Einstein, relativity and the FBI
Aditya Rishi

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity. — Albert Einstein

FBI interview with Albert Einstein; November 1, 1940; source: Leo Szilard's FBI file, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Einstein's English was not fluent and the FBI agent apparently did not speak German.

"At PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, Professor ALBERT EINSTEIN was contacted at his home (112 Mercer Street); and he advised that he has known LEO SZILARD since about the year 1920. He also stated that SZILARD had left Germany about the year 1933 and had made several trips to the United States in recent years. He advised that SZILARD, while in Berlin, had been assistant to Professor LAUE at the University of Berlin. He said that Professor LAUE was a very decent man and that he is the only German he knows who behaved in an admirable way after Hitler's advent to power."

"Professor EINSTEIN stated that he and SZILARD had been interested in the construction of a small cooling machine similar to our household refrigerators. They had worked together on this machine for sometime, but had never completed it because of lack of money. He stated that he did not know whether SZILARD might still be receiving royalties from these patents, but said that he doubted whether SZILARD could be receiving any money from Germany.

He advised that SZILARD is connected in some manner with Columbia University in New York City, where he is working on uranium experiments for military purposes and this work was on a private scale. He said that SZILARD is working with an Italian by the name of FERMI. Professor EINSTEIN said SZILARD, being as anti-Nazi as he, can be trusted without any fear whatsoever that he might disclose confidential information to a foreign power."

"Here, Einstein and I (FBI DETECTIVE) took a break from his interrogation, during which, I asked him to explain to me his theory of relativity. Professor EINSTEIN said he would think of a two-digit integer (any integer between 10 and 99) and I would try to guess it. If the number I name is correct, or if one of its digits is equal to the corresponding digit of EINSTEIN's number and the other digit differs by one from the corresponding digit of EINSTEIN 's number, then, EINSTEIN says "hot"; otherwise, he says "cold" (If EINSTEIN 's number was 65, then, by naming any 64, 65, 66, 55 or 75, THE DETECTIVE will be answered "hot"; otherwise, he will be answered "cold"). Professor EINSTEIN asked me if there was a 22-attempt winning strategy for me? I asked him how did it explain relativity, He said who was questioning. I said I, to which, he said that's only relative thinking, as, to a neutral observer, it would seem as if he (EINSTEIN) was interrogating me (FBI DETECTIVE). I had no answer to his question." Write answer to Einstein's question at The Tribune or adityarishi99@yahoo.co.in.

Einstein collaborated with fellow physicists Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller on a letter in August, 1939, informing President Roosevelt of recent discoveries that indicated it might be possible to build "extremely powerful bombs of a new type." Motivated, Roosevelt initiated programmes that led to the Manhattan Project and the eventual development of the atom bomb. "I do not consider myself the father of the release of atomic energy," said Einstein in 1945.