From Newton to Einstein, Benjamin Harrow [most read books in the world of all time TXT] 📗

Three Possibilities Anticipated. According to Newton’s assumption, light consists of corpuscles, or minute particles, emitted from the source of light. If this be true these particles, having mass, should be affected by the gravitational pull of the sun. If we apply Newton’s theory of gravitation and make use of his formula, it can be shown that such a gravitational pull would displace the ray of light by an average amount equal to 0.75 (seconds of angular distance.)1 On the other hand, where light is regarded as waves set in motion in the “ether” of space (the wave theory of light), and where weight is denied light altogether, no deviation need be expected. Finally there is a third alternative: Einstein’s. Light, says Einstein, has mass, and therefore probably weight. Mass is the matter light contains; weight represents pull by gravity. Light rays will be attracted by the sun, but according to Einstein’s theory of gravitation the sun’s gravitational pull will displace the rays by an average amount equal to 1.75 (seconds of angular distance).

The Expeditions. That science is highly international, despite many recent examples to the contrary, is evidenced by this British Eclipse Expedition. Here was a theory propounded by one who had accepted a chair of physics in the university of Berlin, and across the English Channel were Germany’s mortal enemies making elaborate preparations to test the validity of the Berlin professor’s theory.

The British Astronomical Society began to plan the eclipse expedition even before the outbreak of the Great War. During the years that followed, despite the destinies of nations which hung on threads from day to day, despite the darkest hours in the history of the British people, our English astronomers continued to give attention to the details of the proposed expedition. When the day of the eclipse came all was in readiness.

One expedition under Dr. Crommelin was sent to Sobral, Brazil; another, under Prof. Eddington, to Principe, an island off the west coast of Africa. In both these places a total eclipse was anticipated.

The eclipse occurred on May 29, 1919. It lasted for six to eight minutes. Some 15 photographs, with an average exposure of five to six seconds, were taken. Two months later another series of photographs of the same region were taken, but this time the sun was no longer in the midst of these stars.

The photographs were brought to the famous Greenwich Observatory, near London, and the astronomers and mathematicians began their laborious measurements and calculations.

On November 6, at the meeting of the Royal Society, the result was announced. The Sobral expedition reported 1.98; the Principe expedition 1.62. The average was 1.8. Einstein had predicted 1.75, Newton might have predicted 0.75, and the orthodox scientists would have predicted 0. There could now no longer be any question as to which of the three theories rested on a sure foundation. To quote Sir Frank Dyson, the Astronomer Royal: “After a careful study of the plates I am prepared to say that there can be no doubt that they confirm Einstein’s prediction. A very definite result has been obtained that light is deflected in accordance with Einstein’s law of gravitation.”2

Where Did Einstein Get His Idea of Gravitation? In 1905 Einstein published the first of a series of papers supporting and extending a theory of time and space to which the name “the theory of relativity” had been given. These views as expounded by Einstein came into direct conflict with Newton’s ideas of time and space, and also with Newton’s law of gravitation. Since Einstein had more faith in his theory of relativity than in Newton’s theory of gravitation, Einstein so changed the latter as to make it harmonize with the former. More will be said on this subject.

Let not the reader misunderstand. Newton was not wholly in the wrong; he was only approximately right. With the knowledge existing in Newton’s day Newton could have done no more than he did; no mortal could have done more. But since Newton’s day physics—and science in general—has advanced in great strides, and Einstein can interpret present-day knowledge in the same masterful fashion that Newton could in his day. With more facts to build upon, Einstein’s law of gravitation is more universal than Newton’s; it really includes Newton’s.

But now we must turn our attention very briefly to the theory of relativity—the theory that led up to Einstein’s law of gravitation.

The Theory of Relativity. The story goes that Einstein was led to his ideas by watching a man fall from a roof. This story bears a striking similarity to Newton and the apple. Perhaps one is as true as the other.3

However that may be, the principle of relativity is as old as philosophical thought, for it denies the possibility of measuring absolute time, or absolute space. All things are relative. We say that it takes a “long time” to get from New York to Albany; long as compared to what? long, perhaps, as compared to the time it takes to go from New York City to Brooklyn. We say the White House is “large”; large when compared to a room in an apartment. But we can just as well reverse our ideas of time and distance. The time it takes to go from New York to Albany is “short” when compared to the time it takes to go from New York to San Francisco. The size of the White House is “small” when compared to the size of the city of Washington.

Let us take another illustration. Every time the earth turns on its axis we mark down as a day. With this as a basis, we say that it takes a little over 365 days for the earth to complete its revolution around the sun, and our 365 days we call a year. But now consider some of our other planets. With our time as a basis, it takes Jupiter or Saturn 10 hours to turn on its axis, as compared to the 24 hours it takes the earth to turn. Saturn’s day is less than one-half our day, and our day is more than twice Saturn’s—that is, according to the calculations of the inhabitants of the earth. Mercury completes her circuit around the sun in 88 days; Neptune, in 164 years. Mercury’s year is but one-fourth ours, Neptune’s, 164 times ours. And observers at Mercury and Neptune would regard us from their standard of time, which differs from our standard.

You may say, why not take our standard of time as the standard, and measure everything by it? But why should you? Such a selection would be quite arbitrary. It would not be based on anything absolute, but would merely depend on our velocity around the sun.

These ideas are old enough in metaphysics. Einstein’s improvement of them consists not merely in speculating about them, but in giving them mathematical form.

The Origin of the Theory of Relativity. A train moves with reference to the earth. The earth moves with reference to the sun. We say the sun is stationary and the earth moves around the sun. But how do we know that the sun itself does not move with reference to some other body? How do we know that our planetary system, and the stars, and the cosmos as a whole is not in motion?

There is no way of answering such a question unless we could get a point of reference which is fixed—fixed absolutely in space.

We have already alluded to our view of the nature of light, known as the wave theory of light. This theory postulates the existence of an all-pervading “ether” in space. Light sets up wave disturbances in this ether, and is thus propagated. If the ocean were the ether, the waves of the ocean would compare with the waves set up by the ether.

But what is this ether? It cannot be seen. It defies weight. It permeates all space. It permeates all matter. So say the exponents of this ether. To the layman this sounds very much like another name for the Deity. To Sir Oliver Lodge it represents the spirits of the departed.

To us, of importance is the conception that this ether is absolutely stationary. Such a conception is logical if the various developments in optics and electricity are considered. But if absolutely stationary, then the ether is the long-sought-for point of reference, the guide to determine the motion of all bodies in the universe.

The Famous Experiment Performed by Prof. Michelson. If there is an ether, and a stationary ether, and if the earth moves with reference to this ether, the earth, in moving, must set up ether “currents”—just as when a train moves it sets up air currents. So reasoned Michelson, a young Annapolis graduate at the time. And forthwith he devised a crucial experiment the explanation of which we can simplify by the following analogy:

Which is the quicker, to swim up stream a certain length, say a hundred yards, and back again, or across stream the same length and back again? The swimmer will answer that the up-and-down journey is longer.4

Our river is the ether. The earth, if moving in this ether, will set up an ether stream, the up stream being parallel to the earth’s motion. Now suppose we send a beam of light a certain distance up this ether stream and back, and note the time; and then turn the beam of light at right angles and send it an equal distance across the stream and back, and note the time. How will the time taken for light to travel in these two directions compare? Reasoning by analogy, the up-and-down stream should take longer.

Michelson’s results did not accord with analogy. No difference in time could be detected between the beam of light travelling up-and-down, and across-and-back.

But this was contrary to all reason if the postulate of an ether was sound. Must we then revise our ideas of an ether? Perhaps after all there is no ether.

But if no ether, how are we to explain the propagation of light in space, and various electrical phenomena connected with it, such as the Hertzian, or wireless waves?

There was another alternative, one suggested by Larmor in England and Lorentz in Holland,—that matter is contracted in the direction of its motion through the ether current. To say that bodies are actually shortened in the direction of their motion—by an amount which increases as the velocity of these bodies approaches that of light—is so revolutionary an idea that Larmor and Lorentz would hardly have adopted such a viewpoint but for the fact that recent investigations into the nature of matter gave basis for such belief.

Matter, it has been shown, is electrical in nature. The forces which hold the particles together are electrical. Lorentz showed that mathematical formulas for electrical forces could be developed which would inevitably lead to the view that material bodies contract in the direction of their motion.5

“But this is ridiculous,” you say; “if I am shorter in one direction than in another I would notice it.” You would if some things were shortened and others were not. But if all things pointing in a certain direction are shortened to an equal extent, how are you going to notice it? Will you apply the yard stick? That has been shortened. Will you pass judgment with the help of your eyes? But your retina has also contracted. In brief, if all things contract to the same amount it is as if there were no contraction at all.

Lorentz’s Plausible Explanation Really Deepens the Mystery. The startling ideas just outlined have opened up several new vistas,