

(A) 1918

(B) 1921

(D) 1939

39. To whom did Einstein serve as an advisor during World War II?

(A) The U.S. Navy

(B) President Roosevelt

(C) The National Socialist Party

(D) The scientists of the Manhattan Project

40. What was the cause of Einstein's death?

(A) An aneurysm

(B) Nervous exhaustion

(C) Leukemia

(D) Duodenal ulcers

41. Which of the following did Einstein endorse?

(A) The Law for the Restoration of the Career Civil Service

(B) The Manifesto to the Europeans

(C) The Manifesto of the 93

(D) The Nuremberg Laws

42. Einstein's relativity is considered to have influenced the work of all of the following people EXCEPT:

(A) Degas

(B) Picasso

(C) MacLeish

(D) Gabo

43. Which of the following ideas did Einstein adopt from Schopenhauer?

(A) Atomistic time

(B) Cosmic religious feeling

(C) Cosmic background radiation

(D) Deus ex machina

44. What was Einstein's father's profession?

(A) Doctor

(B) Teacher

(C) Civil servant

(D) Engineer

45. Einstein's connection to Judaism was primarily:

(A) Political

(B) Cultural

(C) Religious

(D) Nationalist

46. In the years before his death, most of Einstein's work in physics dealt with the attempt to formulate which of the following?

(A) String theory

(B) The Theory of Everything (TOE)

(C) Unified field theory

(D) Quantum-mechanical formalism

47. When Einstein wrote his three great 1905 papers, he was working as a:

(A) Private tutor

(B) Professor

(C) Engineer

(D) Patent officer

48. Which of the following bears the imprints of Einstein's contributions to science?

(A) The atomic bomb

(B) The Big Bang

(C) Electronics

(D) All of the above

49. Which of the following statements about relativity is NOT true?

(A) At speeds close to the speed of light, a moving clock runs slower than a stationary one from the perspective of a stationary observer

(B) Gravity is a warping of space-time that happens in the presence of mass

(C) Without external clues, it's impossible to tell if you're being pulled downward by gravity or accelerating upward

(D) A moving object appears to lengthen in the direction of motion, as seen by a stationary observer

50. According to Einstein's quantum theory, light behaves not simply as a wave but also as:

(A) A particle

(B) Quanta

(C) A photon

(D) All of the above

51. Who reinterpreted Einstein's special relativity theory as a form of geometry?

(A) V.A. Fock

(B) Hermann Minkowski

(C) Max Planck

(D) James Clerk Maxwell