Abstract
The theory of relativity became known to the wider public in the early 1920s, and as a spin-off Einstein assumed the social role of a scientific celebrity. His being photogenic and willing to clown for the cameras helped reinforce his status. The result was a plethora of popular books endeavoring to explain relativity theory to an eager public. This practice continues today – witness the very book you are reading now. Interestingly, one of the first popular books was written by Einstein himself. Published first in German in 1917, it was written almost immediately after he finished the general theory in late 1915. That Einstein felt the need to explain his seemingly impenetrable theory to the general public is of more than passing interest. Apparently he wanted to beat others to the task, and put the watered-down version in his own words.
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Einstein [49] [1917].
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Michelson was on the Physics faculty of Case School of Applied Sciences, later called Case Institute of Technology, in Cleveland, Ohio. Morley was a Chemist at Western Reserve University, the two campuses being adjacent to each other. In 1967 the two amalgamated into Case-Western Reserve University as it is today. I was a graduate student at the time they were joined, and my Master’s degree in Physics is from Case Tech, while my Ph.D. in History of Science is from Case-Western.
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Fowles [66], p. 257.
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Importantly, even if it were true that Einstein was influenced by the experiment in relativity’s formative stage, it is not a one-step jump to postulating the theory. If so, others who read Michelson’s work would have published the theory before Einstein.
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Einstein, quoted in Stachel [190], pp. 45–46.
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Stachel [190], pp. 45–46; Einstein Papers, Vol. 1, Doc. 57.
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Einstein Papers, Vol. 2, Doc, 47. This paper will be discussed not only in the next chapter but later in this book, for other reasons.
- 9.
Letter of January 14, 1908 to Arnold Sommerfeld, in Einstein Papers, Vol. 5, Doc. 73, pp. 50–51 ET. Also, see Staley [193], p. 11.
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Holton [99] [1969], pp. 279–370. The title, incidentally is, “Einstein, Michelson, and the ‘Crucial’ Experiment.”
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Einstein [52] [1922].
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- 13.
- 14.
Holton [99], p. 480.
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Miller [142].
- 16.
Pais [162], pp. 116–119 and 172–173.
- 17.
The school was the Francis W. Parker School, a K–12 school founded in 1901 based on John Dewey’s principles of progressive education. This was much in line with Einstein’s liberal views of learning, and probably why he was asked – and he accepted – the invitation. The private school is still thriving near Lincoln Park in Chicago.
- 18.
Van Dongen [204]. The transcript specifically reads: “… als ich im Studium war”: that is, “when I was in studies …” – implying, it seems, that he was a student when he learnt of Michelson’s experiment. Einstein Papers, Vol. 12, Appendix D, transcript on p. 519. See introductory note on p. 513.
- 19.
Holton [99], pp. 479–480.
References
Abiko, Seiya. 2000. Einstein’s Kyoto address: ‘how I created the theory of relativity. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 31(pt.1): 1–35.
Einstein, Albert. 1960. Relativity: the special and the general theory. Fifteenth Edition. (trans: Robert W. Lawson in 1920.). London: Methuen & Co. This popular account was first published in German in 1917. This edition has five appendices, the last (1952) is titled “Relativity and the Problem of Space.”
Einstein, Albert. 1982. How I created the theory of relativity. Physics Today 35: 45–47 (August). This is a transcription by Jun Ishiwara of a talk Einstein gave in Kyoto University on December 14, 1922, and (trans: Yoshimasa A. Ono.). A corrected translation is in Abiko, 2000. Skepticism on the validity of this document is in Miller, 1987 and Holton, 1988.
Fowles, Grant R. 1962. Analytical mechanics. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Holton, Gerald. 1988. Thematic origins of scientific thought: Kepler to Einstein. Revised edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Chapter. 8 (pp. 279–370) is a reprint of the classic article, “Einstein, Michelson, and the ‘Crucial’ Experiment,” published in Isis, vol. 60 (1969), 133–197. Comments on subsequent work are on 477–480.
Miller, Arthur I. 1987. Einstein and Michelson-morley. Physics Today 40: 8–13 (May).
Ogawa, Tsuyoshi. 1979. Japanese evidence for Einstein’s knowledge of the Michelson-morley experiment. Japanese Studies in the History of Science 18: 73–81.
Pais, Abraham. 1982. “Subtle is the Lord…”: the science and the life of Albert Einstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stachel, John. 1987. Einstein and aether drift experiments. Physics Today 40(May): 45–47.
Staley, Richard. 2008. Einstein’s generation: the origins of the relativity revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. This important book sets Einstein’s work within the larger context of the cultural, social, intellectual, material, theoretical, and experimental framework of his times, purposefully tempering the great man approach to science history. In light of – or, perhaps, in spite of – Staley’s thesis, the title of this book was deliberately and carefully wrought.
Van Dongen, Jeroen. 2009. On the role of the Michelson–Morley experiment: Einstein in Chicago. Archive for the History of the Exact Sciences 63: 655–663. The copy I used was published online 17 July 2009, 9 pages.
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Topper, D.R. (2013). The Michelson-Morley Muddle. In: How Einstein Created Relativity out of Physics and Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 394. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4782-5_6
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