The Special and General Theory of Relativity - A. Einstein, Angielskie techniczne
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RELATIVITY
THE SPECIAL AND GENERAL THEORY
ALBERT EINSTEIN
RELATIVITY
THE SPECIAL AND GENERAL THEORY
BY
ALBERT EINSTEIN, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN
TRANSLATED BY
ROBERT W. LAWSON, D.Sc., F. Inst. P.
UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
1920 EDITION
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Book:
Relativity
:
The Special and General Theory
Author: Albert Einstein, 1879–1955
First published: 1920
This PDF file contains the text of the first English translation of
Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie
, published
in 1920. (The index has not been included. A few misprints in the
original text have been corrected. They are marked by footnotes
enclosed in square brackets and signed “J.M.”)
The original book is
in the public domain in the United States. However, since Einstein
died in 1955, it is still under copyright in most other countries, for
example, those that use the life of the author + 50 years or life + 70
years for the duration of copyright. Readers outside the United States
should check their own countries’ c
certain
can legally download this ebook.
PREFACE
HE present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact
insight into the theory of Relativity to those readers who, from
a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are
interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the
mathematical apparatus
1
of theoretical physics. The work presumes a
standard of education corresponding to that of a university
matriculation examination, and, despite the shortness of the book, a
fair amount of patience and force of will on the part of the reader. The
author has spared himself no pains in his endeavour to present the
main ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the
whole, in the sequence and connection in which they actually
originated. In the interest of clearness, it appeared to me inevitable
that I should repeat myself frequently, without paying the slightest
attention to the elegance of the presentation. I adhered scrupulously to
the precept of that brilliant theoretical physicist, L. Boltzmann,
according to whom matters of elegance ought to be left to the tailor
and to the cobbler. I make no pretence of having withheld from the
reader difficulties which are inherent to the subject. On the other
hand, I have purposely treated the empirical physical foundations of
the theory in a “step-motherly” fashion, so that readers unfamiliar
with physics may not feel like the wanderer who was unable to see
1
The mathematical fundaments of the special theory of relativity are to be found in the
original papers of H. A. Lorentz, A. Einstein, H. Minkowski published under the title
Das
Relativitätsprinzip
(The Principle of Relativity) in B. G. Teubner’s collection of monographs
Fortschritte der mathematischen Wissenschaften
(Advances in the Mathematical Sciences),
also in M. Laue’s exhaustive book
Das Relativitäts prinzip
—published by Friedr. Vieweg &
Son, Braunschweig. The general theory of relativity, together with the necessary parts of the
theory of invariants, is dealt with in the author’s book
Die Grundlagen der allgemeinen
Relativitätstheorie
(The Foundations of the General Theory of Relativity)—Joh. Ambr.
Barth, 1916; this book assumes some familiarity with the special theory of relativity.
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