Abstract
In the final form Einstein gave it, relativity theory, as we have said, embraces all the phenomena attributed to gravitational action. On the other hand, it completely leaves aside everything having to do with the action of electricity. But perhaps further clarification is needed to prevent any possible misunderstanding.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Jean Becquerel, Le principe de la relativité et la Théorie de la gravitation (Paris, 1922), p. 35. Emile Borel (ET 170; Eng. 143) states that “the most complete proof .. . of the theory [of relativity] results from the study of the laws of electrodynamics as a whole, and from the fact that the system of equations governing these laws is invariant for the group of Lorentz transformations” [the bracketed insertion is Meyerson’s]. Weyl points out that “in treating electrodynamics after the manner of Maxwell, one was already unconsciously treading in the steps of the principle of relativity” (STM 205). Moreover, this physicist goes further, writing: “We have ... a good right to claim that the whole fund of experience which is crystallised in Maxwell’s Theory weighs in favor of the world-metrical nature of electricity” (STM 284), that is to say, in favor of the concepts developed by Weyl himself.
Lucien Fabre’s Une nouvelle figure du monde: Les théories d’Einstein (Paris, 1921, p. 93 ff.) contains a lucid account in nonmathematical language of the relationships between the theories of Fresnel, Faraday, Maxwell, Hertz, and Lorentz.
Georges Cuvier, ’Histoire des progrés des sciences naturelles’ in OEuvres complétes deBuffon, Complément (Paris, 1862), 1:2.
Henri Poincaré, Electricité et optique (Paris, 1901), p. 3 ff.
Weyl, Raum, Zeit, Materie, preface to 3rd ed., reproduced in the 4th, but omitted in the [French] translations [STM x–xi].
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1985 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Meyerson, É. (1985). Electrical Phenomena. In: The Relativistic Deduction. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 83. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5211-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5211-9_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8805-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-5211-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive