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    Sidelights on Relativity
    Sidelights on Relativity
    Sidelights on Relativity
    Ebook47 pages39 minutes

    Sidelights on Relativity

    By Albert Einstein

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateOct 31, 1983
    Author

    Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein was a German mathematician and physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize for physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. His work also had a major impact on the development of atomic energy. In his later years, Einstein focused on unified field theory.

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    • 4/5
      This little book, Sidelights on Relativity, presents two lectures given by Einstein. The first, concerns the relation between the ether concept and general relativity. Einstein concludes that the concept of empty space in general relativity is an existing entity, which may have properties (in analogy to the ether), but these properties are not mechanical or material in any sense, neither solid nor fluid. The second lecture, Geometry and Experience, gives a perfect example of the kind of property that empty space (modern version of the ether) may have. This property is that of 'curvature' which is the central concept of general relativity theory. He relates this concept to the geometrical measurements which are actually made in practice, in the sense of geometry as a physical science. He also gives some hints which may help the reader to visualize higher dimensional spaces. In addition, this lecture includes Einstein's often quoted remark "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality". For Newton, the space between particles was absolutely empty, consisting of exactly nothing. In the 19th century some physicists considered the possibility that space could be filled with a medium (the ether) with material properties (solid or liquid) which could support vibrations (oscillations of motion). Einstein rejected both of these views and introduced the idea of a space which could have non-material properties but not material properties. This key concept has had an influence in both relativity theories and quantum theories, but its full implication has not yet been assimilated by the scientific culture. Thus this book may be of greater significance than the title suggests. This book is reminiscent of the book Essays in Science (Philosophical Library, 1930's) which is a collection of writings by Einstein on various scientific subjects. That book is abstracted from a still earlier work Mein Weltbild which gives Einstein's views on many topics including social issues.

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    Sidelights on Relativity - Albert Einstein

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sidelights on Relativity, by Albert Einstein #2 in our series by Albert Einstein

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    Title: Sidelights on Relativity

    Author: Albert Einstein

    Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7333] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 15, 2003] [Date last updated: November 13, 2005]

    Edition: 10

    Language: English

    *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIDELIGHTS ON RELATIVITY ***

    Produced by David Starner, William Fishburne and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

    SIDELIGHTS ON RELATIVITY

    By Albert Einstein

    Contents

    ETHER AND THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY

    An Address delivered on May 5th, 1920, in the University of Leyden

    GEOMETRY AND EXPERIENCE

    An expanded form of an Address to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin on January 27th, 1921.

    ETHER AND THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY

    An Address delivered on May 5th, 1920, in the University of Leyden

    How does it come about that alongside of the idea of ponderable matter, which is derived by abstraction from everyday life, the physicists set the idea of the existence of another kind of matter, the ether? The explanation is probably to be sought in those phenomena which have given rise to the theory of action at a distance, and in the properties of light which have led to the undulatory theory. Let us devote a little while to the consideration of these two subjects.

    Outside of physics we know nothing of action at a distance. When we try to connect cause and effect in the experiences which natural objects afford us, it seems at first as if there were no other mutual actions than those of immediate contact, e.g. the communication of motion by impact, push and pull, heating or inducing combustion by means of a flame, etc. It is true that even in everyday experience weight, which is in a sense action at a distance, plays a very important part. But since in daily experience the weight of bodies meets us as something constant, something not linked to any cause which is variable in time or place, we do not in everyday life speculate as to the cause of gravity, and therefore do not become conscious of its character as action at a distance. It was Newton's theory of gravitation that first assigned a cause for gravity by interpreting it as action at a distance, proceeding from masses. Newton's theory is probably the greatest

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