Relativity and the Layman

Einstein's Theories of Relativity and Gravitation by Albert Einstein, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Relativity and the Layman

Relativity and the Layman

A great deal can be said in the direction of general comment making the Special Theory and its surprising accompaniments easier of acceptance, and we shall conclude the present discussion by saying some of these things.]* [It has been objected that the various effects catalogued above are only apparent, due to the finite velocity of light—that the real shape and size of a body or the real time of an event cannot be affected by the point of view or the motion of an observer. This argument would be perfectly valid, if there were real times and distances; but there are not. These are earth-bound notions, due to our experience on an apparently motionless platform, [107]with slow-moving bodies. Under these circumstances different observations of the same thing or of the same event agree. But when we no longer have the solid earth to stand on, and are dealing with velocities so high that the relativity effects become appreciable, there is no standard by which to resolve the disagreements. No one of the observations can claim to be nearer reality than any other. To demand the real size of a thing is to demand a stationary observer or an instantaneous means of information. Both are impossible.

When relativity asks us to give up our earth-bound notions of absolute space and absolute time the sensation, at first, is that we have nothing left to stand on. So must the contemporaries of Columbus have felt when told that the earth rested on—nothing. The remedy too is similar. Just as they had to be taught that falling is a local affair, that the earth is self-contained, and needs no external support—so we must be taught that space and time standards are local affairs. Each moving body carries its own space and time standards with it; it is self-contained. It does not need to reach out for eternal support, for an absolute space and time that can never quite be attained. All we ever need to know is the relation of the other fellow’s space and time standards to our own. This is the first thing relativity teaches us.]141

[The consequences of Einstein’s assumptions have led many to reject the theory of relativity, on the ground that its conclusions are contrary to common sense—as they undoubtedly are. But to the contemporaries of Copernicus and Galileo the theory that [108]the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun was contrary to common sense; yet this theory prevailed. There is nothing sacred about common sense; in the last analysis its judgments are based on the accumulated experience of the human race. From the beginning of the world up to the present generation, no bodies were known whose velocities were not extremely small compared with that of light. The development of modern physics has led to discovery of very much larger velocities, some as high as 165,000 miles per second. It is not to be wondered at that such an enlargement of our experience requires a corresponding enlargement or generalization of the concepts of space and time. Just as the presupposition of primitive man that the earth was flat had to be given up in the light of advancing knowledge, so we are now called upon to give up our presupposition that space and time are absolute and independent in their nature.

The reader must not expect to understand the theory of relativity in the sense of making it fit in with his previous ideas. If the theory be right these ideas are wrong and must be modified, a process apt to be painful.]223 [All the reader can do is to become familiar with the new concepts, just as a child gets used to the simple relations and quantities he meets until he “understands” them.]221 [Mr. Francis has said something of the utmost significance when he points out that “understanding” really means nothing in the world except familiarity and accustomedness.]* [The one thing about the relativity doctrine that we can hope thus to understand at once and without pain is the logical process used [109]in arriving at our results.]221 [Particularly is it hard to give a satisfactory explanation of the theory in popular language, because the language itself is based on the old concepts; the only language which is really adequate is that of mathematics.]223 [Unless we have, in addition to the terms of our ordinary knowledge, a set of definitions that comes with a wide knowledge of mathematics and a lively sense of the reality of mathematical constructions, we are likely to view the theory of relativity through a fog of familiar terms suddenly become self-contradictory and deceptive. Not that we are unfamiliar with the idea that some of our habitual notions may be wrong; but knowledge of their illusory nature arises and becomes convincing only with time. We may now be ready to grant that the earth, seemingly so solid, is really a whirling globe rushing through space; but we are no more ready immediately to accept the bald assertion that this space is not what it seems than our ancestors were to accept the idea that the earth was round or that it moved.]156 [What we must have, if we are to comprehend relativity with any degree of thoroughness, is the mathematician’s attitude toward his assumptions, and his complete readiness to swap one set of assumptions for another as a mere part of the day’s work, the spirit of which I have endeavored to convey in the chapter on non-Euclidean geometry.]*

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