The American Jewish world. [volume], August 11, 1922, Image 3

About The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current

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THE AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD
(Concluded from last issue)
A Few Deductions From Relativity
There is no consensus of opinion on
this point. A few, very few indeed,
would have it that Einstein's theories
apply only to matter in motion, giv
ing him credit for inventing formulas
that cover certain fields in physics and
astronomy which have hitherto proved
unyielding to Newtonian mechanics.
I may add that of the dozen or more
volumes and the scores of articles
which I have read I have received only
a hint of the existence of such an
opinion. The foremost writers on
Einstein, such as Schlick, Eddington,
Bertrand Russel, Tolman, Silberstein,
and many others are convinced that
the Theory of Relativity affects every
department of human life—religion,
philosophy, sociology, industry, etc.
What the foremost scientific men
of our day think of the theory has
been quoted to some extent in the last
paper. To them it is the boldest con
ception in the history of human in
telligence. The deductions given here
are partly the writer's it is true, but
driven to their ultimate conclusions,
will be found to conform to Einstein's
Theory of Relativity.
Simultaneity
Can the self same baby be born
both before and after midnight? Ac
cording to Relativity, yes—for two
observers situated on two different
Frames of Reference. Says Edding
ton: "We cannot find out what is the
same place at two different times and
we cannot find out what is the same
time at two different places." What
is midnight for the observer on the
train of the illustration in the first
paper is not midnight for the man on
the aeroplane or on the embankment.
Our Geometry
Our school geometry (Euclidean) is
built upon the idea of an infinite and
absolute space—a space that has no
beginning and no end and never
changes. With the exception of such
trifles as the assumption that cer
tain things are true merely because
the author (Euclid) has no way of
proving that they are true, placing
them at the beginning of the book and
calling them axioms, self-evident
things—our geometry is a marvel to
all but high school boys. But strip
space of its infinite properties and
this geometry of ours becomes shaky
—has been all the time. To mention
a few points: Two parallel lines never
meet, says our geometry. They do,
says Einstein—and I can prove it
black and white. A straight line is
the shortest distance between two
points, says Euclid. It need not be,
says Einstein,—usually is not. So
long as one confines himself to small
distances, this school geometry of ours
serves the purpose admirably. But
get away from this comparatively
static world and you meet with untold
difficulty, the moment you begin to
apply Euclidian geometry. "For more
than two thousand years," observes
Einstein very modestly, "we have be
lieved in a Euclidian space because
centuries of experience favored it but
there is now reason to believe that
these same experiences when pushed
to greater accuracy decide in favor
of a slightly different space."
The Fourth Dimension
A quiver across the spine! A secret
door opening upon a world of ghosts,
spirits, hobgoblins upon souls blessed,
souls damned, and souls-no t-worth-a
damn shrieking, shouting, whirling
in a hurly burly? "Terrestrial
Selves," "Astral Selves," "Ethereal
Selves," He Selves, She Selves, gyrat
ing and pirouetting in a wild phantas
magoria
Ts this the Einsteinian Fourth Di
mension
Our "metaphysicians" and theoso-
phists would have it so. But that is
not Einstein's fault. Let us take a
glance at Einstein's Fourth Dimen
sion. Let us divide it into two parts:
(1) Relativity teaches that both
time and space are relative with re
spect to matter in motion, both grow
ing shorter or longer with the speed
of an object. This matter represents
a variety of possible ways by which
to be measured. The child and the
barbarian see only the outer surfaces
—two dimensions—and rarely ever
think of the mass behind it—the third
dimension. As mentality develops it
grasps the existence of this mass,
though it can hardly visualize it. For
purposes of convenience it cuts this
shapeless and formless mass into
bodies possessing three dimensions—
cubes.
It is therefore possible to stretch
one's imagination and conceive a body
of four dimensions, though we may
not be able to visualize it. With such
an imaginary solid in mind, the math
ematician sits down and figures out
what sort of shape it ought to have—
how many faces, lines and angles.
Thus higher mathematicians tell us
that a solid of four dimensions must
be bounded by eight cubes, just as
the cube is bounded by six squares,
must contain twenty-four squares,
thirty-two edges, and sixteen corners.
(Slosson.)
(2) The other phase of the Ein
steinian Fourth Dimension is this:
The moment matter begins to act, the
question at once arises, When? At
what time? And how much of this
time is consumed? There was a fire
at State (one dimension) and Madi
son (two dimensions) on the eleven
teen th floor (three dimensions) at
five o'clock (four dimensions). Ein
stein merely insists that for civilized
man to give a description of any
event or occurrence which is to be at
all complete, must contain four di
mensions, each of which is no more
and no less important than any one
of the other three. This theory had
been worked out by Harmann Min
kowski and found a definite place in
our science as a result of Relativity.
Perhaps Eddington puts the problem
best: "The fundamental measurement
is not the interval between two points
in space, but between two points of
space associated with instants of
time."
The amateur mathematician will
object, on the ground that this would
often involve us in the difficulty of
multiplying horses by cows, as it
were. To obviate this difficulty Ein
stein takes the invariable unit of
length which light travels in a sec
ond—186,000 miles—and uses either
a fraction or a multiple of it to rep
resent the time element. Thus, in
stead of having three lines and say
half a second, he has four lines three
of them representing the boundaries
of the solid under consideration, and
one representing time consumed.
Einsteinian Gravitation
Newton lays down laws which are
marvels of ingenuity and perfection
superhuman. But unfortunately na
ture rarely abides by laws we humans
lay down for her. Looked at from
the higher plateau of truth, one must
bow his head and humbly admit that
there are no laws in nature. We mere
ly pick out a paltry few cases where
certain tendencies seem uniform in
their effects and proclaim these as
laws of nature. This is to our bene
fit and helps us live and thrive other
wise we would be constantly reeling
and staggering like men who find
themselves in strange surroundings.
But to say that nature gives a hang
for our laws is to assume altogether
undue airs upon our part.
Thus Newton's laws hold good to a
Contemporary Jewish Genius
By HERMAN JACOBSOHN (Copyright)
II. ALBERT EINSTEIN, WHOSE THEORIES ARE RE-CREATING THE WORLD
marvelous degree of perfection—so
long as matter, motion, time and space
are considered absolute and unvary
ing. Newton lays down the law: Every
body continues in a state of rest or
uniform motion in a straight line If
not interfered with. But do you think
that a ball pitched into space would
really never stop traveling in a
straight line, if all the friction of the
air, etc., were removed Well, there
is no way of proving it. You would
think it would get tired of the mo
notony. Newton could just as well
have paraphrased the old Jewish
proverb: "There are a million stars
in the sky, and if you don't believe
me, go and count them."
Einstein wants to know how such a
body can travel in a straight line
.when there is very likely no straight
lines in nature. Again, a body might
set out on its flight with perfectly
honest intentions to follow Newton's
law. But will it be able to follow it
out to the end? Pitch a ball across
a field and it will very likely change
little by the time it reaches the hand
of the catcher, thus conforming to
Newton's laws. But pitch it from Los
Angeles to New York and see what
will happen. For one thing, it will
not remain a ball at all. It will be
come flattened on the sides while on
its way. Hence Newton's laws of
gravitation hold good for limited dis
tances only.
But this is far from the whole story.
Newtonian gravitation assumes that
bodies have the power of influencing
each other at a distance—action at
a distance something weird, uncan
ny, smacking of witchcraft and re
pugnant to intelligence. To the laws
formulated by him (on the idea of
action at a distance) optic and elec
tromagnetic phenomena stubbornly
refuse to submit, and remained out
side the pale of physics in general.
Einstein's gravitation, on the other
hand, does away completely with the
idea of action at a distance. In fact,
it takes us a great deal nearer the
heart of the mystery of gravitation,
one of the most baffling of cosmic
mysteries. Gravitation, Einstein tells
us, is not a force outside matter, but
is a characteristic of matter. Wher
ever matter appears, that character
istic makes itself felt just as does
shape, form, hardness of matter. This
creates a "gravitational field," just
as a magnet creates a magnetic field
around itself by which it attracts par
ticles of a special sort of matter.
Within limited distances in this
"gravitational field," Newton's laws
hold good to a great degree of accu
racy. But with great distances, they
do not. Einstein's formulas for small
distances reduce themselves to those
of Newton's but vary for large ones.
And experiment confirms the truth of
Einstein's formulas.
With Newton the clocks and yard
stick with which one measures the
effects of gravitation are considered
absolute and unchanging. Einstein
shows that they are as subject to
change as the matter which they
measure. These instruments of meas
urement are just as affected by a
"gravitational field" as the other mat
ter in it. And he thus lays down the
law: "The velocity of every particle
depends on the particular system of
co-ordinates chosen for its measure
ment."
Proof
Einstein's Theory has two irrefut
able proofs: Astronomical observa
tions made by a par.ty of British sci
entists in 1919 at Sobral, Northern
Brazil, definitely proved that rays of
light from stars near the sun, in pass
ing the "gravitational field" con
formed to Einstein's calculations and
"i tw iy-31
Page Thrtt
not to Newtonian. It has proved
many other Einsteinian claims, but,
we cannot go into them here.
The moon and the planets refused
to conform to Newtonian gravitation
especially the planet Mercury. Ob
servation proves that they do con
form to Einsteinian calculations,
Triumphs of Relativity
The following are a few of the
triumphs of Relativity: It accounts
for the deviation of the planets from
Newtonian figures and points out how
much. It predicted a small but very
remarkable alteration in the appar
ent position of the stars, which was
verified at Sobral. It has recalled
gravitation from its isolation and
fitted it into the general scheme of
physics, thus bringing the kindred
sciences of optics and electromag
netics into the field. It has proved
that mass and energy are two phases
of one and the same thing—matter,
thus silencing forever the two schools
of philosophy which ever kept bick
ering as to which was first, matter
or energy. This fact may in time
revolutionize industry, as every thim
ble full of dirt possesses the atomic
energy equivalent to what we now
get out from burning three thousand
tons of coal.
Origin of the Theory: The Ether*
idea
When men began to study the be
havior of light, they found many diffi
culties obviated if they assumed the
existence of a medium on which light
would travel. Much as waves travel
on water. They accordingly took an
old idea, currycombed it, caparisoned
it in new harness, and trotted it out
under the name of Ether.
Again, when the Greek theory of
the structure of the universe was
supplanted by the theory based on the
studies of Bruno, Galileo. Coperni
cus, and Newton, the earth lost con
siderable of its importance. It was
kicked out from the center. With
this importance went the absolute
Reference Frame which it was sup
posed to contain. At last after
much wandering, the absolute Refer
ence Frame found lodgings in the
newly-found ether.
But if ether existed at all, it had
to either move with the earth or
whizz through it. Some very inter
esting experiments were made by
scientists but without definite results.
Till Sir Oliver Lodge came and won
renown by means of a series of ex
periments which proved conclusively
that bodies including our earth did
not carry any such strange substance
with them as ether.
Then Michelson (whose contribu
tions to the world's intelligence will
form the subject of a paper in this
series) came and tried to find out the
characteristic properties of this ether
drift as it affected the earth—and
found that he could not discover a
trace of this much renowned ether.
All the foremost scientists of the
world got excited and began to try
to account for the failure to discover
any ether, in various ways. Till at
last Einstein came and showed that
no ether was necessary at all, so far
as any absolute frames of reference
were concerned. Since there were no
absolute frames—and therefore there
was no need of the substance in which
this frame was to be lodged. Hence
Einstein is indifferent whether ether
exists or not. He does not need it
in his business—as Newton did. It
was a superfluous assumption.
EINSTEIN'S LIFE
The larger truth dictates that one
should treat this subject as almost
all other writers have treated it. It
(Continued on page 14)