A Debate on the Theory of RelativityOpen Court Publishing Company, 1927 - 154 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
acceleration agreement amount analysis Angstrom unit astronomers atom basis beam of light body conception conclusion contradiction coordinates D. C. Miller difficulties direction displacements doctrine drift earth Einstein Einstein shift electromagnetic electrons energy equations error ether Euclid event evidence existence experiment experimental explanation fact Figure free space fringe shift fundamental geometry gravitational field human spirit hypothesis intuitions laboratory law of gravitation Lick Observatory locity mass mathematical matter means measure mechanics ment Michelson and Morley Michelson-Morley experiment Miller experiment Mount Wilson moving nature Newton Newtonian non-Euclidian geometries observation orbit parallax perihelion perihelion of Mercury physical science physical units physical universe plane possible postulates pound mass predicted present principle of relativity rela relativists restricted principle restricted theory rotation S₁ S₂ Sigma Xi simultaneity Sirius solar system speed stars system of reference theory of relativity things thought tion tivity tonian unaccelerated velocity of light verified
Popular passages
Page 37 - Attacking a problem obviously difficult and almost inexplicable, at length I hit upon a solution whereby this could be reached by fewer and much more convenient constructions than had been handed down of old, if certain assumptions, such as are called axioms, be granted me.
Page 44 - The sum of the squares of the two sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse; a a +b j =c*.
Page 4 - The lean tall figure of Huxley quietly rose. He looked, for a moment, thoughtfully, at the crowd; Saw rows of hostile faces; caught the grin Of ignorant curiosity; here and there, A hopeful gleam of friendship; and, far back, The young swift-footed, waiting for the fire. He fixed his eyes on these — then, in low tones, Clear, cool, incisive, "I have come here," he said, "In the cause of Science only.
Page 148 - ... mechanism. Just now it would not be so easy to say what is meant by matter and configurations of matter. It is certain at any rate that the billiard ball model of the seventeenth century is no longer applicable. Professor RD Carmichael has well summed up the present plight of mechanical materialism: "It is absurd to speak of a mechanical explanation of life and thought when we have found ourselves in such difficulties that we no longer know what we should mean by a mechanical explanation of phenomena...
Page 113 - Wilson, leads to the conclusion that there is a systematic displacement of the interference fringes of the interferometer corresponding to a constant relative motion of the earth and the ether at this observatory of...
Page 102 - ... differences between solar and terrestrial wave-lengths and that it is possible to disentangle their effects. The causes appear to be the slowing up of the atomic clock in the sun to an amount predicted by the theory of generalized relativity, radial velocities of moderate cosmic magnitude and in probable directions, and differential scattering in the longer paths traversed through the solar atmosphere by light coming from the limb of the sun.
Page 143 - is probably the greatest synthetic achievement of the human intellect up to the present time. It sums up the mathematical and physical labors of more than two thousand years. Pure geometry from Pythagoras to Riemann, the dynamics and astronomy of Galileo and Newton, the theory of electromagnetism as it resulted from the researches of Faraday, Maxwell, and their successors...
Page 90 - ... satisfying the equation are realised, so in the physical world only certain changes of value occur. Bodies are always accelerated towards the earth. Differences of temperature, left to themselves, always grow less ; and so on. Similarly, with respect to space, mathematical and physiological researches have shown that the space of experience is simply an actual case of many conceivable cases, about whose peculiar properties experience alone can instruct us.
Page 20 - Whose speed was much faster than light. She went out one day In a relative way And came back the previous night.
Page 66 - His true position is in the diagonal of the parallelogram, whose sides are in the ratio of the velocity of light to the velocity of the earth in its orbit, which is as 190000 to 19.