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Albert Einstein Theory of Universal Gravitation, "the validity of Newton's theory", Using a "clock-time" Illustration - Incredible Scientific Letter in English!
Albert Einstein Theory of Universal Gravitation, "the validity of Newton's theory", Using a "clock-time" Illustration - Incredible Scientific Letter in English!
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Description:

Einstein Albert

 

Albert Einstein Theory of Universal Gravitation, “the validity of Newton’s theory,” Using a “clock-time” Illustration – Incredible Scientific Letter in English!

 

“Your hypothesis is not impossible logically but it is contradictory to facts.”

 

ALBERT EINSTEIN, Typed Letter Signed, to George Aristotle Solounias, November 2, 1953, Princeton, New Jersey. On Einstein’s embossed stationery; with envelope.  1 p., 8.5" x 11". 


Complete Translation

                                                                        November 2, 1953

Mr. George Aristotle Solounias

4 Hill Street

Athens 1, Greece

Dear Sir:

            Your letter of October 16th has interested me. Your viewpoint denies that ordinary mechanics describes the facts accurately and with great precision, while my own considerations presume (with great precision) the validity of Newton’s theory.

            You believe that a cart, accelerated in a horizontal plane driven by a spring stretched in a well-defined way, gets acceleration dependent on the strength of the gravitational field. If this would be true then a chronometer dependent on elastic forces would run the quicker the weaker the gravitational field. Such a chronometer would run considerably slower on the pole than on the equator.

            A pendulum-clock, however, would run equally fast on the equator as on the pole because inertia and driving force would change proportionally.

            If this would be really so the astronomers would have discovered it long ago by confronting the clock-time with the length of the day at different latitudes.

            Your hypothesis is not impossible logically but it is contradictory to facts.

                                                                        Sincerely yours,

                                                                        A. Einstein.

                                                                        Albert Einstein.


Historical Background
Sir Isaac Newton developed the theory of universal gravitation in the 1680s and first published it in his work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687. In sum, the theory states that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force which is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. British scientist Henry Cavendish first tested Newton’s theory of gravitation in 1798, more than seventy years after Newton’s death.

 

In 1915, Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity, building on the work of Hermann Minkowski, who suggested space-time in a 1908 essay. The central idea is that space and time are two aspects of spacetime, a mathematical model that joins space and time into a single idea called a continuum. Einstein’s general relativity explained how spacetime is curved in the presence of gravity, matter, energy, and momentum. The theory aided cosmology to understand how the universe operates on both the large level of galaxies and the sub-microscopic level of atoms. Einstein’s theory of general relativity superseded Newton’s law of universal gravitation, but scientists continue to use Newton’s formula for an excellent approximation of the effects of gravity in most applications.

 

Albert Einstein fled Nazi Germany in 1932, and in 1933, he emigrated to the United States, where he joined the faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

On October 16, 1953, George A. Solounias wrote to Einstein from Athens, Greece, to offer his “theoretical remarks concerning the identity of inertial and gravitational mass of the General Theory of Relativity.” First, Solounias quoted from Einstein’s book, The Evolution of Physics (1938) regarding the differences and similarities between inertial mass and gravitational mass. Solounias then disputed Einstein’s conclusions: “We know that gravitational force causes the cart to stay, by pressing the supporting plane with a force directly proportional to the weight of the cart. And as the weight of the cart is changed – became greater – the pressing force of the cart on the plane and the force of gravity which causes this pressure, changed – became greater – too. Gravitation force, by increasing the pressure of the cart on the plane, increases, proportionally, its ability to oppose in the motion, to preserve its state of rest. Consequently, gravity had something to do during the performance of our experiment; it played the role of regulator of the quantity of opposition of the cart to the push given by the force used; and this opposition regulated the velocity of the cart.”

 

Solounias tried to anticipate objections he believed Einstein would make: “It is true that gravitational force is balanced by the equal and opposite supporting force of the plane, and that the resultant force acting on the cart is zero. But despite the balance of the two forces, there remains the pressure of the cart on the plane which is due to the gravity; and this pressure causes the cart to oppose to the motion, and this opposition, being directly proportional to the weight of the body, regulates the quantity of motion, the velocity of the cart. Consequently, any change of velocity of the cart to the motion, the change of opposition is due to the change of the quantity of pressure of the cart on the plane; and the change of pressure is due to the change of weight which is due to the change of the action of the gravitational force on the cart.”

 

Solounias believed that “The inertia of a body (or its opposition to any change of its state of rest or rectilinear uniform motion) does not exist at all as something independent and different of gravity.” He continued, “Dear Professor, Your conclusion of the identity of inertial and gravitational mass shows the right way of explaining the phenomena of gravitation; it shows the great role which inertia plays in the solution of this problem; and it leads to a deeper understanding of reality. Your experiment with the empty and loaded cart, leads to the idea that inertia and gravity are not two different things independent from each other, they are not two different physical laws; but they are manifestations of one and the same physical reality. Then, the conclusion which arises is that the law of inertia and the law of gravitation can be – must be – fused and unified to one unique law, which, I believe, could solve the problem of gravitation and generally, the problem of motion, in a manner absolutely satisfactory, firm and steady for ever.”

 

Solounias concluded by challenging Einstein to reject Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation: “You, indeed, saw the significance of the law of inertia in the explanation of phenomena of gravitation. But You did not find the courage to efface ‘universal attraction’ from the scientific books, as in the case of the ether You did. Universal attraction is an enfant terrible, more terrible than ether was. If in the creation of Your theory of General Relativity You had follow the same tactics against ‘attraction’, as in the case of ‘ether’ in Special Relativity You did, all relative problems would be now solved with an astonishing simplicity. When You saw the significance of inertia in the solution of the problem of gravitation, You catched the bull from the horns. But instead of killing it, instead of ousting the attraction, You preferred to substitute the ghost of ‘gravitational force’ by an other ghost, perhaps more strange, more terrible, the ‘gravitational field’. Thus, You transfered and postponed the solution of all difficulties, instead of removing them.” Solounias closed by pleading with Einstein to respond, as “It will help me a lot in my painful work to offer something, let it be small, in the evolution of Physics.”

 

Einstein did respond, with this letter of November 2, 1953. He praised Solounias’s logic but insisted that it contradicted observed facts.

 

On February 17, 1954, Solounias responded to this letter, explaining that he received it only after a delay of 34 days. It was a “great satisfaction” to him that his letter had interested Einstein. Solounias insisted that his viewpoint, rather than denying that ordinary mechanics describes the facts with great precision, was that “a fuller explanation of the facts is possible.” He admitted that Newton’s theory “gives, perhaps, a precise description of the facts.” “But,” Solounias pressed, “no one description, even the most precise, can be admitted as a full explanation, when there is not an absolute harmony between calculation and experiment and a logically possible and conceivable theory. But, I think that there exists not such an harmony with Newton’s theory, since physicists are obliged to call the attracting force ‘mysterious’ and presume that this force has so strange and unreasonable property as the ‘actio in distans’ without a medium, the ability to pass from one body to another in no time, the impossibility of isolating it etc. I think, therefore, that we ought to prefer a new theory when it does not oblige us to assume that a physical reality, as gravitation, has mysterious properties, when this theory is logically possible, simple and in full harmony with calculation and experiment.”

 

Like Solounias, Newton himself was uncomfortable with the notion of “action at a distance” that his equations implied. Einstein’s theory of general relativity explained gravitation as an attribute of curved spacetime, rather than being due to a force propagated between bodies. In general relativity, gravitational force is a fictitious force due to the curvature of spacetime.

 

Solounias went on to challenge Einstein’s assertions about pendulum-clocks and chronometers expressed in this letter and listed several reasons why “it is probable that the influence of the strength of the gravitational field on chronometers has not been observed.” He then quoted Charles A. Young’s description of an apparatus for the measurement of masses without weighing from Young’s Elements of Astronomy (1894), and suggests an experiment using it to prove or disprove his theory. Solounias then restated his hypothesis that “‘Inertial mass’ and ‘gravitational mass’ constitute one and the same physical reality.”

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was born in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg in the German Empire to non-observant Ashkenazi Jewish parents. In 1894, the Einstein family moved to Italy. Einstein went to Switzerland to finish his secondary schooling, and graduated from the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zürich in 1900. In 1903, he married Mileva Maric (1875-1948), with whom he had two sons. In 1919, they divorced and he married his cousin Elsa Löwenthal. In 1905, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Zürich. From 1908 to 1932, he taught at a series of universities in Switzerland, the Austrian Empire, and the German Empire. As a theoretical physicist, he published ground-breaking papers as early as 1905 and developed the theory of relativity including the mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc2. In 1922, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the photoelectric effect. In January 1933, when Adolph Hitler came to power, Einstein was visiting the United States and remained here, becoming a citizen in 1940. A year earlier, he signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning that Germany could develop a nuclear bomb, and urging the U.S. to become involved in uranium research, thus beginning the “Manhattan project.” Though he focused on the need to defeat Hitler during the war, afterwards he became known for efforts to further world peace. At the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., from 1933 until his death in 1955, he worked unsuccessfully to develop a unified field theory and to refute the accepted interpretation of quantum physics. Considered the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects of history, Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers and over 150 non-scientific works.

 

George Aristotle Solounias (1901-1981) was born in Pythagoreio of Samos, Greece, and received a high school education. He worked as a writer and as a businessman for land developer and importer Gerassimos Panas in Athens; he retired in the mid-1960s. Solounias was largely self-educated and was an amateur astronomer. He submitted several papers to the Academy of Athens about gravity and the solar system, and he published Paul, or the Search of the Absolute Truth (A Philosophical Dialogue) (1938, Greek), The Error of Newton (1939, Greek), Is There Universal Gravity? (1941, Greek), and The Origin of the Solar System: A New Theory (English, 1973). In addition to Einstein, Solounias also corresponded with J. Robert Oppenheimer between 1949 and 1964. Solounias married elementary school teacher Ioanna Katsimatidou (1908-1964) in 1933, and they had three children: Sibyl, who was a housewife and worked in a bank; Aristotle, who became a well-known artist; and Nikos, who is a professor of anatomy and evolutionary biology at the New York Institute of Technology and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History.

 

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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