JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
“It is concluded that the sun's gravitational field gives the deflection predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity.”
I've bumped into a famous piece of phsyics history, a semi-popular report on the verification of the Einstein theory of general relativity. The article is “Eclipse Photographs Verify Einstein's Prediction” adn is found in Popular Astronomy (published in Northfield Minnesota, volume 28, 1920, the issue for January, #1, 1920, with the notice appearing on pp 69-70.) At about the same time there appears the famous and deciding report by F. W. Dyson, A. S. Eddington, and C. Davidson, "A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919" which appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical or Physical Character for 1920 (pp 291-332). This is the integral report on which Popular Astronomy reports on for a more general astronomy readership.
This report repeats the famous finding: “It is concluded that the sun's gravitational field gives the deflection predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity.”
This is also when the theory of relativity becomes mega-famous, as does it originator—after this Einstein (and Eddington to a lesser degree) is a bona fide global ultra-famous figure, a crowned king of science. This article is immediately followed by “The Einstein Theory of Relativity” (pp 70-72), again in the same issue. Also, in the issue for March, same volume, p. 190, is a lovely short half-page notice on Einstein and his theory, and whether Newton has been displaced by it. “Um, no” says he.
This is certainly an early appearance for the announcement of the prediction--at least for the semi-popular journals. For late 1919-early 1920, the Physics Abstracts didn't show many articles among the top-tier publications which they indexed. Listed are the following papers for the gravity/deflection/Einstein, the “crucial test” in Physical Abstracts, 1920:
- #515. Jeffreys, “Crucial Test”, Roy Astron Soc, December 1919
- #303. Cunningham, December 4, 1919
- #513. L. Page, Nature, February 26, 1920.
- #512. Big review: Jeans, Eddington, Dyson, Fowler, Cunningham, Lindemann,m Silbersein. Roy Society, March 1, 1920.
- #1125. Forsyth, Roy Society, April 1, 1920.
- #1126. Schmidt, Annalen der Physik, Apr 15, 1920.
- #971. L. Page, April 22, 1920
- #1234. Mile, Annalen, May 20, 1920
And for 1919:
- #544. Eclipse of 1919...Eddington. Observatory, March 1919. (A report on the prgraam for the forthcoming eclipse.)
Comments