Einstein’s Pathway to the Special Theory of Relativity
Einstein’s Pathway to the Special Theory of Relativity
Einstein’s discovery of Special Relativity
Einstein Believes in the Ether
Einstein Chases a Light Beam
Einstein recounts the Aarau thought experiment in his Autobiographical Notes, 1949
Magnet and Conductor Thought Experiment, Faraday’s magneto-electric induction
Föppl’s book on Maxwell’s theory
Ether drift and Michelson and Morley’s experiment
The Role of the Michelson-Morley Experiment on the Discovery of Relativity
The Dayton Miller Experiments
Emission theory and ether drift experiments
Paul Ehrenfest and Walter Ritz. Ritz’s Emission Theory
“The Step”
Einstein defined distant simultaneity physically; relativity of simultaneity
The Kyoto lecture notes – Einstein could have visited and consulted his close friend Michele Besso, whom he thanked at the end of his relativity paper. The Patent Office brought them together – their conversations on the way home. Besso was always eager to discuss the subjects of which he knew a great deal – sociology, medicine, mathematics, physics and philosophy – Einstein initiated him into his discovery
Joseph Sauter – Before any other theoretical consideration, Einstein pointed out the necessity of a new definition of synchronization of two identical clocks distant from one another; to fix these ideas, he told him, “suppose one of the clocks is on a tower at Bern and the other on a tower at Muri (the ancient aristocratic annex of Bern)” – synchronization of clocks by light signals.
Did Poincaré have an Effect on Einstein’s Pathway toward the Special Theory of Relativity? Einstein’s reply to Carl Seelig
Poincaré
Einstein’s pathway to the General Theory of Relativity
Entwurf theory – Einstein-Grossmann theory, Hole argument, field equations and the Einstein-Besso manuscript
Grossmann
Gunnar Nordström develops a competing theory of gravitation to Einstein’s 1912-1913 gravitation theory. Einstein begins to study Nordström’s theory and develops his own Einstein-Nordström theory. In a joint 1914 paper with Lorentz’s student Adrian Fokker – a generally covariant formalism is presented from which Nordström’s theory follows if the velocity of light is constant Here
Nordström
The three problems that led to the fall of the entwurf theory –
The gravitational field on a uniformly rotating system does not satisfy the field equations.
Covariance with respect to adapted coordinate system was a flop.
In the Entwurf theory the motion of Mercury’s perihelion came to 180 rather than 450 per century
The General Theory of Relativity – 1915
David Hilbert Enters the Game, the priority dispute – Einstein and Hilbert
In November 18 1915 Einstein calculated rapidly the precession of Mercury’s
Perihelion
Geodesic Equation. Metric tensor. Einstein’s November 4, 11, and 25 field equations.The Riemann-Christoffel Tensor; the Ricci tensor; the Einstein tensor
von Deinem zufriedenen aber ziemlich kaputen
General Theory of Relativity – 1916
Mid December to Mid January 1915: Exchange of letters between Einstein and Ehrenfest
The disk thought experiment; coordinates have no direct physical meaning Euclidean Geometry breaks down; two Globes Thought Experiment; Mach’s Principle; the principle of general relativity; the Equivalence Principle; the principle of general covariance
The Summation Convention
Motion of the Perihelion of the Planetary Orbit; Redshift; Deflection of light in a gravitational field of the sun
Einstein in the Patent Office:
Michele Besso, Joseph Sauter, and Lucian Chavan – Patent Office, Maurice Solovine and Conrad Habicht – the Olympian Academy
Annus mirabilis papers
On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Generation and Transformation of Light – It argues a heuristic manner for the existence of light quanta and derives the photoelectric law
On a New Determination of Molecular Dimensions – doctoral thesis submitted to the mathematical and natural science branch of Zürich University
On the Movement of Particles Suspended in Fluids at Rest, as Postulated by the Molecular Theory of Heat. The Brownian motion paper
On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. The Relativity Paper
Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on its Energy Content? The first derivation of the mass energy equivalence
German Scientists Responded to Einstein’s Relativity Paper – Max Planck wrote Einstein. Max von Laue met Einstein
Einstein teaches his 3 friends from the Patent Office at the University of Bern
Finally Einstein leaves the Patent Office to his first post in the University of Zürich
Further reading: Stachel, John, Einstein from ‘B’ to ‘Z’, 2002, Washington D.C.: Birkhauser
