Albert Einstein, in 1921, won the Nobel Prize in physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” Einstein’s contributions were numerous. He provided us with theoretical works on Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect, the interaction of an atom with electromagnetic radiation (leading to the ideas required for lasers), Special Relativity, and General Relativity, to name a few. Because of Einstein’s works we have lasers, an upper speed limit for all things, the idea that mass and energy can be transformed into each other, and a lot more to think about. The photoelectric effect is the term used when an atom emits an electron due to the absorption of light.
