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Amazonia Introduced to General Relativity: The May 29, 1919, Solar Eclipse from a North-Brazilian Point of View

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Abstract

In 1919, A. C. D. Crommelin and C. R. Davidson, British astronomers from the Greenwich Observatory in England, passed by Amazonia on their Brazilian journey aiming to measure the bending of stars' light rays during the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, and thereby put the theory of general relativity to the test. In the context of Crommelin’s and Davidson’s visit, we discuss how Amazonia was introduced to Einstein’s theory of gravitation, and also the observations and repercussions of the May 29, 1919, solar eclipse in Belém, capital city of the North-Brazilian Pará state.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Rodrigo P. Vaz for his contribution in the early stages of the research related to this work. We are also grateful to Franciney C. Palheta for profitable discussions, to Rosa E. C. C. Lopes, Ângela B. Klautau and Atsushi Higuchi for useful comments, and to Christina H. da M. Barboza for email correspondence. We acknowledge the help from (i) Simone Maria Matos Moreira and Ranulfo Figueiredo Campos, from Biblioteca Pública Arthur Vianna, Belém, Brazil; and (ii) Kátia Teixeira dos Santos de Oliveira, from Biblioteca do Observatório Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We would like also to thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), and Fundação Amazônia de Amparo a Estudos e Pesquisas do Pará (FAPESPA), from Brazil, for partial financial support.

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  1. Faculty of Physics, Pará University, Rua Augusto Corrêia, 01, Guamá, Belém, Pará, Brazil

    Luís C. B. Crispino & Marcelo C. de Lima

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  1. Luís C. B. Crispino
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  2. Marcelo C. de Lima
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Correspondence to Luís C. B. Crispino.

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Faculdade de Física, Universidade Federal do Pará, 66075-110, Belém, PA, Brazil

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Crispino, L.C.B., de Lima, M.C. Amazonia Introduced to General Relativity: The May 29, 1919, Solar Eclipse from a North-Brazilian Point of View. Phys. Perspect. 18, 379–394 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-016-0190-3

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