Historical notes

Abstract

The entry given above appears as abstract number 2277 in Science Abstracts * in 1905. The paper which was abstracted is regarded as the final emergence of the theory of relativity in its presently accepted form. However like most great turning points in science this work did not suddenly emerge from nowhere, but was based on problems which had been known for many years and the attempts to solve these problems which had proved to be failures.

2277. Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. A.Einstein. (Ann. d. Physik, 17. 5. pp. 891–921, Sept. 26, 1905.)—A mathematical investigation divided into a kine-matical and an electrodynamical part. The former treats (1) Definition of contemporaneousness (Gleichzeitigkeit), (2) The relativity of lengths and times, (3) Theory of space- and time-transformations from resting to uniformly translated systems, (4) Physical significance of the equations obtained for moving rigid bodies, &c., (5) Addition theorem for velocities. The second part deals with (6) Maxwell-Hertz equations, (7) Doppler’s principle and aberration, (8) Transformation of energy of light, Theory of radiation pressure on a perfect reflector, (9) Transformation of Maxwell-Hertz equations with reference to convection currents, (10) Dynamics of slowly accelerated electrons.

E. H. B.