photo-electric effect for which he received the Nobel Prize later. .
And another astounding work is the paper on the so-called.
Brownian motion which encouraged Jean Perrin to pursue his.
experimental work in trying to prove the theories of Einstein's to.
be correct. Before he started his studies, he was quoted as.
saying, "It's possible, that invisible molecules behave exactly as do.
the visible particles and have the same kinetic energy--the energy.
a body possesses because of its motion."(Forsee 19) So, he set.
out to prove his thoughts, but he wasn't going to do it through.
observations of the eye, but through mathematics. There is some.
doubt in how much that Einstein knew about Robert Brown's.
observations because forty five years later, he stated that he had.
discovered it. However, there was a letter to Conrad Habicht, an.
old friend of Einstein's from Zurich, that shows that by 1905 he.
was well aware of Brown's observations, but he may not have.
known of the further studies which had followed the.
unprecedented observations. .
Original picture in Perrin's Atom .
The following is the beginning paragraph of this famous paper:.
In this paper it will be shown that, according to the.
molecular-kinetic theory of heat, bodies of a.
microscopically visible size suspended in liquids must,.
as a result of thermal molecular motions, perform.
motions of such magnitudes that they can be easily.
observed with a microscope. It is possible that the.
motions to be discussed here are identical with.
so-called Brownian molecular motion; however, the data.
available to me on the latter are so imprecise that I.
could not form a judgment on the question. (Stachel.
85) .
The crucial aspect of this paper is that Einstein predicted.
"motions of such magnitudes that they can be easily observed with.
a microscope"(Stachel 85). Many people, before Einstein, studied.
and performed experiments on Brownian motion, but they could.
not obtain any decisive results.
