Einstein His Life & Times 1ST Edition

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Einstein

His Life and Times BY

PHILIPP

FRANK

TRANSLATED FROM A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT BY

GEORGE ROSEN EDITED AND REVISED BY

SHUICHI KUSAKA

ALFRED

A.

KNOPF:

HEW

4

7

THIS

IS

A BORZOI BOOK,

PUBLISHED BY ALFRED

A.

KNOPF, INC.

&

Copyright 1947 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this boo\ may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the a publisher, except by reviewer who may quote brief passages and reproduce not more than three illustrations in a review to be a or newsprinted in

magazine

paper. Manufactured in the United States of America.

PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN CANADA BY THE RYERSON PRESS PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 20, 1947

SECOND PRINTING, APRIL 1947

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that

it is

comprehensible.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE PHOTOGRAPHS reproduced in this book were obtained with the friendly help of Miss Helen Dukas of Princeton, Professor

Rudolph W. Ladenburg of Princeton University, Professor Harlow Shapley of Harvard University, and Dr. and Mrs. Gustav Bucky of New York. The diagrams were designed by Mr. Gerald Holton of Harvard University, and the Index compiled with the co-operation of Miss

Massachusetts.

Martha Henderson of Cambridge,,

CONTENTS I.

1

2

EINSTEIN'S

YOUTH AND TRAINING

Family Background Childhood in

3

6

Munich

10

3

Gymnasium

4

Intellectual Interests

5 6

Departure from Munich Student at Zurich

15 18

7

Official of a Patent Office

21

II.

12

CONCEPTIONS OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD BEFORE EINSTEIN

2

Philosophical Conception of Nature Organismic Physics of the Middle Ages

3

Mechanistic Physics and Philosophy

1

25

27 28

Newtonian Mechanics

4

Relativity Principle in

5

Ether as a Mechanical Hypothesis Remnants of Medieval Concepts in Mechanistic

32

Physics Mechanistic Philosophy Ernst Mach: The General Laws of Physics Are

34

6

7 8

Critics of the

Summaries 9

of Observations Organized in Simple Forms

30

36

38

Henri Polncarl: The General Laws of Physics Are Free Creations of the Positivistic

11

Science at the

HI.

Human Mind

and Pragmatic Movements

10

End

42

of the Nineteenth Century

BEGINNING OF A

NEW ERA

1

Life in Bern

2

Interest in Philosophy

3

The Fundamental Hypotheses

40

45

IN PHYSICS 49 50

of the

Theory of Relativity

vli

53

Contents 4

5 6

Consequences of Einstein's Relativity of

Two

Hypotheses

Time

55 57

Relativity of Other Physical Concepts

63

7

Equivalence of Mass and Energy

65

8

Theory of Brownian Motion

67

9

Origin of the Quantum Theory Theory of the Photon

69

10

IV. 1

EINSTEIN

71

AT PRAGUE

Professor at the University of Zurich

74

2

Appointment

to

3

Colleagues at

Prague

4

TA? Jews

5

Einstein's Personality Portrayed in a

6

Einstein as a Professor

89

7

91

8

Generalization of the Special Theory of Relativity Influence of Gravity on the Propagation of Light

9

Departure from Prague

98

in Prague

V. 1

77 80

Prague

83

EINSTEIN

Novel

85

94

AT BERLIN

The Solvay Congress

101

2

Trip to Vienna

103

3

Invitation to Berlin

106

4

Einstein's Position in the

5

Relationship with Colleagues Relationship with Students

6 7

Outbrea^ of the World

8

German

9

Lz'jfe

VI.

iVz

Science in the

Academic Life of Berlin

109 112

116

War War

119 121

Wartime

123

THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY

1

New

2

.R0/