Part 1

TEN CENT POCKET SERIES NO. 408 Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius

Introduction to Einstein

William F. Hudgings

Copyright, 1923, by the author Copyright, 1923, Haldeman-Julius Company

HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY GIRARD, KANSAS

A Popular Explanation of the Einstein Theory That Approaches an Actual Visualization of the Subject.

The preparation of this essay on the Principle of Relativity has been undertaken after a careful study of practically all the literature hitherto published on the subject purporting to be of a popular or semi-popular nature. With due appreciation of the merit of many of these works, a perusal of them has made it increasingly apparent that the writers have not succeeded in eliminating technical phraseology sufficiently to bring the subject down to the level of the untrained reader, and that a really popular exposition of both the Special and the General Theory is needed.

Notwithstanding the laudable efforts of some to meet this need it is manifest that the public continues to be in the dark and many erroneously suppose that “only twelve men in the world” can really comprehend this new theory of the universe. Even book reviews ofttimes betray a surprising lack of appreciation of the fundamentals of Einstein’s noble contribution to science.

It is the purpose of this booklet therefore, to bring within the scope of visualization, as nearly as possible, the very essence of relativity, and to state its principles in terms devoid of unfamiliar phrases and illustrations. The popular mind is not satisfied with vague statements, mathematical equations and formulæ. It calls for an explanation in words of every day usage, and where a technical term must be employed then a definition of that term in language simple and lucid. To meet these requirements without sacrificing scientific accuracy has been the earnest endeavor of the author.

Acknowledgment is hereby made to Dr. S. I. Bailey and Dr. G. D. Birkhoff of Harvard, Dr. Edward Kasner of Columbia, Prof. Victor Schmidt of Cincinnati, and Dean J. A. Robison of the Oakland Technical High School (Calif.), all of whom have kindly criticized the manuscript and made valuable suggestions for improvement of the text.--W. F. H.

New York, Dec., 1922.

Introduction to Einstein and Universal Relativity

What Is Einstein’s Contribution?

Albert Einstein, orthodox Jew of German birth and ardent Zionist, is the most discussed figure in intellectual circles in the world today. It is not as a Jew nor as a Zionist, however, that we find him so much in the limelight of public opinion, although as such he is a distinguished figure and has only recently toured Europe and America in the interest of the Zionist movement. What has lately made the name of Einstein a byword upon the lips of scientists, philosophers and the multitudes of more common mortals is his revolutionary treatment of time, space and gravitation which materially affects various branches of accepted science and thereby threatens to throw certain portions of our school books and other scholarly works into the discard.

The ideas which led to the development of Einstein’s theory are not new. Newton appreciated the principle of mechanical relativity and presented it in much detail. But to Einstein belongs the credit of completely disentangling the idea of relativity of motion from the ancient conception of absoluteness of velocity and carrying out the relativistic viewpoint to its logical conclusion. In so doing, however, he found it necessary to discard or revamp many popular theories and “laws of nature.” But consistency is a jewel wherever found, and Einstein seems to have placed the gem into its proper setting.

This Jewish scientist, born in 1878 of humble parentage, began delving into the mysteries of the universe at an early age. When only sixteen, it is said, he contributed a paper, modest in its brevity, which was read before an assemblage of German scientists with marked appreciation of its merit, and soon thereafter his active mind began to traverse new and unbeaten paths of scientific thought. During the years that followed his ideas took more definite form, and in 1905, while occupying a chair in a Swiss university, Einstein published his first “Principle of Relativity,” now called the “Special Theory of Relativity,” which treats the physical laws relating to uniform, rectilinear motion, i. e., motion in its simplest form.

Einstein’s hypothesis, unlike most theories advanced, did not originate with any physical “discovery” or observation. In a sense it grew out of the philosophic notion of the relativity of all knowledge. He laid hold of the idea that everything is measured by or considered relative to something else; that our concepts of absolute position, absolute motion and absolute time are groundless for the reason that we have no immovable and unchangeable standard anywhere in the universe as a starting point. While there is nothing new or revolutionary in this fact, yet it actually produced certain scientific “revolutions” when carried out to a consistent end.

Prior to Einstein, the principle of relativity had been recognized and philosophized upon to a certain point and then dropped when it ran counter to hitherto unquestioned conceptions. Einstein, on the contrary, contended that if the principle is admitted at all it must be admitted at every point irrespective of what it contradicts. After, therefore, his theory was fully developed it was then subjected to certain physical tests, with the result that it has been quite fully confirmed. This mode of theoretical development is called a priori as against the more usual a posteriori method, wherein the theory follows rather than precedes certain particular phenomena.

It was in 1915, during the stress of the great war, that Professor Einstein, working unconcernedly in his laboratory in Berlin, completed and published what is now called his “General Principle of Relativity.” Due to hostilities, the details of his developed theory did not reach the outside world until after the armistice in 1918; but such meagre accounts of it as did cross the German border were sufficient to awaken Eddington and other British scientists to the extent that they hastily equipped two research expeditions, dispatching one to the Island of Principe off the coast of Africa and the other to Sobral, Brazil, to test Einstein’s hypothesis about the deflection of light rays in a gravitational field, by taking photographs of stars near the sun during the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, which was total in the regions mentioned.

It was the announced results of these expeditions, confirming as they did this new theory of gravitation, that has made Albert Einstein famous.

There are, of course, opponents of the Einstein theory in the circle of scientists in both Europe and America, though they are comparatively few in proportion to the number who see merit in his postulates if not, indeed, a complete solution of gravitational and other phenomena which have baffled the sages of every century. Sir Oliver Lodge is a leading opponent of the Einstein theory among a certain few British scientists, but his opposition is easily accounted for when it is remembered that Einstein, by ignoring the ether and denying other unproven hypotheses, has materially upset Sir Oliver’s spiritistic playground.

Einstein, to say the least, has stimulated the scientific thought of the world to an extent unprecedented by anyone since the days of Newton. If the Principle of Relativity is not universal, then any theory concerning it cannot long stand; it would predict results which actual experiment would disprove. It must be admitted, however, that experiments to date tend to confirm the Theory of Relativity as propounded by Einstein.

=Concepts Versus Reality=

Relativity is a term appropriately applicable to that school of thought standing midway between mathematics, physics and astronomy, which concerns itself with determining the relationship between observers and their objects. Two or more observers may view a certain phenomenon or set of phenomena and reach divergent conclusions as to distance, position, size or other physical quantities commonly involved. It is not for anyone to arbitrarily conclude that one particular observation is correct and that all the others are consequently in error.

It is the task of the relativist to consider the findings of the various observers, note the conditions attending each, eliminate the peculiarities of the varying viewpoints and the qualities which have been unmindfully superimposed by each observer upon the external object. He must then set down a general rule or law which will embody the inter-relations of the data before him and which will also hold good for all other observers regardless of distance, position or motion of their frames of reference.

A frame of reference is simply an arbitrary set of mutually perpendicular lines or planes from which measurements may be made for purposes of describing the location of points within a given area or region. If a two-dimensional area (i. e., a plane surface) is being dealt with, then our frame of reference would consist merely of two lines drawn perpendicular to each other. Thence, any point within the right-angle formed by these two lines may be described by specifying its distance from each line.

If we are to locate a given point in a three-dimensional region (i.e., where length, breadth and also height are involved), then our frame of reference must consist of planes instead of lines, three in number, each perpendicular to the other two, like the floor and two adjacent walls of a room. If any point within a room is to be located we would first select as a frame of reference, let us say, the east and south walls together with the floor. The location of the point may then be described with accuracy by simply specifying its distance from each of the two walls together with its height above the floor.

The perpendiculars of a frame of reference are called its axes, and the distances from a given point to the axes are called its co-ordinates. A little reflection will suffice to show that it is quite impossible to record the exact location of anything, either in space or in a plane, without making use of a reference frame and two or more co-ordinates.