… If the results obtained had been only that light was affected by gravitation, it would have been of the greatest importance. Newton, did, in fact, suggest this very point in his “Optics,” and his suggestion would presumably have led to the half-value. But this result is not an isolated one; it is part of a whole continent of scientific ideas affecting the most fundamental concepts of physics.… This is the most important result obtained in connection with the theory of gravitation since Newton’s day, and it is fitting that it should be announced at a meeting of the society so closely connected with him.
The difference between the laws of gravitation of Einstein and Newton come only in special cases. The real interest of Einstein’s theory lies not so much in his results as in the method by which he gets them. If his theory is right, it makes us take an entirely new view of gravitation. If it is sustained that Einstein’s reasoning holds good—and it has survived two very severe tests in connection with the perihelion of mercury and the present eclipse—then it is the result of one of the highest achievements of human thought. The weak point in the theory is the great difficulty in expressing it. It would seem that no one can understand the new law of gravitation without a thorough knowledge of the theory of invariants and of the calculus of variations.
One other point of physical interest arises from the discussion. Light is deflected in passing near huge bodies of matter. This involves alterations in the electric and magnetic field. This, again, implies the existence of electric and magnetic forces outside matter—forces at present unknown, though some idea of their nature may be got from the results of this expedition.
[1] From a report in The Observatory, of the Joint Eclipse Meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society, November 6, 1919. [↑]
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
EMINENT CHEMISTS OF OUR TIME
A non-technical account of the more remarkable achievements in the realm of chemistry as exemplified by the life and work of the more modern chemists. There is hardly a chemist of note whose work is not mentioned in connection with one or another of the eleven following: Perkin and Coal Tar Dyes; Mendeléeff and the Periodic Law; Richards and Atomic Weights; Ramsay and the Gases of the Atmosphere; Van ’t Hoff and Physical Chemistry; Arrhenius and The Theory of Electrolytic Dissociation; Moissan and the Electric Furnace; Curie and Radium; Victor Meyer and the Rise of Organic Chemistry; Remsen and the Rise of Chemistry in America; Fischer and the Chemistry of Foods.