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Proving Einstein Right: The Daring Expeditions that Changed How We Look at the Universe
A thrilling adventure story chronicling the perilous journey of the scientists who set out to prove the theory of relativity--the results of which catapulted Albert Einstein to fame and forever changed our understanding of the universe.
In 1911, a relatively unknown physicist named Albert Einstein published his preliminary theory of gravity. But it hadn't been tested. To do that, he needed a photograph of starlight as it passed the sun during a total solar eclipse. So began a nearly decade-long quest by seven determined astronomers from observatories in four countries, who traveled the world during five eclipses to capture the elusive sight. Over the years, they faced thunderstorms, the ravages of a world war, lost equipment, and local superstitions. Finally, in May of 1919, British expeditions to northern Brazil and the island of Príncipe managed to photograph the stars, confirming Einstein's theory.
At its heart, this is a story of frustration, faith, and ultimate victory--and of the scientists whose efforts helped build the framework for the big bang theory, catapulted Einstein to international fame, and shook the foundation of physics.
In 1911, a relatively unknown physicist named Albert Einstein published his preliminary theory of gravity. But it hadn't been tested. To do that, he needed a photograph of starlight as it passed the sun during a total solar eclipse. So began a nearly decade-long quest by seven determined astronomers from observatories in four countries, who traveled the world during five eclipses to capture the elusive sight. Over the years, they faced thunderstorms, the ravages of a world war, lost equipment, and local superstitions. Finally, in May of 1919, British expeditions to northern Brazil and the island of Príncipe managed to photograph the stars, confirming Einstein's theory.
At its heart, this is a story of frustration, faith, and ultimate victory--and of the scientists whose efforts helped build the framework for the big bang theory, catapulted Einstein to international fame, and shook the foundation of physics.
368 pages, Audible Audio
Published September 24, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 27, 2019
Great science writing and storytelling
I loved this book. It has everything I want in great science writing: clearly explained science, lots of history, political background and biographical information. It reads more like a novel than a science book. The authors show a good sense of humor and keep everything conversational. They also get into the personalities involved and their conflicts. I loved the epilogue and even the notes are worth reading. This was just a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
I loved this book. It has everything I want in great science writing: clearly explained science, lots of history, political background and biographical information. It reads more like a novel than a science book. The authors show a good sense of humor and keep everything conversational. They also get into the personalities involved and their conflicts. I loved the epilogue and even the notes are worth reading. This was just a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
November 6, 2022
This is a book about the search for evidence relating to a prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity, namely that a massive body such as the Sun would bend the light of stars visible near the Sun during a total solar eclipse. The story was told well in Jeffery Crelinsten's book Einstein's Jury: the Race to Test Relativity (2006). But Gates (a string theorist) and Pelletier (a novelist) add quite a lot of new information to the story.
Having failed to obtain the crucial data from several eclipses in the early part of the 20th century owing to bad weather during totality or complications of World War I, astronomers were keen to try again with the eclipse of May 29, 1919. The British sent Arthur Eddington and Edwin Cottingham to Principe Island off the coast of West Africa, and they sent Charles Davidson and Andrew Crommelin to Sobral in Brazil. Gates and Pelletier give many new details about how things played out in Brazil and on Principe Island, including many disturbing details about the cocoa plantations on Principe and Sao Tome, where the real work was done by enslaved people brought there from Angola.
On eclipse day the weather on Principe was dodgy. Eddington managed to get only one useful plate. But in Brazil the Sun was visible in clear sky for four of the five minutes of totality, and very useful data were obtained. Victory was declared. Einstein's prediction of light bending, twice as big as Newton's theory gave, was confirmed. Einstein became world famous. Most people were convinced of the results, but not all. Subsequent tests were carried out most significantly using the eclipse of September 21, 1922. In Einstein's Jury Crelinsten elaborates at great length about the people who doubted the results of 1919. It was a debate that continued throughout the 1920s, partly because the Lick Observatory astronomers who got the plates in 1922 spent years working on the data. They did not want to announce preliminary results, only final results. All this waiting opened the door for some people to insist strongly that Einstein's prediction of the gravitational bending of light must be wrong because it was "Jewish science!" Gates and Pelletier's book gives the impression that by 1919 the task was essentially finished, but that was not the case.
There are a number of errors in Gates and Pelletier's book, perhaps because neither one is an observational astronomer. The most significant error is the description of the advance of the perihelion of Mercury, another test of general relativity. The long axis of Mercury's elliptical orbit smoothly rotates in the plane of Mercury's orbit about 1.54 degrees per century. Newton's gravitational theory can account for all but 43/3600 degrees per century of this rotation. Einstein's theory can account for the small difference. On pp. 42, 115, and 239 Gates and Pelletier describe the anomaly as a "wobble" and on p. 239 also describe it as a "glitch." To me wobble means an effect that goes back and forth, regularly, or irregularly. A glitch is a sudden shift that may happen sporadically or only once.
On p. 115 it is stated that an arc second is "comparable to the size of a dime at a distance of 1.3 miles." It is more accurate to say that it is very nearly equal to the angular size of the diameter of a dime viewed at a distance of 2.2 miles. On p. 150 Nova Aquilae is described as a supernova. It wasn't. Novae have explosions but they do not destroy the stars. Individual stars with more than 8 solar masses explode as "core collapose supernovae," leaving behind neutron stars or black holes. Exploding white dwarf supernovae obliterate one or two white dwarf stars in a binary system. On p. 265 we read that there were 62 total eclipses visible on Earth in the 20th century. Using a program based on an algorithm of Jean Meeus, I find that there were 70 total solar eclipses from 1901 through 2000, plus 7 hybrid eclipses (annular at the start and end of the track and total very briefly in the middle). There are a number of other factual or spelling errors that I won't mention here. But judging by the references and end notes of the book, it was extensively researched. Finally, I wish to say that there are some very oddly written sentences. This one from p. 193 is just begging for an editor to rewrite it as two sentences: "It's impossible to know how many bones of enslaved human beings who had worked until they died and were carried, their corpses lashed to poles, into the deep forest by loved ones had been buried on Principe by 1919." That reminds me of the writing style of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Having failed to obtain the crucial data from several eclipses in the early part of the 20th century owing to bad weather during totality or complications of World War I, astronomers were keen to try again with the eclipse of May 29, 1919. The British sent Arthur Eddington and Edwin Cottingham to Principe Island off the coast of West Africa, and they sent Charles Davidson and Andrew Crommelin to Sobral in Brazil. Gates and Pelletier give many new details about how things played out in Brazil and on Principe Island, including many disturbing details about the cocoa plantations on Principe and Sao Tome, where the real work was done by enslaved people brought there from Angola.
On eclipse day the weather on Principe was dodgy. Eddington managed to get only one useful plate. But in Brazil the Sun was visible in clear sky for four of the five minutes of totality, and very useful data were obtained. Victory was declared. Einstein's prediction of light bending, twice as big as Newton's theory gave, was confirmed. Einstein became world famous. Most people were convinced of the results, but not all. Subsequent tests were carried out most significantly using the eclipse of September 21, 1922. In Einstein's Jury Crelinsten elaborates at great length about the people who doubted the results of 1919. It was a debate that continued throughout the 1920s, partly because the Lick Observatory astronomers who got the plates in 1922 spent years working on the data. They did not want to announce preliminary results, only final results. All this waiting opened the door for some people to insist strongly that Einstein's prediction of the gravitational bending of light must be wrong because it was "Jewish science!" Gates and Pelletier's book gives the impression that by 1919 the task was essentially finished, but that was not the case.
There are a number of errors in Gates and Pelletier's book, perhaps because neither one is an observational astronomer. The most significant error is the description of the advance of the perihelion of Mercury, another test of general relativity. The long axis of Mercury's elliptical orbit smoothly rotates in the plane of Mercury's orbit about 1.54 degrees per century. Newton's gravitational theory can account for all but 43/3600 degrees per century of this rotation. Einstein's theory can account for the small difference. On pp. 42, 115, and 239 Gates and Pelletier describe the anomaly as a "wobble" and on p. 239 also describe it as a "glitch." To me wobble means an effect that goes back and forth, regularly, or irregularly. A glitch is a sudden shift that may happen sporadically or only once.
On p. 115 it is stated that an arc second is "comparable to the size of a dime at a distance of 1.3 miles." It is more accurate to say that it is very nearly equal to the angular size of the diameter of a dime viewed at a distance of 2.2 miles. On p. 150 Nova Aquilae is described as a supernova. It wasn't. Novae have explosions but they do not destroy the stars. Individual stars with more than 8 solar masses explode as "core collapose supernovae," leaving behind neutron stars or black holes. Exploding white dwarf supernovae obliterate one or two white dwarf stars in a binary system. On p. 265 we read that there were 62 total eclipses visible on Earth in the 20th century. Using a program based on an algorithm of Jean Meeus, I find that there were 70 total solar eclipses from 1901 through 2000, plus 7 hybrid eclipses (annular at the start and end of the track and total very briefly in the middle). There are a number of other factual or spelling errors that I won't mention here. But judging by the references and end notes of the book, it was extensively researched. Finally, I wish to say that there are some very oddly written sentences. This one from p. 193 is just begging for an editor to rewrite it as two sentences: "It's impossible to know how many bones of enslaved human beings who had worked until they died and were carried, their corpses lashed to poles, into the deep forest by loved ones had been buried on Principe by 1919." That reminds me of the writing style of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
April 15, 2022
This was a bit of a head scratcher. Interesting story (ies) but talk about a guy (and gal) going off on tangents! There is somewhat of a paucity of physics and astronomy and a tremendous surfeit of often irrelevant or perhaps trivial information. Every 'character' gets a mini-bio, sometimes their parents too. The huge amount of space devoted to exactly how much stuff was on board each ship of the expeditions was another example. The authors also go into great detail at times on the historical background of the expedition sites, most notably Sao Tome and Principe. The 1914 expeditions in Russia just as WW1 was breaking out were quite interesting however. It is an epic story overall, the testing of Einstein's theory of general relativity and using measurements only possible during full solar eclipses. There are at least a half-dozen major expeditions that are chronicled (1912 (2), 1914, 1918, 1919, 1922) and kudos to the authors for their research and tribute to these dedicated astronomers (mostly) and physicists. William Campbell, Charles Perrine, Frank Dyson, Arthur Eddington and others are certainly given their due. There is of course plenty on Einstein himself but almost as much about as his difficult family situation as his theories. Young Albert was a real pos in his relations with his first wife, he was a very human genius. In the end the measurements 'proved' he was right and poor old Isaac Newton relegated to the sidelines as loser if that is possible. Notable in this time when science has been censored and hijacked by powerful political and economic interests, were their paeans (p. 182, 234 and elsewhere) to the scientific method. 'Science is extraordinarily fragile. Until the right question is raised, in the right time and place, it's often impossible to make progress.' And so on and so forth, the bottom line being that open scientific debate is essential for the truth to emerge. Einstein himself 'believed that the greatest enemy of truth was a blind respect for authority'. More apt words in the face of today's rampant suppression and punishment of open debate on a variety of science-related issues.
June 1, 2020
Full disclosure, I received the book for review from the publisher. The book is part chronology, part travelogue, part history in its discussions of the viewing, tracking, and reporting of solar eclipses, (which is how I got interested in it due to the eclipse recently over North America) and how the eclipses confirmed the second part of Einstein's relativity theory about how and to what extent rays of light are refracted as they pass by and come into contact with the sun. Besides making the science understandable to a lay person, the authors do a great job intertwining the significant players (Einstein and other scientists and astronomers in England, Germany, America, Argentina, and other places) without reducing to the text to a series of numbers, dates and places.
December 17, 2019
I really enjoyed this rendition by Scientist Gates and Journalist Pelletier describing the solar eclipse expeditions of the early 1900's that culminated in affirming Einstein's general theory of relativity. For me the book contained the appropriate balance of technical science combined with adventure and biography. Congratulations to the authors on a wonderful work.
P.S. And I thought the use of the explanatory endnotes added much color and detail to the work.
P.S. And I thought the use of the explanatory endnotes added much color and detail to the work.
January 10, 2021
A wonderful book, well researched and gives a fascinating insight into astronomy in the early 20th century, the lengths and commitment of those documented in this book are incredible..
The book was a little long, but still a great read not into the equations, but the efforts to test and validate the theory.
I would have liked an explanation about how they determined the results (from a scientific point of view). But still a great read.
The book was a little long, but still a great read not into the equations, but the efforts to test and validate the theory.
I would have liked an explanation about how they determined the results (from a scientific point of view). But still a great read.
November 11, 2025
3/5 because it is very well researched; but this was more an eclipse-chasing-astronomer travel itinerary than it is about Einstein’s theories. Also, it branched off from the main narrative numerous times covering unrelated figures e.g. relatives of astronomers, etc;
Very well researched, albeit not about what one might initially expect
Very well researched, albeit not about what one might initially expect
December 29, 2019
Well written and researched, I thought it could have been half in length
February 21, 2021
A fascinating story. Reminds me a bit of the mountaineering stories where the mountain says today you will not summit. Super well written and easy to follow.
October 9, 2019
Victorian-era scientists: they don't make 'em like THAT anymore...
Wow! The lengths astronomers went to to answer the questions: does light respond to gravity, and (if so) how responsive is it!?
Proving Einstein Right tells the stories of those intrepid astronomers, and of their many eclipse-chasing expeditions, brilliantly. Though relatively light on science itself, the book does a splendid job of describing the context of one of the most significant advances in the history of science.
Splendid read!
Wow! The lengths astronomers went to to answer the questions: does light respond to gravity, and (if so) how responsive is it!?
Proving Einstein Right tells the stories of those intrepid astronomers, and of their many eclipse-chasing expeditions, brilliantly. Though relatively light on science itself, the book does a splendid job of describing the context of one of the most significant advances in the history of science.
Splendid read!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews