Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein’s raking in the moolah much after the soil on his grave has grown cold. A letter Albert Einstein wrote to one of his sons in 1945 explaining the links between his theory of relativity and the atomic bombs that had been dropped on Japan, has fetched $62,500 at a recent auction.
The letter was one of the 27 letters written by Einstein and auctioned on Thursday by Profiles in History. Overall, they fetched more than $420,000 and included two that Einstein wrote in the 1940s, explaining his thoughts on God to a man who had asked the question. They sold for $28,125 and $34,375, respectively.
The other letters covered Einstein’s thoughts on McCarthyism, Nazism and personal matters. Profiles in History founder Joseph Maddalena says the letters were collected over time by a seller who wishes to remain anonymous. They were purchased by various individuals.
The letters now yellowed pages have notes scribbled on the margins of the pages. The transaction happened in cash for a whopping sum and the identity of the person buying it has been kept secret.
Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity talks of the laws of physics that are the same for all non accelerating observers, and that the speed of light in a vacuum was independent of the motion of all observers. This was the theory of special relativity and was elucidated in 1905. Thus, it introduced a new framework for all of physics and proposed new concepts of space and time.
Einstein spent close to 10 years to include the acceleration in the theory and published his theory of general relativity in 1915. He determined that massive objects caused a distortion in space-time which was felt as gravity.