Abstract
In seeking a unity of forces in nature Einstein was drawing on a tradition going back at least into the previous century. As seen in Chap. 4, nineteenth century physics was awash in ideas of conservation, transformation, and unification – all three coupled into a conceptual whole. Regarding the specific forces in Einstein’s quest, the framework goes back to Newton’s trilogy of space, force, and matter. Kant’s subsequent unification was based on his reduction of matter to force, reducing the trilogy to a duality of force and space. Kant’s concept of force then morphed into energy, and Einstein’s E = mc 2 changed the duality to mass-energy and space. When gravity became warped space (really space-time), gravity was accounted for. A beautiful unification.
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Notes
- 1.
Einstein [49] [1952], Appendix V, p. 146.
- 2.
Einstein and Infield [59] [1938]. In the introduction to the 1961 edition of the book, Infeld called Einstein the “chief author” of the book. For the origin of the book and the collaboration, see Infeld [106], pp. 308–321, where he implies that it was a bit more collaborative than implied in the phrase “chief author.” I will, nevertheless, refer to the ideas in the book as Einstein’s, since Infeld does affirm: “We always reached some kind of compromise,” p. 315.
- 3.
Einstein and Infield [59] [1938], pp. 242–243.
- 4.
Einstein [49] [1917], passim.
- 5.
The meeting was held at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University). The presentation was probably his first public appearance in his newly adopted country. See, Topper and Vincent [200] where we put forth a reconstruction of the lecture.
References
Einstein, Albert. 1960. Relativity: the special and the general theory. Fifteenth Edition. (trans: Robert W. Lawson in 1920.). London: Methuen & Co. This popular account was first published in German in 1917. This edition has five appendices, the last (1952) is titled “Relativity and the Problem of Space.”
Einstein, Albert, and Leopold Infeld. 1961. The evolution of physics: the growth of ideas from early concepts to relativity and quanta. New York: Simon & Schuster. This was first published in 1938. In the preface to the 1961 edition, Infeld acknowledges Einstein as the “chief author” of the book.
Infeld, Leopold. 1941. Quest: the evolution of a scientist. New York: Doubleday, Doran, & Co.
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Topper, D.R. (2013). Roots of, and Routes Toward, Unification. In: How Einstein Created Relativity out of Physics and Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 394. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4782-5_25
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