Annus Mirabilis In Vorbereitung
Albert Einstein in his mid-twenties, in a checked suit, seated at a desk and looking off to one side.
Albert Einstein at the Swiss patent office in Bern, about 1905. Photograph by Lucien Chavan; ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv. Public domain.

Annus Mirabilis

The four papers of 1905, read in full.

In 1905 Albert Einstein sent four papers to Annalen der Physik. They are famous, they are short, and they are hard to read. The originals are in German, the notation is his own (in the relativity paper the speed of light is V), and each paper assumes the physics a reader already had in 1904.

This site will set each paper in its original German beside a new English translation, with explanations at the depth you choose and instruments that let you test each claim. It is for anyone, whatever your background.

Sixty-three journal pages. One mark for each printed page: 17, 12, 31, and 3.

  1. What could a spectrum tell you about the structure of light?

    Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt

    On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light

    Annalen der Physik (4) 17, 132–148 · 17 pages

  2. How would you count what you cannot see?

    Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen

    On the Motion of Small Particles Suspended in Liquids at Rest, as Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat

    Annalen der Physik (4) 17, 549–560 · 12 pages

  3. How would you synchronize distant clocks?

    Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper

    On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies

    Annalen der Physik (4) 17, 891–921 · 31 pages

  4. What does a body lose when it emits light?

    Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?

    Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on Its Energy Content?

    Annalen der Physik (4) 18, 639–641 · 3 pages