A Brief Guide to the Great Equations (42 page)

2
   Luce Irigaray,
Parler n’est jamais neutre
(Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1987), p. 110.

3
   For a brief discussion of some Maxwell ‘modifiers’, see Alfred Bork, ‘Physics Just Before Einstein’,
Science
152 (1966), pp. 597–603.

4
   G. FitzGerald, ‘The Ether and the Earth’s Atmosphere’,
Science
13 (1889), p. 390.

5
   Lorentz to Rayleigh, August 18, 1892, cited in John S. Rigden,
Einstein 1905: The Standard of Greatness
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), p. 82.

6
   G. FitzGerald to H. Lorentz, November 14, 1894, quoted in Abraham Pais,
‘Subtle Is the Lord’: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein
(New York: Oxford, 1982), p. 124.

7
   One physicist I know remembers that time dilates in a rest frame by thinking the following: ‘Cosmic rays reach earth.’ In the rest frame, that is, cosmic rays have a lifetime that ordinarily is too short for them to travel long distances. But because from earth’s point of view they are moving at speeds close to the speed of light, time is dilated for them long enough for them to reach the ground.

8
   Arthur Eddington, ‘Gravitation and the Principle of Relativity’,
Nature
, vol. 101, 1918, pp. 15–17 (quote appears on p. 16).

9
   Pais, ‘
Subtle Is the Lord
’, p. 128.

10
   Carl Seeling to Einstein, March 11, 1952. Quoted in Ronald W. Clark,
Einstein: The Life and Times
(New York: World Publishing, 1971), p. 84.

11
   P. A. Schilpp, ed.,
Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist
(London: Cambridge University Press, 1970), p. 53.

12
   Quoted in Clark,
Einstein
, p. 84.

13
   Quoted in Pais, ‘
Subtle Is the Lord
’, p. 139.

14
   Emilio Segre,
From X-rays to Quarks
(New York: Dover, 1980), p. 84.

15
   A. Einstein, ‘On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies’,
Annalen der Physik
17 (1905), pp. 891–921, in Albert Einstein,
The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Vol. 2. The Swiss Years: Writings, 1900– 1909
, trans. A. Beck (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), doc. 23, pp. 140–71.

16
   Einstein to Conrad Habicht, June 30, 1905. In
Collected Papers
, vol. 5, pp. 20–21.

17
   Rigden,
Einstein 1905
, p. 112.

18
   Einstein,
Collected Papers
, vol. 2, doc. 24, p. 174.

19
   Abraham Pais writes of Einstein’s achievement: ‘In physics the great novelties were, first, that the recording of measurements of space intervals and time durations demanded more detailed specifications than were held necessary theretofore and, second, that the lessons of classical physics are correct only in the limit
v/c
<< 1. In chemistry the great novelty was that Lavoisier’s law of mass conservation and Dalton’s rule of simply proportionate weights were only approximate but nevertheless so good that no perceptible changes in conventional chemistry were called for. Thus relativity turned Newtonian mechanics and classical chemistry into approximate sciences, not diminished but better defined in the process.’ Pais, ‘
Subtle Is the Lord
’, p. 163.

20
   This is, again, a requirement of objectivity or covariance that drives a new wedge between ordinary notions of objectivity and scientific ones.

21
   A. Einstein, ‘The Principle of Conservation of Motion of the Centre of Gravity and the Inertia of Energy’,
Annalen der Physik
20 (1906), pp. 627–33, in
Collected Works
, vol. 2, pp. 200–206.

22
   A. Einstein, ‘On the Inertia of Energy Required by the Relativity Principle’,
Annalen der Physik
23 (1907), pp. 371–84, in
Collected Works
, vol. 2, p. 249.

23
   A. Einstein, ‘On the Relativity Principle and the Conclusions Drawn from it’,
Collected Works
, vol. 2, pp. 286–87.

24
   A. Einstein,
Einstein’s 1912 Manuscript on the Special Theory of Relativity
(New York: Braziller, 1996), pp. 102–3, 109.

25
   ‘A. Einstein, E = mc
²
: The Most Urgent Problem of Our Time’,
Science Illustrated
(April 1946), pp. 16–17.

26
   M. Planck, quoted in Einstein,
Collected Works
, vol. 2, p. 287.

27
   Clark,
Einstein
, p. 101.

28
   Niels Bohr,
Nature
, February 29, 1936.

29
   Abraham Pais,
J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life
, with supplemental material by Robert P. Crease (New York: Oxford, 2006), p. 44.

30
   
The New York Times
, August 7, 1945, p. 1.

31
   Henry D. Smyth,
Atomic Energy for Military Purposes: The Official Report on the Development of the Atomic Bomb under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940–1945
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1945).

32
   ‘A. Einstein, E = mc
²
’,
Science Illustrated
.

1
   Jeremy Bernstein,
Science Observed
(New York: Basic Books, 1982), p. 310.

2
   Bernstein once noted several characteristics of crackpots. They insist that their work has solved
everything
, they are humorless, they are sure everyone is out to steal their ideas, they are sure the media will be interested, they use a lot of capital letters. ‘Scientific Cranks’, in
Science Observed
, ch. 14.

1
   
Times of London
, November 8, 1919, p. 1.

2
   Quoted in Abraham Pais,
‘Subtle Is the Lord’: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein
(New York: Oxford, 1982), p. 124.

3
   A. N. Whitehead,
Science and the Modern World
(New York: Macmillan, 1954), p. 13.

4
   Quoted in Pais, ‘
Subtle Is the Lord
’, p. 179.

5
   Ibid., p. 178.

6
   A. Einstein,
The Collected Works of Albert Einstein
, vol. 2, trans. A. Beck (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), pp. 301–2.

7
   Ibid., p. 310.

8
   A. Einstein to C. Habicht, December 24, 1907, in
Collected Works
, vol. 5, p. 47.

9
   Quoted in Ronald W. Clark,
Einstein: The Life and Times
(New York: World Publishing, 1971), p. 120.

10
   Emilio Segre,
From X-rays to Quarks
(New York: Dover, 1980), p. 85.

11
   Quoted in Pais, ‘
Subtle Is the Lord
’, p. 152.

12
   A. Einstein, ‘On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light’,
Annalen der Physik
35 (1911), pp. 898–908, in
Collected Works
, vol. 3, p. 379.

13
   A. Einstein to Willem Julius, August 24, 1911, in
Collected Works
, vol. 5, p. 199.

14
   A. Einstein to E. Freundlich, September 1, 1911, in ibid., p. 202.

15
   J. Earman and C. Glymour, ‘Relativity and Eclipses: The British Eclipse Expeditions of 1919 and their Predecessors’,
Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences
11 (1980), p. 61.

16
   A. Einstein to E. Mach, June 25, 1913, in
Collected Works
, vol. 5, p. 340.

17
   Quoted in Pais, ‘
Subtle Is the Lord
’, p. 311.

18
   Ibid., p. 212.

19
   A. Einstein to L. Hopf, August 16, 1912, in
Collected Works
, vol. 5, p. 321.

20
   A. Einstein to A. Sommerfeld, October 29, 1912, in
Collected Works
, vol. 5, p. 324.

21
   
Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik
62 (1913), pp. 225–61. The ‘hair’s breadth’ remark is from John Norton, ‘How Einstein Found His Field Equations: 1912–1915’,
Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences
14:2 (1984), pp. 253–316.

22
   A. Einstein to H. Lorentz, August 16, 1913, in
Collected Works
, vol. 5, p. 352.

23
   Quoted in Clark,
Einstein
, p. 173.

24
   Ibid., p. 199.

25
   A. Einstein to A. Sommerfeld, November 28, 1915, in
Collected Works
, vol. 8, p. 152.

26
   Pais, ‘
Subtle Is the Lord
’, p. 253.

27
   A. Einstein to H. Lorentz, January 16, 1915, in
Collected Works
, vol. 8, p. 179.

28
   Quoted in Pais, ‘
Subtle Is the Lord
’, p. 253.

29
   A. Einstein, ‘Explanation of the Perihelion Motion of Mercury from the General Theory of Relativity’, November 18, 1915, in
Collected Works
, vol. 6, p. 113.

30
   Ibid., p. 117.

31
   Independently, mathematician David Hilbert produced a similar equation.

32
   Quoted in Clark,
Einstein
, p. 200.

33
   A. Einstein to H. Lorentz, January 17, 1916, in
Collected Works
, vol. 8, p. 179.

34
   And the following year, in a paper called ‘Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity’, Einstein tinkered with his basic field equation. He had noted that it seemed to suggest that the universe is expanding, so he subtracted from the left-hand side of the equation (
G
_μν
) another tensor
g
_μν
, multiplied by a constant λ, whose value, he admitted, was ‘at present unknown.’ The result kept the general covariance, as well as what he evidently assumed was a finite universe. This turned his field equation

Einstein introduced this factor – the now-famous cosmological constant – purely as a fudge factor, to save what he thought was a prediction of his theory that the universe was expanding. Within a few years he would begin to question the necessity of this concept, and in 1931 removed the constant λ from the theory for good, later calling this fudge the ‘biggest blunder’ of his life. Seventy years later, to explain data from measurements of supernovae, astronomers restored it.

35
   See’s article, ‘Einstein a Trickster’, is reproduced in Jeffrey Crelinsten,
Einstein’s Jury: The Race to Test Relativity
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), p. 222.

36
   The classic article on the eclipse is J. Earman and Clark Glymour, ‘Relativity and eclipses: The British eclipse expeditions of 1919 and their predecessors’,
Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences
11:1 (1980), pp. 49–85.

37
   Alistair Sponsel, ‘Constructing a ‘Revolution in Science’: The Campaign to Promote a Favorable Reception for the 1919 Solar Eclipse Experiments’,
British Journal For the History of Science
35 (2002), pp. 439–68.

38
   A. Einstein to Pauline Einstein, September 27, 1919, in
Collected Works
, vol. 9, p. 98.

39
   
Naturwissenschaften
7 (1919), p. 776.

40
   Quoted in Clark,
Einstein
, p. 230.

41
   ‘Joint Eclipse Meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society’,
The Observatory
42 (November 1919), p. 389.

42
   Eddington
Relativity
, Eighth Annual Haldane Lecture May 26, 1937.

43
   Albert Einstein,
Ideas and Opinions
(New York: Bonanza Books, 1954), p. 311.

1
   W. Nernst, quoted in M. Jammer,
The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics
(New York: McGraw Hill, 1966), p. 59.