the photoelectric effect
 

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    It is commonly thought that Einstein received the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work relating to general and special relativity. However, he was actually rewarded for his studies surrounding an obscure phenomena known as the photoelectric effect.

    When the negatively charged plate of a capacitor is exposed to light, a current can be measured flowing from the positive plate. First observed in the late 1800s, this effect confused physicists for many years. They expected the magnitude of the current to vary linearly with light intensity. However, current flow was observed to be proportional to wavelength, not intensity. (Fishbane et. al. 1212)

    Einstein contributed in an effort to solve the mystery. By using quantum mechanics to explain and predict the flow of current, Einstein not only lent credability to the new theory, but managed to elegantly explain something which had plagued gifted scientists for the better part of twenty years (Stachel 67).