FOR BEGINNERS

Text byJoe Schwartz Illustrations by

Michael McGuinness
'-"
P;:mthpnn .;;, ,,',
Text Copyright 1979 byJoe Schwartz
Illustrations Copyright 1979by
Michael McGuinness
All rights reserved under International andPan-
American Copyright Conventions. Publishedin
the United States by Pantheon Books, adivision of
RandomHouse, Inc., New York, andsimultane-
ously in Canadaby RandomHouse of Canada
Limited, Toronto.
Originally published in EnglandbyWriters and
ReadersPublishingCooperative.
Libraryof Congress Cataloging in PublicationData
Schwartz, Joe, 1938-
Einstein for beginners.
Bibliography: p.
1. Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955. \. McGuinness,
Michael, 1935- joint author. I\. Title.
QC16.E5S32 530.1'1 79-1889
ISBN0-394-50588-3
ISBN0-394-73801-2 pbk.
Manufactured in the United States of America
02468B97531
About the Author and Illustrator
Joe Schwartz, who is Associate Professor of Physics at
the City University of New York, received his Ph.D. in
higher energy physics from the University of California
in 1964. He is the author of many scientific articles that
have appeared in Nature, New Scientist, and other
magazines.
Michael McGuinness studied fine arts at the Royal
Academy in London. He is a former art director at
Reader's Digest and designer for the Observer.
'If relativity is proved right the Germans will call me a German, the Swiss will call me a
Swiss citizen, and the French will call me a great scientist.
If relativity is proved wrong the French will call me a Swiss, the Swiss will call me a
German, and the Germans will call me a Jew.'
A\be,rt Einstein was born in
ulm, Germany on March 11.1875
'Into a war Id not of his
own making.
.-{Just like the rest ofus. ]
hat was going on 'In the world?
The 1880'5 marked
the beqinning of
the ag5 of
imperialism and
mon0p,0ly

LENIN
11
1870
Franco-Pru..ian War - Prussia annexes Alsace-Lorraine,
declares a German Empire, receives 5,000,000,000 francs
indemnity and blows it all in financial speculation.
1871
The Parla Commune - Workers and soldiers take over the
government of Paris for 3 months. The Commune suppressed
with the help of the Prussian Army. 30,000 Communards
executed by the French authorities.
6
1873
The Great World-Wide Financial Crash. The next 17years
meant hardship for ordinary people; great profits and
consolidation for a few. Small businessmen, like Einstein's
father, were badly hit. This was a time of labor struggles,
immigration, the rise of militant socialism.
1878
Bismarck passes anti-socialist laws to suppress working-class
political agitation.
The great questions of
the day w'llI not be
settled by resolutions
and majority votes but
by blood and
CItt</%It
181J-
I
83
8
Chcmcellor of GermGlry'
1811 -1890
Jews qet
the bldrne
for the
Finoncicl
cnsis.
Wilhelm Marr coins the word
anti-Semitism and founds the
League of Anti-semites.
8
Bi5ll1orcK's
friend
~ n d
contidant .

The Jewish tribe has indeed adifferent blood

from the Christian peoples of Europe, a different
body, a different constitution, other affects and
passions. If we add to these peculiarities the
thick fat skin and the volatile, mostly disease
inclined blood, we see before us the Jew as
white Negro, but the robust nature and capacity
for physical work of the Negro are missing and
are replaced by a brain which by size and
activity bring the Jews close to the Caucasian
peoples.
Mamma rnic,
/' w'lth us, they
blarnethe .
Sicilians!
t'5 a period of tremendous overall industrial expansion.
People throughout Europe are forced off the land
and into the cities.
The rural Jewish population of
southern Germany falls by 70%
between 1870and 1900.
Many emigrate to the Americas.
n 1880 Albert's father's business -fOils because of the
depression and the fOl1lily moves from lJlm,
p'opulat!on 1.500, to population 2.3,000.
Aloert 15 oneyear old.
Pauline,
Ithink
things
are5e.tter '
in
Munich.
5fe,.l11atJfltffl6fa1v
181T-1.902
AI bert's father.
Freeman of Buchau.
Jews were not completely
ermncipqred until 1867,59
being a freeman was special.
Fine!
You congo
into
business
with your
brother
there.

18.5
8
-1.9
20
A/bert's mother.
Daughter ot a court
pvrveyc;:>r, JulIus Koch-
Bernheimer;
9
entral to Germany's industrialization isihe growth of
the chemical am' electrical industries.
10
........ Slgn81Ingby Electricity 1837:
telegraphs, cables, batteries, terminals, insulated
wire coils, switches, measuring instruments.
Electroplating 1840:
for fancy tableware and household objects for
the prosperous middle classes.
Electric lighting 1880-80:
arc lighting for streets, docks, railways and finally
homes.
ElectricPower Production 1.:
electrification of railways, furnaces, machinery,
construction of power plants and distribution
systems.
12
1881. In the suburbs of Munich, Albert's father opens
asmall factory with his brother Jacob, a tmined
enqineer. They manufacture dynamos, electric
instruments and electric arc lights.
Hermann and Jacob are part of the German
electrical industry 0000000
II .,
whioh is .
I
I
I1
I!II a peric58 of
intense
monopol-
ization.
Darmstadter Bank 1853
Diskontogesellschaft Bank 1856
Deutsche Bank 1870
Dresden Bank 1872
13
y 19135 half the worlds Ircde in electro-chemical
products was in German hands.
&.. ''''..
''f-
Who
had
the
other
half?
Glad you asked.
.........."",...... The U5ofA.
General ElectricCo.
a combine of
Ihomson- Houston
& Edison Co.
ermann and Jacob Einstein are in for trouble.
Tneir small company, cannot compete against giants
like Siemens and flalske.
ii
t8081(J86
Scientific
instru-
ment
maker
at the
Univer-
sity of

Joi ned forces
with Siemens
in 184"1
Since electricity
Figures so strongly, in
our story "It is worth
looking at the firm of
Siemens and Halske in
more detail.


t816-1892
From o
prominent
Hanover
family.
Educated
inthe
Prueson
Army.
Artillery
and .
Enqineerlng
Scnool.
Inventor
ofmodern
dynamo
in ISGr.
15
iemens' firsT invention '
and siIver plating. was an Improved process fur gold
With his brother Ch I ti
sold the ' es ac <;15 agent,he
in 18+3. rights toElkington of""BIrmingham, U.K.,
------ ..-
)hy be in CIlu,stantoperati\)R, daily, ellcepted) from 9 tin R. It ,111'
TELECRAPH OFFICE, LONDON TERMINUS, PADCINCTON
AND TELECRAPH COTTACe, SLOUCH STATION.
Au Es.hibiLionadmitted by its nercerccs to be the most iotern.un1;\:
and ATTRACTIVE of an,. in great In the list of arc the
iUWltrious Il.llmel of several ut' the Crowned Headi of Eurol,e, and nearly the
wDo\e-oCtbe lIiobility of Engteed-
"Thill w'airh IVJJ _l'J mlle't PllUk atttntil't"t ,,/ lalt, i, M:ll
worthy 4 tli,.t fr"OTII all tt'/w {Ol" to ,wi tiu wr)"d.no! POST.
The Electric Telegnaph is unlimited in tbe D_tur. eed utent of iu ecre-
municatioll&; by its tltraordinary agency a penon in l'/lndon could COD\'eUe ",jIlt
allothu at Ne.... Yor1c.or 310lnyother place however tli'ltant, lUI euilyand nurly u
rapidly as iTboth parti.es ",ne in the seine room. Cotue'tion"proposed by
...n1 be asked by means of this and eeswers thereto will instaLf&neoull,.
be murnett hy a person 20 otr, who will alto. at their requel't, ring a bll{
or ,fin a cannon, in an increu.:bly I?ac!! uf timenu the signal for his
dOing so been given
The Electric Fluid travels at the
rate of Z80,OOO Miles per Second.
By irs i
1C
\'I' f'rflll "'geney have teen appl'l:'hcnll"tt l"'l ill rhe late ('lit."
of detected; and :."t17. wbid\ i. oi no little impvrh"Y'ce. the
timely :'IledicallU-dhu been procured. in ca..es which otl1... would
have crcved
T!;.. grut llaliof.llt or w.)nderful in"('ntion ill 1IO well knewn
thAt allYfur'in,-f here to hOimerits ""ould be supf'rf!.uo'J-S.
N.D. .." jell! t'" .lId fro with the most cOllfiding secrecy. 'Menenr"'\,,'
in condA\1t attendance. '0 tbat comrllunitatioDS recei v.:J. "eleg
raph"
woehl
be forwlU:d..d, if to "ny part of Lendou, Eice, &e.
ADMISSION ONE SHILLING.
T. HOIllI:, Licf1It.
Under the speci3.1 of Her ltIo.jesty &. H.R.U. Prince Albert.
QA,I!,VlAll'teO AllfO
TBLBClBAPBS,
GT. \VESTERN' RAIL\VAY.
'J'BB WONDBK of the AGB r !
INS'rANTA.'lEOUS CO)B!UNICAnON.
5
f
iemerys thecircle
o UnIversity
He develops
an Improved telegraph
system. This is a
ofcoveri ng the
'!'lIre vxrth seamless
mode of cheap
morenoI Cgutta-perche]'
arubberlike plant .
SUbstance.)
In 1811 he
Telegra.phen
B9uensTadt von
SIemens und Halske to
'!1anufacture and
Instal telegraph
systems.
16
n 18t8 he gets the Prussian government contract to build
q network in NorThern Germany.
1 ; ~ 1 h e Frankfurt
Revolutionarv
ossemolv h05
JUS! electeq the
KIng to beI
emperor.
Siemens loses ihe Pruesiori conTract in 1850.
But 'In Ruesio he succeeds in seIling fhe Tsar
on an extensive sysre-m.
11
18
1854-56
Thanks to Siemens we can find out
how that. Crimean war i'5 doin ~
~ ~ ~ ~ Siemens
useshis
profits from
Russia for
thenext
Big Deal-
underwater
coble
telegraphy!
- ~ - - - .
he first transatlantic
cable is laid
between 1857-1868.
-
---....
'\ vJhats the
I price of cotton
\ in London this
",-week?
----
-
e better
(pullout ofthat
\ 'gold deal. I
~ n .
Siemens orqonizee the Indo- European telegraph in 18ro.
It connects London- Berlin-Odesso-Teheran and
Calcutta. He becomes consultant to the British government.
His ship, the faraday, loys 5transatlantic
cables between 1875-1885.
19
lectric power becomes a cornmodity.
The first market 15 lightIng for docks, rai Iways and streets.
Schuckert,
who combines
withSiemens,
worked with
Edison in
NewJersey.
Edison organizes the construction of the first centra I
generating station in 1882.
Th'l,) should
turn d
nice
profit,hey?
20
Pearl st. Station of
Edison Electric Illuminatinq Company
feet .
E
r/clty is II
veryo .0 the
ont ~ ne tnes 1- rage.
fie oct. 10 get in
21
n 18B7 theGerman government opens the
Physikolische - Technische - Reichsanstalt for
research in the exact sciences and precision technology.
Siemens donates 500,000 marks to the project.
His old friend, Hermann von Helmholtz of
the University of Berlin circle.is appointed head.
21
So Albert was born when electricity had
become big business and the most
popular of the sciences. His future would
be greatly influenced by the
commitment of the German state to
technical education and state-supported
research.
OUf fumily
was very
close-knit
and very
ho.spitable.
In 1881 Alberts sister
MojC\ is born.
Albert proves to be a
slow,dream'ichi ld.
Even at oge 9 he
spoke hesitantly.
Al bert's closest
friend in
childhood.
24
Ach,
donT worry.
Perhap5
he'll De a
profseeor
onedoy!
Alberts Germany is a very military ploceoooooooo
There,there.
W'el/ worry
about it
later.
Arms expenditure nearly
triples between 1870and
1890.
The officer corps increases
from3000 to 22,500. Three
year military service is
compulsory. Socialist
Iiterature is forbidden.
Youths are subjected to
fear and humiliation.
Veterans organizations are
state supported.
Membership increases from
27,000 in 1873to 400,000 in
1890and 1,000,000 in 1900.
Heads of state all appear in
military uniform.
Even the taxi drivers wear
uniforms.
Albert
doesn't
like it.
\
25
_----I Christ was
nailed ro
the cross
with
nails
liRe
thiS.
Albert
goes to
schoolooo
000 which
is. very
military.
2.0
Albert goes to aCatholic school.
He is the only Jew in his closs..
(Albert's father was a non-religious Jewwho
regarded the kosher dietary laws as ancient
superstition.)
lbert had a much
better time
at home playing
with his
sister
AI bert, what do you
think' of this?Ifs
called
q
compass.
---==:---'
Hush now
and go to
sleep.
21
, lbert's uncle Jacob introduces him to math e e e e o o e e-e
I \ i ~ e my uncle
Jake. He always
shows me things.
/
:/
Algebra is a merry science.
When the animal we are
hunting cannot be
caught, we call it x .
temporarily and conunoe
to hunt it until it IScaught.
00000000 And his mother introduces him
to music and literature.
2.8
Oh.no, not violin
lessons! ~
Its Just '\11
liRe
school.
Go on.you
~ n o w you
~ \ik?e to ploy
~ L when you.r
cousins
.J-: ", come.
t was a Jewish custom
in southern Germany to invite a
p'0or Jew to dinner on lhursday's.
'Max Ta\mey, a medical student in
Munich! visited the Einstein
home when Albert was 12.
Great public interest in science
in Germdn'y.' produced
poputor science best-sellers
ana vice versa,
Talmey brought some of
these with him.
29

do you
think
Albert
reads
too
mucn?
With assistance,
Albert worked through
Spieker's Plane
and later went ontoteoch
himself "the elements of colculus.
Better- he
should
read
than do
nothin9.'
lbert's reading undermines hi5 faith inauthority.
Through the reading of popular scientific books I
soon reached the conviction that much of the
stories in the Bible could not be true. The
consequence was a positive fanatic orgy of free
thinking coupled with the impression that youth
is intentionally being deceived by the State
through lies. It was a crushing impression.
Suspicion against every kind of authority grew
out of this experience, a skeptical attitude
towards the convictions which were alive in any
specific social environment - an attitude which
never left me, even though later on, becauseof a
better insight into causal connections, it lost
some of its original poignancy.
31
r presence
Einstein, YOL!5 disruptive
i n t h e f ~ a ~ i t h e other
and 0 re
etudents.
'(odll stay
for t.
deten Ion.
o
Emperor
Charles
N
1346-1378
Emperor
Charles
s:
1519-155
6

chorles

1711-1140
The teochers in
elementary school
appeared to me.lil<e
) /'" sergeants, and In
/'" the Gymnasium, the
teochers were
lik?e
33
n 1894 Hermann's business fails. The family moves
south to Milan, Italy.
Albert, you'll stay here to
Finish sc.hool and qet
your diploma, y,0ulr
, ~ - - - - . neea it.'
After two months
on his own, I\\bert
obtains a doctors
certificate saying
"that he is suffering
a nervous break-
down.The school
authorities dismiss h i ' l ~ - -
Just whot
I wClnted!
o
4
Papa,lm renouncing
my Oerman citizens hip.
1m off tothe
rnountnins. I
thinK I'll visit
our cousins in
Genoo.
Albert spends a free harRY year in Italy.
But hisfather's business fails again.
lhe family moves to Pavia where ogain
it fails!
Albert, I can
no longer
support you.
You must
become an
enqineer
anc1go into
Business.
f
35
Evenwhen I was a fairly precocious young man,
the nothingness of the hopes and stirrings which
chasesmost men restlesslythrough life came to
my consciousness with considerable vitality.
Moreover I soon discovered the cruelty of that
chase, which in those years was much more
carefully covered up by hypocrisy and glittering
words than is the case today. By the mere
existence of the stomach everyone was con-
demned to participate in that chase.
ithout a diploma, Alberi can't enter University. But the
Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule, the ETH, in
ZUrich, the most elitetechnical school outside of
Germany, would admit him if he passed an entrance
exam. Hefuiled miserably.
Einstein, you've roiled
French, English.
Zoology ana Botany.
But you have a
superior knowledge
of mathemat iC5 .
37"
Ibert has a good ti me in Aarau.
Ooh,that
Albert
Einstein is
Cute.
=
He stays with the headmaster of the school,
Professor Winteler, who has 0 son,Paul,and a
daughter Albert's age. Alberts sister Moja later
marries Paul Winteler. He studies physics with 0
0000 Auqust Tuschmid, considered a fTrst-
class te'acher of physics.
The centml problem
In p'hysics Today
is the resolution
of Newton's
mechanical
world view
With the new
equotions of
electromagnetism.
38
t the end of the year Albert graduates
and passes his ETH exam.
. Jat1
~ / ~ ~ ~ f ! . J )
;Aatat' J
8
9
6
n 2.8January 1896 Albert's official opplicotion for the
termination of his German nationality is approved.
He becomes a statelessperson! Albert convinces
his father that he should be a teacher instead ofan
engineer. In October 1
8
9
6
he is ready
for The.... 1h
.... "big time" ebigtime-
what's he mean? Dunne,
let's see.
39
40
he ETH was 0 Big League outfit. The Physics Institute was
planned by Heinrich Weber and his friend Siemens.
00" It
attmeted
world-
wide
attention
Description by Henry Crew, PhD, U.S. physics professor in 1893:
"H. F. Weber and Dr Pernetare at the head of the physics department in
the Polytechnic. They not only have the most complete instrumental
outfit I have ever seen, but also the largest building I have ever seen
used for a physical laboratory. Tier on tier of storage cells, dozens and
dozens of the most expensive tangent and high resistence
galvanometers, reading telescopes of the largest and most expensive
form by the dozen, 2 or 3 in each room. The apparatus cost 400,000
francs, the building alone 1 million francs."
But the
,Aengineers
/ottneETH
-: / complqmed
" ;;'/' motfheir
teachers
rff; were too
%' abstract.
The students
, orqonized .
J;jj demonstmnons
~ agoinstthe .
I "mathematics
. \\.lectures.
\
\\
- - - ~
+1
Ibert qUickly decided
mathematics was
far too specialized
to be interesting .
Those engineers ore
right on.'
'. : qnd spent
his time In the
U .superb physical
laboratory doing
experiments. He had a
cavalier attitude toward
formal instruction .
42.
........ and naturally he quickly antagonized some
of his instructors.
You're clever, Einstein, extremely,
clever. But you have one great fuuIt:
you never let yourself
be told anything!
yes, Herr Weber....
Some old stuff!
Here's the notee.
43
I lbert gets icofinncs a
month from his relatives.
He saves 20 francs of
iteach month toward
his Swiss citizenship.
E x ~ n s i v e . . . . ond
restricted to afew
appliconts.
e forms friendships with Michelangelo Besso.
"jhe finest sounding-boord in all Eur0p.:' Marcel
Grossmann,who later helps Albert get his first .secure
Job in the Swiss Patent Office,onCl Mileva Maric,
a mathematician from Serbia whom he marries
in 1903. They have a good time in the lively
political atmosphere of Zurich.
xiled revolutionaries from Germany and "Russia 01\ come
toZurich. Alexandra Kollontoi, Trotsky,
Rosa Luxemburg,and later Lenin, are there.
Albert learns ( f ! ~
about f ( f ~
revolutionary ~
socialism from ~
his rrierd ~ ---
Friedrich Adler, ( { ( ~
ajunior -./
lecturer in
physics.
Friedrich is the son of Victor Adler. the leader
of the Austrian Social Democrats, sent by his
father to study physics "and forget politics"
But Adler remains involved in the socialist
movement. In 1918he assassinates the
Austrian Prime Minister. Albert submits
testimony on his behalf.
Friedrich gets amnesty
and doesn't serve any time.
15
Opt ick.s .
consolidation of the laws
dominated for ihe
Attended Trinity College,
Cambridge. Whig MP for
Cambridge 1689-1690. Long-
term interest in metallurgy
led to his becoming Master
ofthe Mint from 1696to
his death in 1727. Founder
of the theoretical basis of
mechanics. Using Kepler's
summary of the measurements
of the motions of the
planets he formulated laws
of motion of material objects.
Cl o ck v work .
n physic5.Newton's
of mechanics had
previous 200 years.
Newton's mechanical world
view is part of 18th & 19th century European philosophy
and vice versa.
Albert was skeprical bui nevertheless impressed by
the achievements of the mechanical world view.
Albert, like most beginning physics students,
particularly admired the ability of mechanics to
explain the behavior of gases. The relationship
between the pressure, volume and temperature of a
gas could be derived by treating the particles of a
gas as projectiles constantly bombarding the walls
of the container. From this treatment came a
number of impressive results: the way the energy of
a gas depended on temperature, howviscous a gas
is, howwell it conducts heat and howfast it can
diffuse. Comparison of this model to experiment
also yielded the first estimates ofthe sizes of atoms.
But what the 19th century achieved on this basis was
bound to arouse the admiration of every receptive person.
Dogmatic rigidity prevailed in
all matters of principles. In the beginning God created
Newton's law of motion together with the necessary
masses and forces.
,
,
')
~ l
\
-.,
II
I
\ I
41
ut it was the p.hysic5 of electricity and the
electrodynamics of faradoy,MaxwalI and Hertz
that most attracted his attention ....
Faraday: the most
accomplished
experimental physicist
of the 19
1tlC.
56n of a
blockemith.
liJ
3 Sir HumphreyDavy
was headof the
Royallnstitutlon in
London. Faraday
become Dovy's
ossistant and ha.d to
endure the recline
insults of the
British class system _
throughout h'lS
early years. Davy'5
Wi fe refused to
eat at 1he same
table with him and
demanded that
Davydo "the same.
48
Heworked Txears as a
bookbinder betore .
coming to the attention
of Sir Humphrey Davy.
(f)In1
8
3
2
Foraday
published the
experirpental and I
iheore1ical work
ihai p'avedthe way I
forfV1axwell'5 ih8or.
y
.
ofeleciromagneiism.
His work was
hampered in
laier years by a
failure ofmemory
_caused by
-T.r -=
_. ..F:::"
-- ,

91 -186
49
Hmrn., .. Faradois
picture of lines ot'
force:traversing all
SgaGe \s a gooaone.
I ihink I can use
that.
Maxwell expressed himself in
obscure and contradictory
language so his results weren't
accepted in Europe. In 1871,1
waded through his papers and
realized that he was probably
right. I put my best student on the
problem of showing experimentally
that the electric force propagated
at the speed of light.
Child of a prominent Edinburgh
family. from 185110 1861' he
worked aT puttIng farodaY,'s
results into mathematical form.
Maxwell's equations showed
that elecTric and magnetic
forces should move
through empty space
at exactly the
speed cf light.
- ~ i
" , , ~ . . -. ~
~ ~ :'\
K ~
/
Son of a la\l\{yer and SenaTor of
Homburg.Trained as on engineer
he became aifrocTed to Helmholtz's
lob in Berlin. In 1886,ofter 8Jears or
work on fVlaxwell '5 ifJeory, fie
demonstrated eXQerimentally
thor the electric force propagates
thro!Jqh space crt the spee4
of Ilgl1t
/dlertz
o'\18Jl-
18
.9
f
experiments were
widely popularized and insp.ired
100 20-year-old Guglielmo Marconi.
Working with "Professor Auqusto
Ri9.hl,o friend and -+he British
in "Bologna, Marconi pUllt admlrolty a
signaling devices. self-propelled
torpedo In 1896.
I Ibert got VeAy exdted about ihi5 line of work.
The incorporation of optics into the theo
electromagnetism with its relation to the
speed of light to electrical and magnetic
measurements ... was like a revelation!
EJectric1y?
Magnetism?
optiCS?
science
is
rfw
st er
-
IOU5.
5cience
is a force
In
production.
Hey,
wnat
about
curiosity?
science
is
social
relations.
.51
52.
ow fur would Alberts childhood curiosity. about
the maqnet have gptten without a social basis?
Withoui'the organized work ofrmny people like
Faraday., Maxwell, Hertz and others?
knowledge accumulaies
ihrough worK
'CuriosityJis ju?t a way of sayin9
thot human beings con change '
their environment,can improve' "
things, can discover wha1 is use- "
fiji or not...
If only we
could use
-those
volcanoes
to worm us
in winter.!
atural magnets. or
lodestones! were reported
by the Chinese circa 2600B.C.
When youdiq
for iron! YOlJ
find lots ofthem.
odestones are magnetized
by ihe E.ar1h's own
magnetism. Also called
magnetite. It isan oxide of
iron(iron combined with oxygen).
lhe Chinese used them firsT
for burial purposes and only
later for novigation .
1here were occult
speciolisls in China called
deomoncers.lheir lob wos
t6 seethat a per:-son's grave
was correctly lined up fOr
pcoper entry to the -----.//
atlBr-lire. FarI
out.
.53
round 900 B.C. magnetized needles began to be
used 05 direc1ion irldicotors.
LucretiU5(ciRCA55B.c.) wrote 0 poem about magnetism;
u!he sfee/ will
Or up orchW11 o1f!erfkwe- "
FItOM DE RERUM NATURA
And that W(}.6 that ror 1600 YeQrs. Magnetism was C,Jood
fOr dIrections and as a curiosity for the leisured .
"My brother told me that Bathanarius produced a
magnet and held it under a silver plate on which he
placed a bit of iron. The intervening silver was
not affected at all, but, precisely as the magnet was
moved backward and forward below it, no matter
howquickly, sowas the iron attracted above."
from me
utt!
yod
lectriety has a similar history.
,...---'-"''----- ----_--/'_------..
The Greeks circa 400 B. C.
And that's where thar sTood
fora very long time!
In 1726 a student of
Newton'5, 5tephen
Gray, showed! that
frictional
electr icity....
.... can
be made
to travel
along 0h
hempt reo
....
Etruscans
hove a
method for
contrail ing
lightning.
55
56
y the end ofthe 18
th
C. a number of people like
Coulomb in fronce and Galvaniand Volta in Italy,
supported by wealthy were exploring
the phenomena of elecTricity.
Volta invented a battery which made steady currents
available for thefirst time,

17 'r-------
l
, I,nterest dropped off in
frictionoI electricity and every-
one rushed to make batteries because
they were so much betrer.
5f
12
D
D
Experi menters tried to
see ifthere was a
connection between
electric and
magnetic forces.
In \820
Oersted took 0/
oulornb made detailed
measurements of-the
electric force. His experi-
mente> showed that a
formula could be
written fur the electric
force simi10r to Newton'5
formula for gravitation.
.0 piece of ..... and a

ond showed that when current flowed in

tne wire the cornposs would deflect from magnetic north.
It's

easy.
'(au 1IO
Wit
for
:::;)
your- I-
self.
I ndre Ampere made even
moreprecise measurements
of "this newforce exerted by
currents flowingihrough wires.
Amperes discovery. wa5
eleganT buT Oersted's was
commercial. Electric
become pOSSible
because 1he electric current
could be used to deflect a
magnetized needle
somewhere elee and hence
pass on messages!
Havinq..,shown fuat electricity
in "the torm of electric
current could produce
magnetic effects, it now
remained to be shown
that magnetism could
produce electric effects.
This provedto bea touqh nut
which was not cracked
unti I 1831 by Faraday.
oraday was able it> show flnally -that you could get
en electric current from magnetism.
(The maqnetism had 10 change. Astatic magnetic force
couldnT'do it.)
It had been a big gamble and a lot of hard work.
This discovery, showed that
you could get an electric
current fromthe
mechanical motion
ofmognets.
Most everyone dropped
research into batteries and
storied building qenerotors.
HippolyteHxiis was the first..
69
... which was Q long way from Siemens'
First dynamo in 186(":
And ot thesame time
people sorted
experi,menting with
electric motors ....
60
. ... which didn't payoff
until wide-seaIe
distribution of power
become profitable
inthe 1880'S.
.' ut the keything for our story 'IS how faraday tried to
understand ihe effect he observed.
Faraday was oneof the very.fuw working-class scientists.
His bockqrourd of rich practical experience served him
well in hie experimental work. And his overall
Derspective was very down to earth. ,
Instead of trying 10 make up elegant force rl aws,
Faraday tried to visualize what was happening when
a magnet and a current interacted. 50 he
made pictures of what wos happening.
(
Iron filings placed near magnets D
tend to rline up'. faraday proposed .
that a magnet or a current- carrYing wire
sends out lines afforce in a definite
pattern~ depending on -the shope and
strength of the magnet or current.
61
Faraday's I?iciures showed
that the vdtage generated in
a circuit was totne
rote or whichihe lines of
force through the circuit
were changing.
Forthe ftr5t time
theory moved away from
forces actinq at a distance
as in glUvitallon,
Now lhe spoce between
the bodies was seen 05 the
active carrier of-the force.
62
A5 soon 05 Faraday discovered ihis effect hes1aried
asking how 'It was tnatthe lines afforce 90t1hrough space.
Here's on example.Check
it out. ~
When the ~ is closed
ihe ~ attracts
the e 0 nd deflects it
from magnetic north.
Certain of the results
which are embodied in the
two papers entitled
Experimental Researches
in Electricity lead me to
believe that magnetic
action is progressive and
requires time.
When a magnet acts on a
distant magnet or piece of
iron, the influencing
cause proceeds gradually
from the magnetic bodies
and requires time for its
transmission.
The influencing
cause proceeds
here and
requires time
for its
transmission.
63
25 years later Maxwell made very good use of this picture. He renamed the magnetic
lines of force the magnetic field. He renamed the electric lines of force the electric field.
He produced equations showing howthe fields were related to each other. And, as
an extra bonus, the equations predicted that under certain conditions the fields (lines of
force, magnetic influence, it's all the same) should move like waves through space at
the speed of light.
Yes. Maxwell's equations
implied thai liqht wos on
electromognefi"c
phenomenon,o hitherto
unsuspected form
of the electric furce.
lhe study oflightwo5 now
to become a pari
of the study of
electromognetism.
instantaneous
141,000miles/sec
Measurements of the speed of light
modern value... 186,279mi/sec
1670I. Newton
1941C. D.'Anderson 186,269mi/sec
1875A. Cornu 186,400mi/sec
1676O. Roemer
1926A. Michelson 186,281mi/sec
1727J. Bradley 186,233miles/sec
1849H. Fizeau 194,000mi/sec
61
ut not everyone liked Maxwell's equations. Even
Faraday was a bit piqued.
He wrote to Maxwell:
There is one thing I would be glad to ask you. When a mathematician
engaged in investigating physical actions and results has arrived at his
conclusions may they not be expressed in common language as fully,
clearly, and definitely as in mathematical formulae71f so, would it not be
a great boon to such as I to express them so7 - translating them out
of their hieroglyphics, that we also might work upon them by
experiment. I think it must be so, because I have always found that you
could convey to me a perfectly clear idea of your conclusions, which,
though they may give me no full understanding of the steps of your
process, give me results neither above nor below the truth, and so clear
in character that I can think and work from them. If this be possible,
would it not be a good thing if mathematicians, working on these
subjects, were to give us the results in this popular, useful, working
state, as well as in that which is their own and proper to them.
65
It wasn't until Helmholtz in 1811 decided to put all itle
competing "theories in order flaT Maxwell's equaTions
emerged as ihe p'rime candidate fur ihe correct
1i1eorv. Helmholtzslab become the center for
research into eJectromagnetic waves and the
propagation ot light
Every,one agreed
that liqht was __
a form of -
electric and d' - "'-
magnetic"'" ;,;i*1} -,
interaction. but nobody
c o u l ~ under-
stanu how it
qot from I
placeto place.
66
he mechanism of -the transmission ofelectric and
magnetic forces was now a mqjor Rroblem. Everyone
believed thot some sort of medium (or substance)
was necessary to eupporf !he fjelds.
rr We have
reason to
believe,
from the
phenomenom

heaf,thot mere
isan
oethereal
medium
filling space
and
permeofng
bodies.
This was-the
fomous,
luminiferous
nether that was
to occupy some
physicisfs for the
next40 years.
UntiI AI bert
did away
with it all.
lhe oeiher was supposed iofill all space ...
. . . and had to have the contradictory properties:
6,
But did
ihe aether
really.
exist?
2at the same time,
infinitely rigid in
order to support the - t ~ ~ i ~ J J i
light properly. ~
1completely permeable to
material objects, while .:
n 1887two U.S. Americons, A.A. ty1ichelson and
E.W.Morley, tried 10 detect ihe motion ofihe Earth
through 1he oether using very sensitive apparatus.
Thb massive
stone block,
floating in IMI'
mercury, with
onll-rnefer --
inierterometer....
.... srould
'=",10/1 settle this
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ once and
fOroll.
18jt.-19Ji
Traveled 10 Europe 1880 -rssz
where he began aether
experiments in Helmholtz's lab.
68
\
I
\
\
hE?Y found no effect. 1he motion of-the Earih throu.9
h
ihe
oefuer was undetectable.
. .alreodj?
So, what did Albert do...
When Albert comes on the scene in 1895:
1Hertz has experimentally verified
Maxwell's equations
2 Marconi is busy trying to get
money to build more wireless radios
3 The aether is assumed to exist but
no one can find it.
'
Albert does
experimentsto
try to detect
the aether
'$
and
n e o r ~ injureS
himself
eeriously....'
trying to
pusnthe
opparatus
beyond
~ . - - - J its limits.
69
.l.
I
7
he wanted to
understond what's
qoing on when
fight propagates
(spreads out) tram
placeto place.
like faraday,
AI bert r-referred
simple pictures.
Remember,os q
child Albert
wondered how!he
comROSS needIe
couICJ line up
pointing to ltle
Nann Pole
without anything
touching it.
50 Albert tried to form a simple- picture of how
light works.
~ ~ ~ M . l wonder what would
~ ~ f ~ ~ o ~ ~ 6 i
0qht
olong with itcrt 11Ie
eoeed of light?
from 1his perspective,
and ofterQ lot of hard
work with his friends,
Alb..ert come up with a
differentogproochJoihe
problemdt'the oen ,er:
11
, f course we don't
know exactJv how
"It because
aItho' Albert could
mke an
aport with just one
punch I he tHdn'r
like to talk about
it all fuat much.
No. Albert never got
used to being treated like
a qenius. He aidn't like
it. -So he avoided going
into detail about 1he
WOy hethought about
things.
d b
'd " "
An e51 6S, .... In sCience..
...the work ofthe indivlduaI
is 50 bound up with that of
his scientific contemporaries
mot it appears almostos an
in1P6rSonol product
of his qenerotion."
he key puzzler in his discuesions with his friends
WOo .. , What exoctly would hoppen if he rode along'
with a light wave ofihe speed or light?
Waves throush
the oether
Supp,0se Iwas
holding Q
mirror ... '.
.. .. and
moving
at the
speed of
nght
13
You remember.
Mike Besso,
one of
Albert's
friends.
15
No listen.
I
JhiSi,s difrerynt
magtne youre
movmq at the

light....
Wait a
minute.
OK I've
got it.
Hrnmm,
50 ?
Again? Didn't
thot accident
inthe lob
cure you?
well? whatis
it this time?
Now ifyou're
moving at me
speed of light
and
') mirror 15
. moving at F
'" I sp'eed 01
IJliqht
J
lhe l[ght
tani catch up
to the /
mirror.
Listen Mike.
lve been
tryinq to
understand
the aether
ogain.
I
5o,doesn't
thotmean

1m e
six> Id
disappear?!

Hmmm.
You mean
that if
liqht is a
vrove in the
stationary
oether....
And ifyou
sit on top
ofthewave.
... and can't
catch up to
the mirror I
to get reflected.
:..then fr:1e lighT
Isn't"mOvlnQ
with respect
to you ...
Interesting!
Listen. You
should read Mach's
stufF. He rejects the
idea of absolute
SMce anCl
motion
completelY.
"\his puzzle with his friends
fir5t at C{ ETH in Zurjf,h from 1895c19oo,and tnen
atthe wse Patent Qttlce in Bern nom 1901to 1905
hen Albert ~ r a d u a t e d his ETHgrofessor.s wouldn't
recornmerd''hirn, 50 he did dd tecchinQ jobs fOr
Q veer (he was a very qood teacher) unHI Marcel
Grossmann was able topull eorne 5frings to get him
ajob atihe Swiss Patent office ...
' ... 0 common civil servicejobfOr d
science graduaTes inlhose C!j5.
lr
In Bern he meets MouriceSolovine Qnd
Conrad Habicht.They ..
0 and alonq with Mileva Maric, Marcel Grossmann
and Mike Albert conlmues to chew over
that puzzIe.
Moving with the speed ofliqht,
'will mJ imQge disappear or11ot?
ach believed that Q physicol
theory snould be tree of
metaphysical constructions.
No one is competent
to predicate things
about absolute space
and absolute motion;
they are pure things
of thought. pure
mental constructs
that cannot be
produced in
experience.

ttn6tdfud18)8-f.j16
ach also believed that a physical iheory mlJ.5r be bosed
only on prim03 r?en;ep'n:oQ.s (a b'el iE(t thar Lenin
saw as crean golrtlCClI mlsChlet later on).
Albert benefit trornMach's willingness to challenge
the accepted ideas ot mechanics ..
-
Moch's Science of Mechanics
6Xfi:rcised a profound
e leer on me while 1
was a student
,...........,.-----'-__---'1
I N:ach's
in his IncorruptIble
skepticism.
1
9
ach'5 ideas were useful because-they helped
Albert to =the aether.
Since DO one
could rind
'rt anyway.
Here's what.Albert .
thouqht 000
No metter how it isthat I/Sht
gets from place to Rloce
(.aether, sHmaether') my
image should not disappear.
But, fuel") on observer on ihe grourd would see the
light leaving Albert's face at twice Its normal veloci1}'.!
000 then relative to the Braund
the light should be moving at
186.000 t 186,000 3rJ.,OOO miles
per secoivx] "Right?
o 0 and the light leaves
Ylj iDce crt 186,000 miles
)er second. 0 0
If I'm moving at
_ miles per second
80
But that
didn't.
make sense
either 0
The speed of waves depended only on the medium and not on the
source. For example, according to wave theory, sound from a passing
train covers the distance to the observer in the same time no matter how
fast the train is moving. And Maxwell's equations predicted the same
thing for light. The observer on the ground should always see the light
leaving Albert's face at the same speed no matter how fast Albert was
moving.
But if the observer on the ground were to see the same speed for the light
leaving Albert's face no matter how fast Albert were moving, then Albert
should be able to catch up to the light leaving his face and his image
should disappear.
But if his image shouldn't disappear, then light leaving his face should
travel toward the mirror normally. But then the observer on the ground
should see the light traveling toward the mirror at twice its normal
speed. But if the observer on the ground ... Oy veh!
Albert began to try to see if there
were any way for the speed
of light to be the same for both
the moving and the ground observers!
81
t nearly gave him a nervous breokdown ...
I must confess that at the very
beginning when the Special
Theory of Relativity began to
germinate in me; I was visited by
all sorts of nervous conflicts.
When young I used to go away for
weeks in a state of confusion, as
one who at that time had yet to
overcome the state of
stupefaction in his first encounter
with such questions.
62
me Theory of Relativity is Albert's solution
10 thi5 apparently impossible reguirement.
In order to make progress Albert first needed to convince himself that his
image should be normal even if he were moving at the speed of light. Albert
needed to find some gener8. principlethat could give him the confidence
to continue.
He found it in an old principle of physics that had
never been particularly useful before. And that was ...
THE PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY
The
principle
of .
relativity ?
Galileo got into a lot of. .
trouble with the InqU/stlon.
His ex\?eriment5 on motion
led to The Principle of
ReI ativi t.>:.:
All steady
motion is
relative and
cannot be
detected
without
reference to
an outside
point.
6;
8+
Galileo was
Profes50r of
Mathematics and
Military
Engineering at
Pisa, Itoly:
'Z.ZZ
"I have made a telescope, a thing for
every maritime and terrestial affair and an
undertaking of inestimable worth. One is
able to discover enemy sails and fleets at
a greater distance than customary, so
that we can discover him two hours or
more before he discovers us, and by
distinguishing the number and quality of
his vessels judge whether to chase him,
fight or run away ... "
ollleo worked on a lot of thinqs. He built "the first
telescope in Italy ond promptly eold itto the Doge
of Venice for 1000 ducats ana a lile professorship.
85
e 0150 used me tele.sc0p.e to observe -the moons of
Jupiter. Being QprQctical man who needed money
hetried to oefl 1tlisfirst tothe King of Spain and ihen
tothe states General of Holland as a navigational aid.
And in addition,-the
helped convince people -thoT planets
did revolve around tnesun.
ut Galileo's main concerns were with terrestrial motion ...
Because of
cannon bolls-
Galileo took up from
Nicolo Tartaglia who hod guesood
lhoTthe maximum range you
could get fromacannon
WQSID point it at1 5 ~
alileo realized ihotihe motioncf projectiles ~ o u \ d be
analyzed bytreating the horizontal and vertical
motions separately.
50 if horizontal and vertical motion are combined this
should mean thai. 0 0 0
the cannonball fired from 0 perfectly horizontal
connon and another otthe same time which fOlie>
verticallv from 1tle mouth ofire connon should hit
the ground otihe sometime!
Thafs a strange result!
88
Doesn't the horiz.ontal marion affect the vertical
motion at all?
When I'm moving smoothly the cannonball's
vertical motion isn't affected at all.
Galileo then extended his argument to say that you
couldn't use vertical motion orany other kind of
motion to detect horizontul motion.
still.
l
i i i l l i i '
Yes.lve
often
wondered
in my
cobin
whether
the ship
was.
moving or
standing
still.
89
0000 which first.
appeared in rns
mogozme.

lYle r.rinciple of
relativity sounds
harmless encqqh.
Negati ngthe idea of
absolute restwasn't
aburninq issue. /
But whel1 appliedl6
the problem of tMe
ae1'He.r it paved/The
way tor the
arguments
thatDecome-the
ofReloTlvi!y
And ihat's "the principle of
relativity. You can"t tell
it" you're moving smoothly
without looking outside.
90
osed on the principle of Albert he
should be able iO eee his (moO e norma!!y even if he
were moving ar the speed ot ight
o
Because if your image
disappeared when you were
moving at the speed of light, you
could tell you were moving at the
speed of light just by looking in a
mirror, right? You wouldn't need
to look outside, right? Which
would violate the principle of
relativityI
91
Damn!
there gOO? my
lrY10t oqoln.l
kee tenin_q them
not 18'6,000
miles- er-second
mm;;;;;;;;;;;;m;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;m;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;m;;;,when tin
//
92
That was half the problem solved.
Albert's image should be normal.
But could Albert see the light move
away from his face at the speed of
light relative to him . . . while, at the
same time, observers on the ground
would see the light leave Albert's face
at the same speed of light relative to
them?
How could this be possible?
Speed is distance
divided by time (as
in miles/nour). So
Albert realizeQ thai
if the speed were
tobe1rle some ihen
me disTance and time
have to be
difrerent. Which
meant that there
must be.something
suspect with time.
Perhaps "the moving ~ b 5 8 r v e r and 1he stationary
observer observed cliflerent times ...
If both
were to
observe
the same
velocitv
fOr /igrTt.
Because
Albert
tookthe
principle
of relativity
as a
starting
point,
ne was
led tOk
rettun
the
concepts
of space
and
time
in order
make it
come
out
all right
93
This ishow Albert
finally' expressed it
inhis Annalen der
Physikarticle in 195: ON THE
ELECTRODYNAMICS
OF MOVING BODIES
... the unsuccessful attempts to discover any
motion of the earth relatively to the light medium
like the Michelson -Morley experiment
suggest that the phenomena of electrodynamics
he ihe propagation oF'light which isthe
same thing ///
as well as of mechanics possess properties
corresponding to the idea of absolute rest.
Hemeans Galileo's principle of relativity ohould be
goodfor light as well as for ordinory motion.
We will raise this conjecture (the purport of which
will be hereafter be called the 'Principle of Relativity')
to the status of a postulatej"
*postulate: a basic assumption
and also introduce another postulate, which is only
apparently. irreconcilable with the former
he means he's found a way out ofthe contradiction
namely, that light is always propagated in empty
space with a definite velocity c which is
independent of the state of motion of the emitting
body.
He means should always observe the
same velocity iOr light.
These two postulates suffice for the attainment of a
simple and consistent theory of the electrodynamics
of moving bodies based on Maxwell's theory for
stationary bodies.
The introduction of a 'luminiferous aether' will prove
to be superfluous inasmuch as the view here to be
developed will not require an 'absolutely stationary
space' provided with special properties ...
He means he's doing awoy with the oemer once
and for 011 . Space will no longer require .
r.special properties' in order TO transmit light.
Bur, cerroin
conventional ideas
about time
about lenqths,
about moss,
obout velocity
had to be
chucked out
and replaced.
95
Ibert5 arquments ore veCY simple because "they are
very logicar. If .yOU accept file two postulates Albert
shows exac11y now to make it come out O. K.
Albert was ver.v pleased with the result. He wrote tohis
friend Conrod'
Habicht ... '
.'
6reot! He's reallY done it!
96
. .. it
pro899ates
exactlY the
eorne way
when movln.9'
This i5the
principle of
relativitv, Alberrs
first posfuIare.
Such a
nice doy.
ow. Do you see what is happening? Albert says:
no matler how
liqht propagates
.. Wflen:you are
Nice and srandi"h9 still ....
5u
dnn
y
I
to ~ .
thin I'll
qo r
(j drive.
9,
ut Albert also says
rr Liqht is in
empty space wd:h q detinrle
velocity C which is Indej:?endent of
the stcfte of mo1ion at The emitting
or receiving body"
An observer an /he ground hos ID see light moving ot
the same velocity os the moving observer.
lhis is Alberts 2na postulate.
96
I'm not sure.
what about,
KtxP dis ch?
Bur what does
it mean?
P-B1mate.
Remember the compass?
Albert wondered how the
cornROss needIe interacted
with fue Earth's magnetism.
How do maqnetic(or electric) effects get transmitted
from one pl ace to another?
Maxwell and Hertz
showed "that such
magnetjc
interactions could
only take place
ota certain
maximum speed.
Infact they
showed
that every
electromagnetic
effeq takes
time to get
transmiITed.
99
100
Radio waves, microwaves.
sun rays,etc., all take
time to getfrom place
to place.
o Albert mode an inference. Based on fhe experience
with elecTricity as summariz.ed by Maxwell ana
verified by Hertz, Albert proposed that ihere are no
insTantaneous intemcilons aton in nature.
Here is "the simple physical meaning of Alberfs 2nd postulaie:
Every interaction takes time it:' get fromone place toihe
next.
{j
And if ihere areno insTantaneous interactions in nature
then"there ,must be a maxi mum possible speed
ofi nterocllon.
I .I
This is so important we will repeat it: Iffhere are no
instantaneous interactions in Doture -then -there must be
a maximum possible speed ot interaction.
101
he maximum possible speed of interaction in
nature is the speed of the electromC?qnetic
interaction - wliich is the speed cf light!
It's quite
revolutionary
really.
Now by the
8rinciple of
the maximum
epeed or interaction must
bethe same for every
J...l observer no ma1ter how
they are moving.
e

The speed of Iighf(1he maximum speed of interaction) is a

universal constant.This is Albert5 2nd postulate.
102
Everyone seesihesome speed 10r light no matler
howt h ~ are movi n.9.
103
,-..
-- This means ,of course;that nothing con go
- foster than
.. me speed
of light . r; +L

the speed 01 fi9ht?
Nonsense!
h UnAmerican!
We crocked .
tne 60und- berner
. and by
we'll crdok
- the light: barrier.
Nothinq
faster
1tlanthe
.s-eed

Now IVe
heard
everj-
ihing.
104-
The maximum poesible speed is a material
property of our world.
But how is it
possible?
Well ...
-L Alberl
has lo show
that &omell1in.9
l:Jnexpected
IS gOIng on.
Albert has to show:
1Howeveryonecan ... the same speed for light (c).
and
2What happens when you trytoget an object to movef88terthan c.
To do this Albert shows that:
Theconcept of time
must be changed
Theconcept of length
must be changed
Theconcept of ma..
must be changed
105
oihis is A \ b e r i ~ position:
1 There ore no
instantaneous interactions
in nature.
2J Therefore fhere must
be a maximum Q05sible
speed of interaction.
J The rnoxirnum poeeible speed
of interaction isibe speed .of
the electromagnetic inleroctlon.
4 lhe ~ d ofihe electromagnetic
Interaction is -the speed
. oflight
5 The speed of lioht;5 1tle
maximum possible speed.
The reoll" difficult part wos showinq how everyone
couId see -the some speed fur light'.
Let5 see how he did it:
ioo
Ibert nearly drove himself he real ized
that TIME was 111e Joker In the ck! The time
elapsed between events was no necessarilY the
sorre fOrall observers!
Remember speed
is disTance
divided by metime
it takes. D
In symbols: .5 = T
o the moving person could observe the Iiqht
travel in,q a certain distance D ina certaif'l time T
10 give itie speed of light c ....
0 while a station.QIY person could observe the
ligbT traveling a ditterent distance Din a
arfferent time T in jusT such a way 1haT she
would measure eJCQt.tly -the same
..
10T
t is neat. Here's .how A\bert analyzed "the
phenomenon of simultaneous events .
.... events? 5imultaneous .. " ..
Yes. Albert points out that any measurement of
time uses "the idea of simultaneous events.
We have to understand that all our
judgments in which time plays a
part are always judgments of
simultaneous events. If, for
instance, I say "That train arrives
here at 7 0' clock" I mean
something like this: "The pointing
of a small hand of my watch to 7
and the arrival of the train are
simultaneous events."
A\bert arqued ihat simultaneous events in one frome
of referer1te would nO(Iloces5cwily be simultaneous
when viewed from 0 dittereni fmnie.
Albert called this the RELATIVITY OF
SIMULTANEITY
8\bert suqqests. ihat we try to picture his argument
In terms <fa rmm....
. as ihe moving nome of reference and the
roilwoy embankment as the sTationary Frome
of reference.
109
110
ow we co0 put them together. Let's hove 0 passenger
car too. MIke.
/'/
(I
{ '-( ,
(f i( {('
There. Now imogine that someone in the center ofthe
pgs5enger car Holds adevice which can send out a beam
of light in the forward direction and atihe same time
a beam oflight in the backward direction.
1/ 1/
---F
((If(/'/-/(((If 111,((7((1 ((ff j; 1/0i
l
/' (t/(;
1/ r II I ..-
nd we furTher imagine ihat iherront door and back
door can be opened automatically byrne \i9ht beams.
"t.~ ,
e
~ ~ 1hen to the person holding -the device thedoors
of the passenqer car will eoen simultaneously.
But to a person 6n the embanK.ment, ~ b e r r Ol'"qU6S,
tne bock door will open before the front dOdr/
111
~ e e ? Becouse for fue stationor'\' ~ r o o n s
the back door moves fOrward to rrieet the
Iiqhi Prul
5
e, whi Ie 1tle" froni door moves
away from fhe light pulse.
o
112
Bu1 which is it?
Do thedoors
open atthe
5ame time or
don'they?
You better give us
a chance to get used to ihis.
Events which are simultaneous with
reference to the train are not
simultaneous with respect to the
embankment and vice versa.
hat's ihe point Since "the speed of lighi to be the
same for both frames, Albert argues fhot. 0


>
ake a more common sense example: distancetraveled.
Imagine that our pereon
thin1he
middle ofihe carriage
gets up and goes 10 e front door.

Hang 00.
. :J)
@l J OKay.
113
ow, how for h05 our imaginary person gone?
Relative to thetrain ihe person has
gone J1. a car length.
But relative to the embankment the
person hos gone farther.
- - - - ~
Distance
gone
IS a
relative
measure.
So you see, Albert argues that elapsed time is a relative measure also. To
the person in the passenger car the opening of the doors is simultaneous; the
time elapsed between the opening of the front door and the opening of the
back door is zero.
But to the person on the embankment the time elapsed between the
opening of the doors is not zero and depends on howfast the train is moving.
114
An observer in the train
measures the interval by
marking off his measuring
rod in a straight line.
(This is the length measured
by the moving observer)
But it is a different matter
when the distance has to be
judged from the
embankment.
Next, Albert argues, isihe
relativity ofthe measurement
of length.
Albert asks'fwhat is
the length a ihe
passenger car?
115
Riqh.t Albert argues ihatto measure the length ofthe
cat as seen from the embankment, we have to
mark the positions on ihe embankment which are
being passed b ~ the front door and the bock door
at the same timeT-as judqed fromthe embankment.
The distance between ffiese points istnen
tneasured with a measuring rod.
(This is the length of the car as measured by the stationary observer)
116
Ibert says:
It is by no means evident that this last measurement will supply us with the same result
asthe first.
Thus, the length of the train as measured from the embankment may be different from
that obtained by measuring in the train itself.
Albert the ground for a reconsider-
arion or Newton's analysis of space time t:t motion.
Classical mechanics assumes
"that: 1
The time interval
between events if> independent
oF-the motion of the observer.
ZThe spoce interval
(length) ofd bact' is .
inde8endent offue motion
of the observer.
Unjusiiflable!
11'1
ffewton 6aY{
Spoce and time Intervals
ore. absolute ond the speed
of light is relative.
Albert replaces Newton's metaphysical absolutes, the constructs of absolute space and
time, with a material absolute: there are no instantaneous interactions in nature!
Albert's contribution was dramatic because it so fundamentally challenged the
framework of classical physics that had been accepted for the previous 200 years.
dossicol _ perfect
___\[_HtjJr------J
118
50?
Howdoes
this
affCt us?
Quite rilrlht There's
no neecrto get
mat excited about
relativity just
a bunch
at got
excited by IT.
Relativity theory had nothing to do with the development
of the A-bomb. TheAnti-Nuclear Handbook tells the story.
And we'll discuss this again later.
Meanwhi Ie lets see what ihe-rest of
Alberts argument consists or,
119
Ibert didn't just argue that space andtime intervals
neededto Be reformulated. He showed how
to do it.
Albert's program:
To find a place and time of an event
relative to the railway embankment when
we know the place and time of the event
with respect to the train
suchthat
Every ray of light possesses the speed c
relative to both the embankment and the
train.
Since we ore about
rneceurernenrs ofdlstances
and time, we are talk'ina
about numbers. Alber"E
needs to use the
troditional of
numbers to it
come our right
120
~ he nmtsfep ofcwrse was counung.
lhere aro at least 1 more dinosaurs
qround here. We'd better iell
me others.
Tallyinq has been dated t9 30,000 B.c.They used
scmtcnee on bones to do It
((111
1
II}!I I/J(I VII;))!)} JIII;}l;' 1ft) IJ
And the next big step' was measurement, which got
its real start wittllhe riseof the cities.
121
II
Hey tnan,howfur is "It to Gizeh?
he Eqyptian ruler-priests needed measures of
distance..Lorea, volume and weight 10 ossess taxes
and run me state.
We'\1 need
o lot more
groin and
beer to
feed ihis
lot.
122
. ,
",
.::
, ' .
.. .
. '. ' .
.. ,.
- ......
Anyway, "\he
Bobvloriion
and Sumerian
priests
gotrather
qood at
<:lriihmetic
starting
about 3000B.C.
. .
:':.: .:. :..:...::...=....::', :'.",: :: ..::::.:;:
Hiero -glyph
=priest's writing
" .....
" ..
; .. ' ".
o ~ e e p records of what "they were doinq they hod
to write down -the accounts. 50 written l"Iumerals
were 1he next step. And 1tlis if> where mathematics
beqon 10 qet mystitled. Because 1he priests kepr
wrlnng torfnemselves.
1
2
3
t fret fuey wrotetheir numbers like -this
y ~ 1 and <. = 10
50 a number like.59 would be written
- < ~ ~ ~ ~ =59
, VVy
But later "the Baby-Ionions developed the first place
system fOr numbers.
They used a base of 60
If II 1Y
2x60x60 + LX 60 +- 2. ... 7322
or: r322 = TX(lOX lOX 10) +3 x(lox10) + zx 10 +2
The Babylonians hod as good a computation
system 05 ours.
Youowe me
yyyy
bushels
of wheat
lhots Il2
bushels
too mony.
12.t
mowa skill developed in isololion fbr centuries by a
special qroup, otpeople .may become somewhotborinq.
By 1900- e . ~ . 1heBabylonians hod made up lars of litHe
. pfo15lems lor their own instruction andamusement.
This was -the beginning of ALGEBRA
lhev. wrote
it 011 down
on clay-
tablet 5
Babylonian inblet.1)ooBG.
wilh algebra equation
on It
Of course it was not exactly what we now use.
The Babylonians didn't hove. olqebroic
P
ot at ion. (That hod to wait tor me rise of the
slam and Hindu merchant closs)
hat "the Babylonians did was to pose on obstroct
problem0 0 0 0
Find the
-=::;:::----U 5ide of
a square if
the area
less -than
the side
is l4-x60
t
3
0
(V
o
o
00 0 0 and ihen give-the
detailed 5teps to me solution
r Take hair rf
one .and
mUltlQly by
half of one.
L
Now add half of
one and the
result ie 30, the
side oFthe square.
126
hile what we do now is write
x:-x .. 870 -+ X +VCiY"+ 870' :: .30
lheres noT much difference really. In focT we solve
equations on modern computers with ex
oc
11yihe
some method hrst used by me
bobyloruon pne5rs.
To run: enter 810
enter 1
hit start
divide1bXl and
sToreit,multir?ly
andadd870,
ml<e the squore
....... root, recallt
and add it.
Ans, '"'30'
2
DIV
5TO 1
ENTE.R
MUL.T
PLUS
f
-r:
RC L 1
PLUS
RTN
. , .
rom here Its a blq
Jump to the GreeKs who came up
with the Idea of
-= .
121
PROOF
Some soy it was the Greek legol system ihat
paved the way.
PYrhogora5 is soid
to hove token up .
Egvptlqn, Babylonian
and O'llnese results
and tried (with h'15
followers) to prove-thern.
......,"ru ..'u ~ S ~ o 1 B C .
'iB't;C
J
I
mystic,mathematicJan.
showmen.
128
famou5 example is the Py1hogoreanTheorem.
Remember this from echooI ?
The square on -the hypotenuse equals -the sum
of the squares on t h ~ other two sides.
. . . and we mean: Take the length of side Cand multiply it by
,. itself. This gives the area of square C. Do the same for squares
Aand B.
keep this in mind-
Albert will use it later.
129
ny-how, Greek
mathematIcs
fell into thehands
of Plato.
Plato used
mathematIcs
as an l.Q.
test.....
. .. and he had
ihese weird
rules about whQt
waspermitted In
"\hot
rnys1iti eo every-
one for Q longTIme.
reek mathematicians labored for centuries -trying to
rrisecl an onqle .with only a compass
and a eiraighLedge 0 000 ---
,
Why dont
we just
meosure it?
000 0 end "thor was
where
matters
stood unti II
!he Hirdus
invented
our modern
algebra.
Ary.obhato{A.D.410) wrote down all the Hindu methods of
multiplicotlon, long division and alQebra ihat we use
today. They made up -the Bab>:lonlons)
to herp "them with colculotions of fuxatlon, debt and
interest.
Amerchant

au on
ceraln
at
different
places.
At the first
he gives -s of
his,qoods,
at me second
# of what he
has left and
atthe third
'3 ofihe
remainder.
The total
eguol?
24 cOins.
what
had
he ot
frer ?
x=-
1
;l.
3
21" ::.
X ::.
what he hod
at first
gives up
gl:ves up C.
gives up
-!.ox. +J.. X. ojo.Lx.
" 6 6
36COinS
13
2
eanwhlle Medieval Europe wallowed in the throes cf
the Age of Faith until .0 0 0
u f :o\rth -tt> you I
mW
o
The Renoi6sance. ~
Mary' ie 24years
old. Mary is
mice 05 old as
Ann was when
Mary was as
old 65 Ann 's now.
How old is Ann?
ask /
Ann.
Now improved mathemqtics was needed tor
astronomy, for noviqotion , fOr gunnery, for
ship'buildinq, fOr hyaraulic engineering. for
building technology.
50there come: Algebraic notation Vieta (1580)
Decimals stevinus (1585)
Logarithms Napier (161-+)
Slide rule Gunter (1620)
AnalyTic geometry Descorres(te37)
Adding machine Pascal (1642)
Calculus NewTon (1665)
calculus Lei bniz. 0 6 S ~ )
133
f course ihere has been 0 long histor:Y c! nomber
mystics who were very Impreosea with1helr own
cleverness 0000
.00 0 ond who forgot
the onqinol impulses
"that led themto
mathematics
in thefirst place.
Hertz:
us divine number, who
generated Gods and men.
f\lumber containest the
root and source of
eternally flowing creation."
rr (Jad ever geometrizes It
lIThe book ofihe Universe
is wri1ten in molhemoticol
language" without which
one wanders.in vain throv9h
a dork, labyrlnth.
55
re One cannot escapethe
fuelinqthat Theoo
mathematicaI funnulas
haye an independent
eXIstence and intelliqence
of their own, thatffleyore
wiser than we am. wiser even ihan
-theirdiscoverers.mot we get
rnor:e outef'themthan was
orisinally put ,Onto them."
Plato:
Galileo:
Ann
15
18
yoors
old
134
-( p5SST.. ,.. ever since111e mattlematicians have started
on relativity, I myself no longer understand it.'
But in mo1hemarics is only a Iqnqu9Qe
invented by humanIbelnqs to describe and
and re atiol16hips between meosuroble
ttl1n95.
And ihat's.exactly how Albe.rt used moth 0 0 to express
the relaTionshIp between the place and time cfon event
in relotion to-the embankment when we know ire ploce
andi1me of the event with respect tothe train.
And now let's have that passenger car O!jQin Mike.
13
5
Actually this pa5senger car is abit complex" can we
have oomelhing 0 Iitle simpler lookin.9?
Thafs better. You knowJwe could do awoy with ihe car
altoqether and just "IndIcate a moving frame of reference.
HoW"about trylf'1g that?
136
X' isthe distance along
me CQr.
y'is the distance
upthe car.
v i5 the speed of the
moving frame.
y'? > V
x
here,that's Now we have a moving finme of
reference yx .
And a stationary frame of reference x 1r
rx isihe distance along the embonkment
zr ismdistance up the embankment
y' m > V
x:
x
Which corresponds to ihe p056e!]qer car and the
emboDkment. We marl< ,an eyent inlfIe movlrJQ fume by its
coordinotes y'x'and t and we mark ffle same
event In:fue J.sTationary trame by \ts coordinates ti- x
and Its ttrf1e-t-, a
Albert noworgues(u.5lng
olqebra) thafthe relationship
between the coordinates
ofevents in "the two
systems is
x' = x-vt
VI-V/
c
2.'

, ;..::L
t ,. 1.- - C,.X

137
The sy5lem of
on page137
15 Known by
'My name.
19fj-(3fB
Dutchiheoretlcol
discovered the .
senior 51otesmon of
phxsics end friend
Of Einstein.
Right. Now we must show what's going on here 0 tJ 00 0
Imooine ihat both frome5 df reference ore at rest
(rslofive to each other ofeourse).
And we hove two idenhccl rather specIQI docks
in them (designed byihe U.s. physicr5r R.P.feyrnman).
X'
x
138
1he liqht bulb gives out regular pulses
ofliqm- which qo up tottle mi rrortjqet
retlocted and ....bounce bark to ~
counter which goes dickfclick.
y'
S'
Now we imagine
that the s' system
is qiven a verocity
V50tnat it if> a
movinq system
W"lttl respect to
ire SY6tem.e.
-eut -the stationary
observer, /C).
\ooking at fue
moving 5'clock
sees someihin9
completely
different.
The observer in
s' Bees her clock
work exactly
the eorre as
when she was
at reer,
v-+
5'-+
x
y
otherwise ihe principle of relativity would be
wrong.If her clock chonqed when she was moving
she could then tell she 'NQS moving by notiCln9
ihe change.
14-0
Mov'lng frame of reference 5 as seen bythe coservenn-c'
PULSE
EMITTED
",,=--=, I
l fEV}
,--- n "" n j
D1 &1
PULSE
AP>50RBED
Albert points out
that the veloeity
of Iiqht isthesome
fur c:r1\ observers.
Thus ihe stationary
observer hears
more time elapse
between clicks on
the moving dock
thononthestatlonary
dod<. because ofthe
longer m.th leqqth
a5 seen tramme
qround. AIber-tsoys
movinqcocks run
slower-than I
stationary decks.
AND we am
derive a
formula from
the
difference.
Oh let
him
finish at
leo6t
141
Dorit have a nervous breakdown.
8 go.lowly
b use pencil8nd peper
c get 8 friend to come 810ngl
The Key Terms:
v = the speed of the moving frame
t' = the time between clicks in the moving
frame
= the time between clicks in the
stationary frame
c = the speed of light
n
The time, t', between clicks in the moving
frame is the time the light takes to reach
the mirror Lieplus the time it takes to
return, again LIe.
I 2L
sot=C
DO
EJ
But the time, t, between clicks as heard in
the stationary frame is the time it takes
light to travel the triangular path, h.
,...-------T
L i
,...-------,
L... J
1ft
D Now in the time t. the moving frame
moves a distance d. And d = vt,
r------.....,
l- -J
!DO
I
DO
I
And nowwe can use the 1500-year-old
Pythagorean Theorem (on page 129).
Remember? "The square on the
hypotenuse equals the sums of the
squares on the other two sides."
o
But we just saw that h
h is related to t: t 2
c
or h= c
2
t
d is related to t: d= vt or J. d= .l.vt
2. 2
Lis related to t': t' = 2L or L= ct'
C 2
mSo what we got before (h2 = (Y2 d)2 +L2)
can nowbe substituted for:
( ~ r = ( l vtY +(1)2
nd if we want to
solve for what t
eguoIs we get
An astronaut goes off in a rocket at 8/10 the speed of light relative to the Earth. After 30
years has elapsed on the rocket how much time has elapsed on Earth?
t I , the time elapsed on the rocket = 30 yrs.
v, the speed of the rocket = .8c
So with Albert's formula
or
30yrs
t=
V
'36
=
6
= 50JYS.
elapsed
onEorth.
Nowstopand decide if you feel like reading it through once more.
Albert '. conclusion i. . .
14t
5 itlec1oe;:,k is moving
WITn velocitv v; 50 thetime
elapses between two elrokes 01
"the dock is nor onesecond
but 1 seconds.
y 1-V 2.1c2 '
i.e. a somewhat longer time. As a
consequence cf tHe motion, the
dock qoes more slowly than
when 6T rest. 55

fo L-__:::::=,===- _
find out about
relativity, didn't you?
What Albert achieved was a glimpse into howthe world looks when things
move at close to the speed of light. This is so far removed from everyday
experience that it takes a certain amount of work to visualize it.
But remember, Albert was led to this picture by a desire to understand how
electric and magnetic forces propagate. He realized that the new area of
experience represented by Maxwell's equations required deep modifications
of the ideas based on the old area of experience represented by Newton's
laws.
115
ow all we have to show is how "the velocities come
our right.
Yes, you remember
ever,y observer must
seeme some velcx:;:lty
of Iiqht no matter.
how1hey are moving
O'n a sTeady' way
of course).
Mike, lets have our passenger car agoin.
Good, Now we imagl'l1e that our
person inthe middIed fhe car
get5 up and wall<s to"the front door
at a rate of w=3 mHesper hour. We
further imagine that the trom is
moving at velocity of vc 2D miles
per hour.
50?
146
50
what
do
we
do?
ell, how fast is .
our person moving U. WIth
respect to the embankment?
2 ' V + W ' 2 0 + ~ :Ph?
1hat's riqht (almost).
But AI berr tells us ihat
the distances and times
measured on thetrain
ore not the same as the
distances and times
rneosured onthe
embankment
~ @
I ~ ~ .. ~
:i
Well ,10 toke relativity inro account
we. just have to be very precise.
In reality when we say mot a
person walks or 3 miles per hour
with respect to -the train we mean
that thej cover "the distance
10 the front door Xin atimet where
xandt are measured on thetrain, right ?
147
nd we know that distances and times as measured on
-the train are not the some as when measured from the
embankment, right?
50 what we need todoisto convertx'ondt.os measured
onthe train into x, and t as measured on the embankment
DoinathisAI bert shows }hat the velocity Uof the person as
seenrrom the ground 15 gIven by
V+W
u=---
1+Y.J!J!
C
2
50 you see the velocity of the person with reepecr to
the ground ischanged Just alittle from zo-ymp.h.
U
= 20miles!hr+ 3miles!hr
1+20X3
(Velocity of light)
2
Nqw the velocity of liqht is very great, 186,000
miles per second .so fhot the Correction
is very small ordinarily.
149
.~
ut lets try me formula when ihetrain goes atthe speed
of light
C
Now imagine "that our person sends out 0 light flash to
the front of -the train.
What, according to Alberts formula, isthe velocity of
the light flash wi1il respect tothe ground?
~ ~ r v e
U= V+W
1+
VW
C2
In-this case V velocity ofihe train-C
and W velocity of the liqht flash
with respect 10ltle irain= C
so U the velocity ofthe Iight Flash
'yVith respect to the ground
15 u- c+c 2C CI
- 1 CC = 2 =
+ C2
15
0
It's a neat formula. Albert has shown that his proposed
modifications of space and time intervals lead to a new
formula for the addition of velocities. The newformula
expresses the newfact: there are no instantaneous
interactions in nature, nothing can go faster than the speed of
light.
Don't get worried. Among physicists there's asaying: "You
never really understand a newtheory. You just get used to it,"
Understanding is based on experience and it is difficult to
accumulate experience about things moving near the speed
of lightl (Unless you're a worker on high-speed particles.)
151
<
, Ibert now has to enow what happens when you try to
get an object to exceed thespeed of light.
lhls is how Albertargue5:
To get on oblect moving you've got
to apply a force.
_______ Force sTrength, power 13C.
bodyof'
armed men 14c.
strong,2roducing
a powertuIeffect 16c.
From Latin
AD.200 orearlier
fortis 5trong
or a kick
152.
.J:n physics force
IS an6ther
word for 0 0 0 0
interaction!
('
To get really fast
youye got togive it lots oPrllts'
or a constant steady push, say, by an engine..
There are lots of prccncol difftculties in applying a large
steady force to an object. Air resistance.
Mechanical breakdown.
Running out of Fuel.
153
We imagine apply a steady
force to Q pqr1icle
(which we coil an electron).
NOoNo.
Electrons
ore much
smaller. Oh
well. Never
mind.
ut Albert is concerned with Q peeper difficultv. Iffthere
ore no instantaneou5 interactions in nature arid i -the
speed of liqht isthe fastest you can go, what exactly
does on object storts to appoach
the speea at I'gh ? ,
Wow.
Does it explode ?!?
No. Waitand see.
15t
hen on oQjeet picks up
epeed we soy 'It accelerates.
It was Newton who
postulated a connection
between force
and acceleration.
Oh, stop I
6howing off.
Hey,what aboutM a c h ~
anti Hertz's critlcism?
Newton eoid F=mo. Or a=F/m. The occelerorion,,
i ~ proportional to the applied force, F,and is
inversel,y' p,rovoriionaJ to the mass, m(0150 coiled
me inerTia) or the object
lhe biqqer the force the faster it picks up speed . "The
bigg.errhe mass or inertia itle harder it isto getit
moving fast.
Some call
it the
"power to ,
weight ratio."
155
t is easier to get a light car rolling than a loaded
true\<..
But we'I\ return to theconcept of mass or
j nertia in a moment
000' leading to E=mc
2
?
1 If the electron is at rest then its subsequent motion is
given by F= rna.
15
6
2 But suppose the electron already has a speed v?
Then the electron is at rest with respect to a frame of
reference S' moving with velocity v with respect to S.
)
Fl=t
u )
s'
I---+-----------....j} S' ismoving
15
stationary
Relative to S', the electron has an acceleration a= F/m (because the electron is at rest
relative to S').
Ah hOI Albert uses -the Lorentz
rronsformction
(see page131 )
Right. Albert knows howto find the place
and time of an event with respect to the
embankment S, when he knows the place
and time of the event with respect to the train S'.
151
heevent in fuis case is -the acceleration ofthe electron.
Here'. what happen.:
1 Theelectron goes faster because of the force
but
2 In the frame where the electron is at rest the time over which the force acts gets
smaller and smaller compared to the stationary frame (moving clocks run slow,
remember?)
80
3 In the frame where the electron isat rest the force acts for a shorter and shorter time,
the closer the electron gets to the speed of light. As seen from the ground the electron
hardly has time to get pushed at all!
Wow. You qive relativity your
little fi'nge'r and itiokes
your whole arm!
F
a=-
M
NEWTON'S FORMULA
1686
Compared
to mx / ~ - - - r \ " - - ~
old one.
Y ~ ~ K ~ ~ W
one
(195)
AI bert expresses the process by a concrete
new forrnula.
EINSTEIN'S FORMULA
1905
Once again,
the new formula
re-expresses the new fact:
There are no instantaneous interactions in nature.
Nothing can go faster than the speed of light.
Albert's fonnula shows that when
V-C, a-zerol So evenif you
keep on pushing, theelectron
doesn't pick upany more speed.
What
does
it
mean?
The meaning is 'relatively' straightforward.
If you push on an object with a force and"it hardly picks up any speed at all, you say it has
a lot of inertia!
Thus asthe electron approaches the speed of light it appears to get heavier and heavier
because it becomes harder and harder to increase its speed.
159
160
Ah, /
energy.
The definitionof energygoes back
again to Newton's Laws.
1 When a force, F, acts on a body of mass, m,
for a distance, d. it is useful to say that work,
W, has been done on the body.
2 The work, W, is assigned a value W= Fd.
3 By using F= ma you can show that the work as
defined by W = Fd is exactly equal to Y, mv
2.
4 The expression Y, mv
2
is also given a name. It
is called the kinetic &nergy of the body.
6 The more work (Fd) you put into pushing a
body, the more kinetic energy (y, mv
2)
it gets.
AI bert now says
erWait a minute."
We can Rut in -the work
( W= Fd) but ihebody
doesn't pickup sf?eed
in tne some way. Why?
Because now
F
- .;....m,;..:..o.-,,-,-_
- (1- ~ ~ ) ~
,
Its all a
naminq qpme
c.onneCteti up
by f=ma!
50Alberfs modification leads to Q new
formula. The worknow equals;
Me2. 1 Ilk Jr-----J..2.-----'
W= (1_ - t ~ ) 1 - M C ~ . W= 2mv
Alberts formu10 Newton's formula
161
lbert i5 5Cltisned. He concludes 0 000
When v=c, W becomes infinite. Velocities
greater than that of light have - as in our
previous results - no possibility of existence.
C ... speed of light
V -velocity
W-work
REMEMBER:
00 0., instead of going fOster andfaster
itgets heavier andheavier!
50 even iFyou gave a rocket 1 , O O O , o o o ~ o o o , 0
3,0
00
,000,000,000 ,000,000 ,00 0 .0
0
o, 000,000, 000.000.000,000. 000, 0
p:P.ooopoo,ooo .000,000,000,000,000,000 po
I .
b
00. 000 foot Rounds of thrust, it would still be
going less tilan lhe speed of light!
162.
[Jut that's not all.
If work goes into
giving me .
Dody more inertIa. o'
00. then inertia
must contain energy!
Yes. Albert says we need a new definition of energy. The old Newtonian one
(k.e. = Y, mv
2)
is only good for speeds much less than the speed of light.
50000
1 m ~
Albert has shown (page 161) that the work W equals (1- V
2/
c
2)
Y, - mc
2
2 mc
2
So Albert says let's call the quantity (1_ V2/
c2)
y, the energy Eof the electron.
3
Then, with this definition of energy, Albert's formula reads E= W + MC2
What Alberrsays i5ooo6ven if W=zero, Ifyou If
- don'tput in any workat a .,
menthe electron sri" has an
energy equo] to
Not quite l i ~ e this .
Albert wosnt
afraid to
reach for
a simple
qeneral I
conclusion!
And to show howit could work: he w r o ~ t e q
litile 3 PJgB poper in 1905 called .... :
" ()
I!!I"
164
DOESTHE IN.ERTIA
OF A BODY DEPENDON ITS
ENERGYCONTENn
Albert's argument in this paper isn't a proof.
You can't prove a definition. All you can do isshowthat is makes sense.
So without driving ourselves crazy with more formulas, here's what Big AI is driving at:
the old definition of work (W = Fd). combined with
the new fact, nothing can go faster than the speed of light expressed by
F
mq h
::. (l-V}(}) 12 meanst at
:!J the woe' go", into makinq the body heavier. Theretore
work adds to the inertia of a body and by implication inertia has energy
and to make it CONCRETE ...
othe relationship between enerqv and inertia is E-me2
But remember ... nobody really knows what inertia is -
or why objects have it in the first place!
165
Albert iust argued thotenergy has ineriiaand inertia
has errergy.
Hedjdn!t sqy anything about howtogetlhe energy
out In 111e first place.
E= MC2 is not (as some folks think) the formula for the A-bomb.
Remember, Albert proposed relativity in 1905. The A-bomb
project began in 1939. Nuclear physics was developed by other
scientists, like Joliot Curie, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard.
Szilard in 1934came up with the idea ofthe "chain
reaction" release of atomic energy.
Szilard wrote a famous letter, 2 August 1939, to President
Roosevelt, which Einstein signed. Roughly, this letter said:
Nuclear energy is here. Scientists in Nazi Germany are also
working on it. Plainly, it isa decisive strategic weapon.
The President must decide what to do about it.
Later, after the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Albert
said: "If I knewthevwere going to do this, I would have become
a shoemaker!"
166
Einstein won the Nobel Prize in'
1921and became a popular
world figure.
Hmmm,
gravity and
electricity
must be
related
somehow.....
AI, here's your
Nobel Prize
money.
Albert made other fundamental contributions to physics. His general theory of
relativity (1916) was a new relativistic theory of gravitation which replaced Newton's
old theory.
And Albert was.a central figure in the debates raging round the quantum theory -
a new theory of the electron.
Albert's materialist questioning attitude had encouraged a younger generation of
research-workers to overthroweven more of classical Newtonian physics.
16'T
These researchers went so far as to throwout the rules of cause-and-effect.
(Essentially, they said you couldn't know for sure where an electron would go when
you hit it. All you could say was where it "probably" would go!)
Albert didn't approve of this at all.
Albert,
quantum
theory
seems
such a
good
way to
vnderstond
the
electron.
Why won't
you
accept
it ? I .
Danish phY5icist
and rounder of the
"Cppenhoqen School n
ofquontum theory.
Up to his death in 1955Einstein was active, opposing McCarthyism, working with
Bertrand Russell on disarmament, and still worrying about howto unify electricity
and gravity. It may still be done!
166
Albert wasa radical and a Jew. He never lost his political
perspective and his consciousness of being a member of an
oppressed ethnic minority.
This statement on socialism, part of a longer analysis,
appeared in the U.S. magazine Monthly Review in 1949...
-
The situation prevailing in an economy based on the private ownership of capital is
characterized by two main principles: first, means of production (capital) are privately
owned and the owners dispose of them as they seefit; second, the labor contract isfree.
Of course, there is no such thing asapure capitalist society in this sense. In particular
it should be noted that the workers, through long and bitter political struggles, have
succeeded in securing a somewhat improved form of the of the 'free labor contract' for
certain categories of workers. But taken as a whole, the present day economy does not
differ much from 'pure' capitalism.
Production is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those able
and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an 'army of
unemployed' always exists. The worker is always in fear of losing his job. Technological
progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than easing the burden of
work for all. The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is
responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to
increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor
and to a crippling of the social consciousness of individuals.
This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole
educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is
inculcated into the student who istrained to worship acquisitive success asa
preparation for his future career.
I am convinced that there is only one way to elimi nate these grave evils, namely
through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational
system which would be oriented toward social goals.
P. A. Schlipp, ed., ALBERT EINSTEIN,
PHILOSOPHER - SCIENTIST, Library
of Living Philosophers, Evanston, III.
1949. The closest thing to an
autobiography. .
Carl Seelig, ALBERT EINSTEIN: A
DOCUMENTARY BIOGRAPHY, Staples
Press Ltd., London 1956.
MORE RECENTWORKS ARE:
R. W. Clark, EINSTEIN, THE L1FEAND
TIMES, Hodderand Stoughton,
London/ Avon, New York 1971. Lots of
facts ruined by the author's thinly veiled
hostility to Einstein's politics.
Lewis S. Feuer, EINSTEIN AND THE
GENERATIONS OF SCIENCE, Basic
Books, New York 1974. The first book to
confront the politics of the times in any
depth. But Feuer's bitter opposition to
the student rebellions of the 1960shas
produced an odd and unworkable theory
of generational conflict asthe moving
force in science.
C. P. Snow, VARIETY OF MEN,
Scribners, New York 1971. A nice
portrait from an elitist vantage point.
BOOKS ABOUT RELATIVITY
There are thousands. The trick isto find
ones that seem to make sense and stick
with them. Working from three or four at
once can be helpful. But there's no
substitute for talking the ideas over with
friends.
I have based my own presentation on
Einstein's 1905paper and on his popular
book which closely follows the outline of
the 1905paper.
A. Einsteinefal., THEPRINCIPLEOF
RELATIVITY, Dover, New York 1952. A
collection of papers on special and
general relativity.
A. Einstein, RELATIVITY, Methuen,
London 1916/Crown, New York 1961,
J. Bernstein, EINSTEIN, Fontana, Collins
Glasgow/New York 1973. An overview
of all of Einstein'S work.
L. Landau and Y. Rumer, WHAT IS THE
THEORY OF RELATIVITY?, MIR
Publishers, Moscow 1970/Basic Books,
New York 1971. A popular Soviet
account.
If you're not put off by the math,
textbooks can be quite helpful because
the accounts are nice and brief. Here are
another two somewhat advanced but
useful books:
THE FEYNMAN LECTURES ON
PHYSICS, volume 1, Addison Wesley,
London/Reading, Mass. 1963. Chapters
15-16contain Feynman'scomments
about relativity.
L. Landau and E. Lifschitz, THE
CLASSICAL THEORY OF FIELDS,
Addison Wesley, London/Reading,
Mass. 1951. A graduate level text, but
pages 1-4are an exceptionally clear
outline of the theory.
ADDITIONAL BACKG ROUND
READING
(0) advanced texts
W. Abendroth, A SHORT HISTORY OF
THE EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS,
New Left Books, London 1965/Monthly
Review, New York 1972.
E. Anderson, HAMMER OR ANVIL: The
Story of the German Working Class
Movement, Victor Gollancz, London
1945/0riole Editions, New York 1973.
E. T. Bell, THE DEVELOPMENT OF
MATHEMATICS, McGraw-Hili,
London/New York, 1940.
J. D. Bernal, THE SOCIAL FUNCTION
OF SCIENCE, MIT Press, 1967.
G. Barraclough, ORIGINS OF MODERN
GERMANY, Blackwell, Oxford
1947/Putnam, New York 1973.
C. B. Boyer, A HISTORY OF
MATHEMATICS, Wiley, London/New
York,l968.
R. Courant and H. Robbins, WHAT IS
MATHEMATICS?, Oxford Univ. Press,
London/NewYork,1941.
H. Cuny, ALBERT EINSTEIN, Souvenir
Press, Paris 1961.
P. Dunsheath, A HISTORY OF
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, Faber and
Faber, London 1962/MIT, 1969.
A. Einstein, LETTRES A MAURICE
SOLOVINE, GauthierVillars, Paris 1956.
ENCYCLOPEDIA JUDAICA, Macmillan,
Jerusa lem 1971.
* J. D. Jackson, CLASSICAL
ELECTRODYNAMICS, Wiley,
London/ New York 1972.
H. G. Garbedian, ALBERT EINSTEIN
MAKER OF UNIVERSES, Funk and
Wagnalls, NewYork 1939.
C. C. Gillespie, ed., DICTIONARYOF
SCIENTIFIC BIOGRAPHY, Scribners,
New York 1972.
B. Hoffman, ALBERT EINSTEIN,
CREATOR AND REBEL, Hart Davis,
LondonlViking Press, New York 1972.
* M. Jammer, CONCEPTS OF MASS,
Harper Torchbooks, New York 1964.
*F. A. Jenkinsand H. E. White,
FUNDAMENTALS OF OPTICS,
McGraw-Hili, London/NewYork 1965.
D. K. C. MacDonald, FARADAY,
MAXWELL AND KELVIN, Anchor
Books, New York 1964.
P. W. Massing, REHEARSAL FOR
DESTRUCTION: AStudy of Political
Anti-Semitism, Harpers, New York 1949.
oW. D. Niven ed., THE SCIENTIFIC
PAPERS OFJAMES CLERK
MAXWELL, Dover, New York 1965.
V.1. Lenin, IMPERIALISM, THE
HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM,
Foreign Languages Press, Peking. 1965.
* A. O'Rahilly, ELECTROMAGNETICS,
Longmans GreenandCo., London 1938.
* W. K. H. Panofsky and M. Phillips,
CLASSICAL ELECTRICITY AND
MAGNETISM, Addison Wesley,
London/Reading. Mass. 1955.
E. J. Passant, A SHORT HISTORY OF
GERMANY 1815-1945, Cambridge Univ.
Press, Cambridge/New York, 1959.
oW. Pauli, THETHEORYOF
RELATIVITY, Pergamon, New York
1921.
P. G. J. Pulzer, THE RISEOF POLITICAL
ANTI-SEMITISM IN GERMANY AND
AUSTRIA, Wiley, London/NewYork
1964.
E. Sagarra, A SOCIAL HISTORY OF
GERMANY 1648-1914, Methuen,
London 1977.
H. Schwab,JEWISH RURAL
COMMUNITIES IN GERMANY, Cooper
Book Co., London 1956.
* A. Sommerfeld,
ELECTRODYNAMICS, Academic Press,
London/NewYork 1952.
F. Stern, GOLD AND IRON, Georg,e
Allen and Unwin, London/Knopf, New
York 1977.
D. Struik, A CONCISE HISTORY OF
MATHEMATICS,3rded., Dover, NY 1967.
* E. F. Taylor and J. A. Wheeler,
SPACETIME PHYSICS, W. H. Freeman,
London/San Francisco 1963.
* S. Weinberg, GRAVITATION AND
COSMOLOGY, Wiley, London/New
York 1972.
1;3