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Einstein and Relativity: CPS Talk 9.3.15

By zccasle, on 15 March 2015

Screen shot 2015-03-15 at 21.01.16

Professor Pedro Ferriera of Oxford University joins an eager CPS to discuss the lifespan of ‘the perfect theory’.

Since it was conceived by Albert Einstein, the theory of relativity has been in and out of favour. Its relation with the scientific community and society in general has led to what Prof. Ferriera described as a ‘Cult of Relativity’. The physicists whom are studying it often having to keep it hidden away as their guilty pleasure; a dead end? It seems not, Prof. Ferriera warns that a relativity comeback is on the cards right now, as the ESA is preparing a cohort of projects all of which have relativistic proofs at their zenith. Interferometers and radio telescopes of enormous scale are being built and poised to measure the elusive signatures of gravitational waves.

When Einstein published his theory on special relativity in 1905 it caused quite a stir and soon followed a relativistic treatment of gravity. Up until that point, the Newtonian physical description of gravity was indeed the most useful approach to the motions of the celestial bodies. Indeed Newtonian physics was doing a fine job of describing such things and still does to a first approximation, its imperfections became apparent when in 1859 the French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier found a discrepancy in the orbit of Mercury. Newtonian physics failed here and does so in other in other settings where gravity is extreme.

Prof. Ferriera likened the journey of Relativity to the life of the writer Penelope Fitzgerald, who had a terrible incident with a house boat.

The theory of relativity was conceived in a time of profound social disruption. Scientific universalism, the notion that scientific knowledge is devoid of the cultural, political and economic whims of its practitioners, had not at this time taken hold. This quote from Sir William Ramsey 1915 demonstrates this quite appropriately:

“German ideals are infinitely far removed from the conception of the true man of science; and the methods by which they propose to secure what they regard as the good of humanity are, to all right thinking men, repugnant…”

Conversely, a group of 93 German scholars had also signed a manifesto supporting their nations foreign policies of the time. Einstein however was not included. This chaotic political period provided a highly unusual context for such a publication. Historian of science: T. S. Kuhn says:

“…A new theory… is seldom just an increment to what is already known. Its assimilation requires the reconstruction of prior theory and the re-evaluation of prior fact, an intrinsically revolutionary process that is seldom completed by a single man and never overnight.”

Relativity required that absolute space and time where not realistic constructs and that the speed of light was the only non relativistic constant.

Considering the mistrust between Britain and Germany at this time it seems unusual that a British scientist would be the one to provide the empirical evidence for Relativity. It was the conscientious objector Arthur Eddington of the Royal Astronomical Society who had some ‘faith’ in Einstein’s work. In 1919, on the island of Principe off the coast of Africa, a spring solar eclipse saw the performance of an experiment to test whether the sun was able to bend light from distant stars. He confirmed the theory, it was headline news, though very few people would be able to understand what any of it meant, the general public were simply told in a headline: ‘Relativity Proved; No need to worry’.

There now exists some debate over the findings of this famous experiment, with commentators claiming that the results could support either Relativistic or Newtonian physics and that Eddington was predisposed to support Relativity.

Regardless of this, the theory was taken up by a great number of physicists at the time all of whom pushed it to its limits and were able to predict astrological observations that should support the theory. For example, black holes, pulsars, dark matter and an expanding universe.

Why did it all cool off? What was the house boat incident for Relativity? First of all the technology required to prove the existence of pulsars and black holes did not exist. There were also additional political and economic factors that were swelling upon the build up to WWII. Russian physicists were forced to reject the theory on the grounds of its incommensurability with dialectical materialism, while the US was on a more pragmatic heading, Relativity had few applications to offer at the time. Both view points meant that Relativity was somewhat cast out. In Germany, quantum mechanics was being developed, which carried with it even more esoteric concepts than Einstein was comfortable with, he famously quoted:

Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the ‘old one’. I am at any rate convinced that ‘He’ does not throw dice”

A response to it’s probabilistic nature.

How did the house boat of Relativity rise up from river bed? Politics became more rational and… Radio Telescopes. These have played a huge role in the understanding of our universe from our small planet. Gravitational waves have not been detected yet but the projects are lining up and a lot of attention is being paid to what’s going on ‘out there’. Have a look:

http://lisa.nasa.gov/

http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/

https://www.skatelescope.org/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/

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