[Gutenberg 63372] • Einstein's Theories of Relativity and Gravitation / A selection of material from the essays submitted in the competition for the Eugene Higgins prize of $5,000 by Bird, J. Malcolm -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

PREFACE Table of Contents Table of Contents I. THE EINSTEIN $5,000 PRIZE

The Donor and the Prize The Judges Three Thousand Words The Competing Essays Looking for the Winner The Winner of the Prize

II. THE WORLD—AND US

Getting Away from the Greek Ideas Relativism and Reality Laws of Nature Concepts and Realities The Concepts of Space and Time The Reference Frame for Space Time and the Coordinate System The Choice of a Coordinate Frame

III THE RELATIVITY OF UNIFORM MOTION

Who Is Moving? Mechanical Relativity The Search for the Absolute The Ether and Absolute Motion The Earth and the Ether A Journey Upstream and Back The Michelson-Morley Experiment The Verdict The “Contraction” Hypothesis Taking the Bull by the Horns Questions of Common Sense Shifting the Mental Gears

IV THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY

Light and the Ether The Measurement of Time and Space The Problem of Communication An Einsteinian Experiment Who Is Right? The Relativity of Time and Space Relativity and Reality Time and Space in a Single Package Some Further Consequences Assumption and Consequence Relativity and the Layman Physics vs. Metaphysics

V THAT PARALLEL POSTULATE

Terms We Cannot Define Laying the Foundation The Rôle of Geometry What May We Take for Granted? And What Is It All About? Euclid’s Geometry Axioms Made to Order Locating the Discrepancy What the Postulate Really Does The Geometry of Surfaces Euclidean or Non-Euclidean

VI THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM

The Four-Dimensional World of Events A Continuum of Points The Continuum in General Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Continua Our World of Four Dimensions The Curvature of Space-Time The Question of Visualization What It All Leads To

VII RELATIVITY

The Mechanical Principle of Relativity The Special Principle of Relativity The Four Dimensional Continuum Gravitation and Acceleration The General Principle of Relativity

VIII THE NEW CONCEPTS OF TIME AND SPACE

A World of Points The Four-Dimensional World of Events Successive Steps Toward Generality Gravitation and Acceleration Einstein’s Time-Space World The Layman’s Last Doubt

IX THE PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY

The Behavior of Light Space and Time The World of Reality Accelerated Motion

X SPACE, TIME AND GRAVITATION

The External World and its Geometry Gravitation and its Place in the Universe Gravitation and Space-Time

XI THE PRINCIPLE OF GENERAL RELATIVITY

Gravitation and Acceleration Paths Through the World of Four Dimensions The Universe of Space-Time

XII FORCE VS. GEOMETRY

The Relativity of Uniform Motion Universal Relativity The Geometry of Gravitation

XIII AN INTRODUCTION TO RELATIVITY

The Electromagnetic Theory of Light The Michelson-Morley Experiment The Lorentz Transformation The First Theory of Relativity The Inclusion of Gravitation

XIV NEW CONCEPTS FOR OLD

The World-Frame The World-Fabric Einstein’s Results

XV THE NEW WORLD

The World Geometry The Genesis of the Theory The Time Diagram

XVI THE QUEST OF THE ABSOLUTE

The Gravitational Hypothesis The Special Relativity Theory

XVII THE PHYSICAL SIDE OF RELATIVITY XVIII THE PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RELATIVITY

The Special Theory and Its Surprising Consequences The Generalization The Tests

XIX EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF RELATIVITY XX EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF GRAVITATION XXI THE EQUIVALENCE HYPOTHESIS XXII THE GENERAL THEORY Colophon

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