Between Mailafia, Stephen Hawking and quest for African Einstein (II)

[Nuruddeen]

In 1895, Einstein planned to enroll at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, but this plan failed because of his inability to pass the entrance examination. He managed, however, to pass the exam the next year and was graduated from the school in 1900. But formal study was so disagreeable to him that he did practically nothing for a year after graduation. He stayed in Zurich and supported himself by teaching part time because he was unable to secure a regular academic post. In 1901 he became a Swiss citizen and also published his first scientific paper. The next year, he secured a probationary position at the Swiss patent office in Bern. There, he developed several important friendships that lasted throughout his life. Also during this period, he married a fellow student from his Zurich days.

The year 1905 was Einstein's annus mirabilis; while still working at the patent office, he published five papers in the Annalen der Physik that proved to be revolutionary. Three of the papers—among the greatest in the history of science—were, in the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer, "paralyzingly beautiful." One of them outlined Einstein's special theory of relativity, on the basis of which he derived later in the same year the well-known formula commonly referred to as Einstein's law, expressing the precise quantitative relationship between a particle's energy and mass. It was that mass and energy convertibility that scientists are today using to make bombs. For example, the U.S government under the presidency of Frank D. Roosevelt embarked on Manhattan bomb experiment, which resulted in bombs that were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945. But Einstein did not participate in the Manhattan bomb project. Instead, he advocated international law as the only way to prevent aggression between nations. Another of his publications was an important paper on Brownian motion, and then the one that dealt with the photoelectric effect. In this work, Einstein introduced a fundamental concept of quantum physics—namely, that of quanta of light energy, which were later called photons. It was actually for his work on the photoelectric effect (wave particle duality) —not for the relativity theory—that he received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1922. The wave particle duality eventually served as the theoretical basis for the 20th and 21st century advances in television, lasers, and semiconductors.
Ironically, it was on the basis of Einstein's work on relativity that the University of Bern had earlier rejected him when he applied for a place in the faculty of science. Only in 1908, after such great physicists as Max Planck and H. A. Lorentz had recognized his genius, was he given the position at Bern. After that, academic appointments came in sequentially.

In 1909, Einstein was appointed to a professorship at the university at Zurich; in 1911, to a senior professorship at the German university in Prague; and in 1912, again a position at Zurich. It was there, in 1913, that he published his first paper on the theory of general relativity. This work was brought to completion in 1916, when Einstein was a professor at the Prussian Academy and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics in Berlin. Another great physicist, J. J. Thompson, called Einstein's work on the theory of general relativity "perhaps the greatest achievement in the history of human thought." Since then Einstein was widely regarded by friends and close associates as the greatest scientist of all times.

Born on 14th March 1879 at Ulm in Germany, he was so much loved by his parents who always carried him along on a "honeymoon". His family, Jewish by descent, was freethinking and liberal in terms of religion. Einstein's childhood was quite miserable, because he was slow in learning to speak and was therefore far from being fluent even at age nine. His Dad, Hermann actually feared that he might be subnormal, because he used to perform woefully in lessons other than mathematics. In fact, going to school for Einstein was really a matter of total hatred. He preferred to stay home and play violin with friends from the inner neighborhoods- just the way Obadiah Mailafia had wanted to hang out and milk cow with his friend, Lawal.

Because of this intense dislike for school, Einstein gradually developed high penchant for violin play even though he did well in mathematics and science. He was, however, encouraged by two of his uncles with fascination in mathematics and science, while his mother, Pauline Koch arranged for him to study the violin, an interest that she thought would remain with her beloved son all his life. To her, the "violin child" would eventually maintain a lifelong interest in music, and hoped that one day her son would become a professional violinist.

This same episode reminds me of a childhood friend in primary four who was also not performing and paying much attention to class lessons; neither was he interested in what our arithmetic teacher, Malama Hanne was teaching. All he does then was playing with his fingers by folding them across. One day, I curiously asked on our way home the rationale behind folding his fingers and at the same time soliloquizing. Poor Ibrahim took his time to explain how he used his fingers as "timesing" and multiplying factors the same way numbers are multiplied in multiplication tables that were usually found at the back of our primary school exercise books. He explained every single finger of his and what it stands for; starting from the small one down to the thumb, which according to him the small, middle and the last fingers on his hands stand for 6, 8 and 10 units of ten digits each. And if you can fold the rest of the fingers by leaving the 6th and 7th ones  unfolded on both hands as ten digits each, taking their additions in tenth from both hands, you have fourty digits out of the four unfolded fingers all together. And if you multiply the folded ones i.e. the remaining three fingers on one hand, and the three on the other, you get nine as single units. And fourty plus nine what do you get, asked Ibrahim. I then waited for quite some time just to get my multiplication done carefully and later said Arba'in da tara i.e. fourty nine. He laughably said "bakwai sau bakwai ba arba'in da tara ba kenan?" meaning: seven times seven is it not fourty nine?
I therefore started wondering what kind of lad was poor but clever Ibrahim.

I know I could be more hard working than my puzzled friend, but the truth is, most of us in the class were not wise enough to understand the multiplication "finger tips" the way he did. One could also be a bit older than the careless looking youngster, but certainly not as smart and arithmetical as him. Before we know what was happening, he had already known and familiarized himself with the multiplication tables from 1 to 12 up head. Since then I started calling him Sarkin lissafi-king of arithmetic. But to date, I never know where to trace or find my arithmetical friend. And I always cherish that very moment as often as I recall. Ibrahim, a genius of a sort was really missed, but his memories still lingers on my mind.