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Understanding Relativity: Origin and Impact of a Scientific Revolution
I. The Creation of The Theory of Relativityl.- 1.Science, Logic, and Objectivity.- The Role of Mathematics and Other Formal Systems in Science.- The Case of Euclidean Geometry.- The Case of Natural Numbers.- The Case of Free Fall.- The Aristotelian Analysis of Motion.- The Galilean Analysis of Free Fall.- Belief as a Cultural Phenomenon.- Objectivity and the Social Institutions of Science.- Science and Technology.- 2. The Rise and Fall of the Mechanical World View.- The Seventeenth Century.- The Evidence.- Newton's Axioms and Definitions.- The Application and Consequences of Newton's Laws.- Newton's Theory of Measurement.- The Galilean Transformation Equations.- The Classical Principle of Relativity.- The Search for the Absolute Frame of Reference.- 3. Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and Its Consequences.- The Special Theory of Relativity.- The Postulates.- Simultaneity.- The Relativity of Simultaneity.- The Order of Events and Causality.- The Relationship of Einstein's Theory to Lorentz's Theory.- Time Dilation and the Relativity of Simultaneity.- Length Contraction.- Mass.- 4. Further Consequences of the Heuristic Nature of the Special Theory of Relativity.- Mass and Energy.- The Clock Paradox.- Four-Dimensional Analysis.- 5. The General Theory of Relativity.- II. The Early Response to the Special Theory of Relativity, 1905-1911.- 6. When a Hundred Flowers The German Response.- The Contributions of Max Planck.- The Rigidity Paradoxes.- Wave and Group Velocity.- 7. As If It Never The French Response.- Henri Poincare.- The Principle of Relativity.- Poincare and Second Order Theory.- The Theory of Electrons.- Poincare's Vision of a Good Theory.- Simplicity and Induction.- Flexibility and Gradualism.- Naturalness and the Increase of Hypotheses.- Poincare's Silence and Einstein's Theory.- Other French Response.- Aftermath.- 8. Defending the The British Response.- The Tradition of British Ether Theory.- Oliver Lodge.- The Mechanical Ether.- The Introduction of Relativity Theory.- Conclusions.- 9. Defending the The American Response.- The American Tradition in Science.- Science and American Technology.- Science and American Universities.- The American Physics Community.- American Silence, 1905 -1907.- The Contributions of Lewis and Tolman.- Reaction to Lewis and Tolman.- The Appeal to Common Sense.- The Popular Response, 1905-1911.- Conclusions.- III. From Response to Assimilation.- 10. Relativity in America, 1912-1980.- 1911-1919: The Lull Before the Storm.- The Assimilation of Special Relativity Within the Scientific Community, 1920-1980.- The Evidence.- Graduate Textbooks, 1920-1945.- Advanced Undergraduate Textbooks, 1920-1945.- Introductory Textbooks, 1920-1945.- Post World War II.- Bridgman's Operationism and Einstein's Relativity.- Bridgman's Early Studies of Relativity Theory.- Being Operational Versus Operationism.- Spreading Time Through Space, 1959-1961.- Philosophy and Physics.- The Popular Response to the Theory of Relativity.- Conclusions.- 11. Relativity and Revolutions in Science.- Scientific Revolutions.- Relativity and Scientific Revolutions.- Appendix 1. Trigonometry.- Appendix 2. The Galilean Description of Motion.- Appendix 3. Newtonian Mechanics.- Appendix 4. The Kinetic Theory of Matter and the Mechanical World View.- Appendix 5. Ether Drift The Search for Absolute Frame of Reference.- Appendix 6. Some Relativistic Derivations.- Bibliographic On Understanding Relativity.- Inde.
- GenresScience
516 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1984
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February 20, 2024
I must admit that I didn't read all of this book--I read the first half closely, but then felt I needed to go back to really understand the scientific argument. And I gradually gave up.
Many years ago (I'm in my fifties) I was an undergraduate physics major. And though I learned what I thought was a good foundation in special relativity, it had been so long that I thought I would enjoy viewing relativity in a historical fashion.
As a history of the science and the scientific movement, this book is good. But it is not easy. Given that this book approaches relativity as it was historically approached and how the theory gradually gained acceptance, one first needs to learn some fundamentals about what was thought to be true before relativity came along. This means a lot of time discussing the ether, ether drift, and the search for an absolute frame of reference--necessary since the clear suggestion in Newtonian physics is that there is an absolute frame of reference. Which I found difficult to absorb, especially knowing that special relativity would demonstrate that such a frame does not exist.
The author believes that a non-mathematical approach is possible for learning special relativity and at some level I found it to be true. But, given that we need to approach the theory as it was gradually constructed and assimilated, rather than in its final form (as a textbook might approach it), this adds an extra burden to surmount. The book first approaches the Poincaré and Lorentz formulations of relativity, which I found less intuitive (or perhaps less familiar) than the Einstein thought experiments.
After the theory is created, then it must be propagated and this acceptance of relativity by the various physics communities at the time forms the second half and the true point of the book. The French school of physics, the German school, the English school and eventually the American school all approached the theory by viewing it through the lenses of their own biases and background. One thing that is perhaps lost on those of us of the modern generation, is that the physics community then was a very small one, and individual personalities and biases played a big part in a theory's acceptance. That scientists and scientific progress proceeds in fits and starts often owing more to the human nature of scientists, rather as a neutral search for 'truth' has been well demonstrated, and this book only builds upon that.
Though details of the various academic disputes seem trivial, the ultimate conclusions about how the theories acceptance was mediated by the various cultures is well developed and rings true, especially in the case of American assimilation:
I'm glad I attempted this. I didn't fully understand or read all of it, but valuable and illuminating none-the-less.
Many years ago (I'm in my fifties) I was an undergraduate physics major. And though I learned what I thought was a good foundation in special relativity, it had been so long that I thought I would enjoy viewing relativity in a historical fashion.
As a history of the science and the scientific movement, this book is good. But it is not easy. Given that this book approaches relativity as it was historically approached and how the theory gradually gained acceptance, one first needs to learn some fundamentals about what was thought to be true before relativity came along. This means a lot of time discussing the ether, ether drift, and the search for an absolute frame of reference--necessary since the clear suggestion in Newtonian physics is that there is an absolute frame of reference. Which I found difficult to absorb, especially knowing that special relativity would demonstrate that such a frame does not exist.
The author believes that a non-mathematical approach is possible for learning special relativity and at some level I found it to be true. But, given that we need to approach the theory as it was gradually constructed and assimilated, rather than in its final form (as a textbook might approach it), this adds an extra burden to surmount. The book first approaches the Poincaré and Lorentz formulations of relativity, which I found less intuitive (or perhaps less familiar) than the Einstein thought experiments.
After the theory is created, then it must be propagated and this acceptance of relativity by the various physics communities at the time forms the second half and the true point of the book. The French school of physics, the German school, the English school and eventually the American school all approached the theory by viewing it through the lenses of their own biases and background. One thing that is perhaps lost on those of us of the modern generation, is that the physics community then was a very small one, and individual personalities and biases played a big part in a theory's acceptance. That scientists and scientific progress proceeds in fits and starts often owing more to the human nature of scientists, rather as a neutral search for 'truth' has been well demonstrated, and this book only builds upon that.
Though details of the various academic disputes seem trivial, the ultimate conclusions about how the theories acceptance was mediated by the various cultures is well developed and rings true, especially in the case of American assimilation:
The American interpretation of the meaning of the theory of relativity is based on the belief that the theory is correct because both the postulates and the predictions of the theory are in agreement with measurement and observation. Such an interpretation is more easily integrated into traditional American views about the relationship between evidence and theory than is Einstein's view that theories are the free creation of the human spirit.
I'm glad I attempted this. I didn't fully understand or read all of it, but valuable and illuminating none-the-less.
Displaying 1 of 1 review