SIDELIGHTS ON RELATIVITY

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Page 1: SIDELIGHTS ON RELATIVITY By Albert Einstein Contents ETHER...
Page 2: Let us devote a little while to the consideration of these...
Page 3: the communication of motion by impact, push and pull, heat...
Page 4: It is only with reluctance that man's desire for knowledge...
Page 5: When in the first half of the nineteenth century the far-r...
Page 6: The phenomenon of aberration also favoured the theory of t...
Page 7: Almost imperceptibly the theoretical physicists adapted th...
Page 8: This dualism still confronts us in unextenuated form in th...
Page 9: Such was the state of things when H. A. Lorentz entered up...
Page 10: As to the mechanical nature of the Lorentzian ether, it ma...
Page 11: But by the special theory of relativity the same equations...
Page 12: The electromagnetic fields are not states of a medium, and...
Page 13: Think of waves on the surface of water. Here we can descri...
Page 14: For we may picture the field to ourselves as consisting of...
Page 15: Only we must be on our guard against ascribing a state of ...
Page 16: The fundamental facts of mechanics do not harmonize with t...
Page 17: But inertial resistance opposed to relative acceleration o...
Page 18: This space-time variability of the reciprocal relations of...
Page 19: The ether of the general theory of relativity is transmute...
Page 20: Nor do we know whether it is only in the proximity of pond...
Page 21: The existence of the gravitational field is inseparably bo...
Page 22: Of course it would be a great advance if we could succeed ...
Page 23: Further, in contemplating the immediate future of theoreti...
Page 24: One reason why mathematics enjoys special esteem, above al...
Page 25: But there is another reason for the high repute of mathema...
Page 26: The progress achieved by axiomatics consists in its having...
Page 27: He leaves the question to the philosopher. Being based upo...
Page 28: But a presentation of its principles thus clarified makes ...
Page 29: It is clear that the system of concepts of axiomatic geome...
Page 30: The question whether the practical geometry of the univers...
Page 31: If we deny the relation between the body of axiomatic Eucl...
Page 32: Thus the original, immediate relation between geometry and...
Page 33: _Sub specie aeterni_ Poincare, in my opinion, is right. Th...
Page 34: For it is not a difficult task to determine the physical s...
Page 35: Not only the practical geometry of Euclid, but also its ne...
Page 36: The existence of sharp spectral lines is a convincing expe...
Page 37: It is true that this proposed physical interpretation of g...
Page 38: It appears less problematical to extend the ideas of pract...
Page 39: if the ratio of the total mass of the stars to the magnitu...
Page 40: From the equations of the general theory of relativity it ...
Page 41: But there is another road, which seems to me more practica...
Page 42: Now if the actual velocities of the stars, which can, of c...
Page 43: I want to show that without any extraordinary difficulty w...
Page 44: So, will the initiated please pardon me, if part of what I...
Page 45: Another example of an infinite continuum is the plane. On ...
Page 46: We place one of the discs anywhere on the surface of the g...
Page 47: Figure 1: Discs maximally packed on a plane] On the spheri...
Page 48: Now this is the place where the reader's imagination boggl...
Page 49: Let _L_ be a disc on the spherical surface. Now let us ima...
Page 50: For to each original figure on _K_ there is a correspondin...
Page 51: In fact the only objective assertion that can be made abou...
Page 52: But these spheres are not to be rigid in the sense of Eucl...
Page 53: Space is homogeneous, that is to say, the same spherical c...
Page 54: My only aim to-day has been to show that the human faculty...