It is thus seen that the formulæ deduced by Einstein have been confirmed in a variety of ways and in a most brilliant manner. In connection with these formulæ one question must arise in the minds of everyone; by what process, where in the course of the mathematical development, does the idea of mass reveal itself? It was not in the equations at the beginning and yet here it is at the end. How does it appear? As a matter of fact it is first seen as a constant of integration in the discussion of the problem of the gravitational field due to a single particle; and the identity of this constant with mass is proved when one compares Einstein’s formulæ with Newton’s law which is simply its degenerated form. This mass, though, is the mass of which we become aware through our experiences with weight; and Einstein proceeded to prove that this quantity which entered as a constant of integration in his ideally simple problem also obeyed the laws of conservation of mass and conservation of momentum when he investigated the problems of two and more particles. Therefore Einstein deduced from his study of gravitational fields the well-known properties of matter which form the basis of theoretical mechanics. A further logical consequence of Einstein’s development is to show that energy has mass, a concept with which every one nowadays is familiar.
The description of Einstein’s method which I have given so far is simply the story of one success after another; and it is certainly fair to ask if we have at last reached finality in our investigation of nature, if we have attained to truth. Are there no outstanding difficulties? Is there no possibility of error? Certainly, not until all the predictions made from Einstein’s formulæ have been investigated can much be said; and further, it must be seen whether any other lines of argument will lead to the same conclusions. But without waiting for all this there is at least one difficulty which is apparent at this time. We have discussed the laws of nature as independent in their form of reference axes, a concept which appeals strongly to our philosophy; yet it is not at all clear, at first sight, that we can be justified in our belief. We can not imagine any way by which we can become conscious of the translation of the earth in space; but by means of gyroscopes we can learn a great deal about its rotation on its axis. We could locate the positions of its two poles, and by watching a Foucault pendulum or a gyroscope we can obtain a number which we interpret as the angular velocity of rotation of axes fixed in the earth; angular velocity with reference to what? Where is the fundamental set of axes? This is a real difficulty. It can be surmounted in several ways. Einstein himself has outlined a method which in the end amounts to assuming the existence on the confines of space of vast quantities of matter, a proposition which is not attractive. deSitter has suggested a peculiar quality of the space to which we refer our space-time coordinates. The consequences of this are most interesting, but no decision can as yet be made as to the justification of the hypothesis. In any case we can say that the difficulty raised is not one that destroys the real value of Einstein’s work.
In conclusion I wish to emphasize the fact, which should be obvious, that Einstein has not attempted any explanation of gravitation; he has been occupied with the deduction of its laws. These laws, together with those of electromagnetic phenomena, comprise our store of knowledge. There is not the slightest indication of a mechanism, meaning by that a picture in terms of our senses. In fact what we have learned has been to realize that our desire to use such mechanisms is futile.
[1] Presidential address delivered at the St. Louis meeting of the Physical Society, December 30, 1919. Republished by permission from “Science.” [↑]
THE DEFLECTION OF LIGHT BY GRAVITATION AND THE EINSTEIN THEORY OF RELATIVITY.[1]
Sir Frank Dyson
the Astronomer Royal
The purpose of the expedition was to determine whether any displacement is caused to a ray of light by the gravitational field of the sun, and if so, the amount of the displacement. Einstein’s theory predicted a displacement varying inversely as the distance of the ray from the sun’s center, amounting to 1″.75 for a star seen just grazing the sun.…
A study of the conditions of the 1919 eclipse showed that the sun would be very favorably placed among a group of bright stars—in fact, it would be in the most favorable possible position. A study of the conditions at various points on the path of the eclipse, in which Mr. Hinks helped us, pointed to Sobral, in Brazil, and Principe, an island off the west coast of Africa, as the most favorable stations.…