Albert Einstein Revisited
A Centennial Relativity Theory Essay

Balwant Bhaneja

By the time the Second War began and he was contented with the specter of Nazism, he, a German Jew, decided to leave for America. The famous letter he wrote on August 2,1939 is said to have persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to take the idea of the development of a nuclear bomb seriously. After the War, Einstein reverted to his earlier pacifist tendencies. Condemning the nuclear arms race, he wrote: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophes.”3

1905 - Birth of Relativity Theory

A century ago, in the year 1905 Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity was born. On June 30th, Einstein submitted his paper, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” to a leading German physics journal. He was 26 years old. His paper applied this theory to mass and energy, thereby formulating one of the most significant equations of the twentieth century, E=mc2.
His Nobel Prize for Physics came 16 years later after many years of diligent research which began with him applying the laws of gravity to the Special Theory of Relativity, resulting in a new Theory of Gravity. In 1914, Einstein, as Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Potsdam, and professor of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin completed his General Theory of Relativity. The general theory is the basis for calculations of large-scale motions in the universe, including discussions of the properties of black holes.
When British eclipse expeditions in 1919 confirmed Einstein’s predictions on the general theory of relativity, he was internationally acclaimed as a genius. Subsequently, he received the Nobel prize in 1921 (awarded in 1922) for his original contributions in physics, in particular for his work on the photo-electric effect that demonstrated the particle aspects of light with significant implications for the new field of quantum mechanics

Theories and search for Truth: A Critical Science champion

Einstein’s theory of relativity was responsible for a major paradigm shift in physics with significant trans-disciplinary impacts which included a new momentum to quantum physics, development of lasers and photonics, building of large particle accelerators to space science and cosmology. Thomas Kuhn, a philosopher of science, states in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolution that a novel theory in science is often a direct response to accumulating crises in science. He outlines the crisis in late nineteenth century physics that prepared the way for the emergence of the Relativity Theory. 4
One root of that crisis can be traced to the late 17m century when a number of natural philosophers, most notably Leibinz, criticized Newton’s retention of an updated version of the classic conception of absolute space. They were very nearly, though never quite, able to show that absolute positions and absolute motions were without any function at all in Newton’s system.5 There were technical problems because wave propagation in a mechanical ether governed by Newton’s laws did not provide accuracy for measurements of celestial observations. Subsequently James Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory, despite its grounding in Newtonian mechanical view, did not bring the results needed. The electromagnetic behaviour of bodies in motion without reference to ether drag made it difficult to introduce drag into Maxwell’s theory. A whole series of earlier observations therefore designed to detect drift through ether became anomalous. It is against this historical setting that Einstein’s special Theory of Relativity emerged in 1905.

The transition Horn Newtonian to Einsteinian mechanics illustrates that a scientific revolution based on Relativity Theory and Quantum Mechanics was taking place. Even though the variables and parameters representing spatial position, time, mass etc. still occurred in Newtonian physics, the physical referents of Einstein’s concepts were by no means identical with those of the former.6 For example, Newtonian Mass is conserved; Einsteinian is convertible with Energy. Only at low relative velocities the two may be measured in the same way, and even then they must not be conceived in the same way. Furthermore, what had been previously meant by space was necessary flat, homogeneous, isotropic and unaffected by the presence of matter, began the process of transition to Einstein’s universe of the curved space. The whole web of this new conceptual paradigm whose strands were space, time, matter, and force had to shift and be laid down again on nature whole.7

Whatever one may think about the status of Einstein’s theory of relativity, it certainly taught us to look at Newton’s (established theory of gravity) as a mere conjecture.8 Newton’s theory contradicted both Kepler’s and Galileo’s theories - although it explained them, owing to the fact that it contained them as approximations; and similarly Einstein’s theory contradicted Newton’s, which it likewise explained, and contained as an approximation.9 Einstein however never believed that his theory was really the last word, but that it was more than a good approximation to the true plausibility. The winning paradigm ultimately had to be a theory better than its competitors, in spite of the fact that it did not explain all the facts with which it was confronted. 10

In a way when significant scientific paradigm shift takes place, the world view changes with it. Led by a new paradigm, scientists adopt new instruments and look in new places and to a large extent they see new and different things, even in places they had looked before.11 Despite Einstein’s objection to indeterministic nature of quantum mechanics, it was for his contribution to that theory Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1922. Quantum mechanics was an approach led by Heisenberg, Schroedinger and Dirac in the 1920s to reformulate mechanics into a new theory based on Uncertainty Principle which stated that particles no longer had separate well-defined positions and velocities that could not be observed.12 Instead they have a quantum state, which is a combination of position and velocity. There is no single definite resuh for an observation, but a number of different possible outcomes with an explanation about how likely each of these will be.13

Though Einstein held fast to his physical determinism basis of the Relativity, he admired the quantum theory. Philosopher Karl Popper is of the view that Einstein’s criticism of the fashionable interpretation of quantum theory - the Copenhagen interpretation- was too easily brushed aside by most physicists of that time. It was only in the later half of the last Century theoretical physicists began to seriously explore the potential of combing the Relativity theory and Quantum mechanics.14

Another kind of research, the so-called thought experimentation, played an equally important role in exposing the old paradigm to existing knowledge in ways that isolated the root of crisis with a clarity usually unattainable in the laboratory.15 Kuhn’s view is that in the periods of acknowledged crisis in science the young scientist who has taken on to challenge an old paradigm have turned to philosophical analysis as a device for unlocking the riddles of their field, this sort of extraordinary scientific research is often done in conjunction with another. One sees this sort of thought experimentation in the writings of Galileo, Einstein, and Bohr. 16

Einstein was known for formulation of theories that were elegant and sharp rather than vague. Being consciously critical of his own theories, he deliberately sought for error elimination in his work.17 He was adamant that that the new quantum theory should not be considered as the final chapter of the history of physics, this is despite his conviction in physical determinism.

In search of an unified theory of physics

Until the end of his life Einstein searched for a unified field theory, whereby the phenomena of gravitation and electromagnetism could be derived from one set of equations. The time however was not ripe; there were partial theories of gravity and the electromagnetic force, but very little was known about the nuclear forces yet.18

Hawking in his A Brief History of Time states that the Uncertainty Principle grounded in the work of Bohr, Heisenberg and Dirac has become a fundamental feature of the universe in which we live. A successful unified field theory therefore must necessarily incorporate this principle. The prospects of finding such a theory seem to be much better now than in Einstein’s time because with advances in both particle accelerator physics and technology driven space probes, we know so much more about the universe. This picture has continued to change further in recent years. Physicists are now striving to combine Einstein’s relativity theory with quantum theory in a “theory of everything,” by means of such highly advanced mathematical models as “superstring” theories. 19

On the possibility of an unified theory, M.I. Sundaresan, 20 emeritus professor of physics at Carleton University is of the view that when the dictates of quantum mechanics and relativity are imposed, it has been found that it is not possible to construct a consistent theory in the space-time familiar to us, namely the three physical space dimensions and one time dimension. In a recent version of superstring theory, it has been shown that a mathematically consistent and physically meaningfully theory can be constructed in space-time with ten dimensions, that is six more dimensions than we have.
An interesting question with intriguing possibilities Sundaresan raises is that if the superstring theory is correct then we, who are ultimately made up of elementary particles which live in a ten-dimensional world, must also be living in a ten-dimensional world, only we are not consciously aware of the six extra dimensions of space. 21

E= mc²

In Einstein’s famous letter to Max Born, Einstein writes that 22: “You believe in the dice-playing God, and I in the perfect rule of law within a world of some objective reality which I try to catch in a wildly speculative way”. Popper states that Einstein’s widely speculative attempts to catch the reality are attempts to understand it, in a sense of the word ‘understand’ commonly used in humanities and social sciences. He points out interesting similarities between search for truth in science with seeking understanding in the humanities. 23 Popper states that “the reference to God in Einstein’s letter indicates another sense shared with the humanities - the attempt to understand the world of nature in the way we understand a work of art: as a creation”.
The E= mc2 equation accomplishes two things24: one, it shows the fundamental truth that “All” is in fact ‘’One”, and that the various forms of this One can be used either for our annihilation or for our highest good, depending on the consciousness with which it is used. Paradoxically, the equation provides both the means to destroy the world and scientific validation of liberating truth - that everything is interconnected and stems from a source. That source, Reality which Einstein laboured to discover may be residing both within and outside us. Ironically, he helped to demonstrate the essential unity of all creation. E=mc2 mathematically expresses the unity that matter and energy - the tangible and the intangible (invisible), the two are wholly equivalent and interchangeable, i.e. that mass is simply concentrated energy; and that energy is mass minus form.
In a recent work entitled, Big Bang: The Origin of Universe by Simon Singh, 25 the author describes an interesting meeting between Einstein and a Belgian George Lemaitre in 1933 during a seminar on the Hubble Telescope’s observation and the Big Bang model. Dr. Lemaitre in addition to being a Catholic priest was a mathematician who despite his religious background showed the possibility of a creation of the universe much different from as described in Genesis. It was a universe created through the “big­bang” explosion of clustering galaxies. Father Lemaitre’s work resulted in proving that the Big Bang model was consistent with Einstein’s equations.

Could the Matter and Energy in reality be the two sides of the same coin, inseparable from their source? Could it be that matter, much less the energy from which it is derived, not have been originally created from matter; and that matter being congealed energy may be gravitationally trapped light that may have been itself derived from Consciousness? Immense possibilities arise for further exploration.

Personal Ethics and World Peace

Einstein’s personal ethics led him repeatedly into public controversy. Einstein, who after returning to Germany from Switzerland in 1914 did not reapply for German citizenship, was one of only a handful of German professors who remained pacifist and did not support Germany’s war aims. After the war, Einstein’s political views as a pacifist pitted him against conservatives in Germany, who branded him a traitor and a defeatist. The public success accorded his theories of relativity evoked personal attacks in the 1920s by the anti-Semitic physicists Johannes Stark and Philipp Lenard, men who after 1932 tried to create a so-called Aryan physics in Germany. 26

Einstein was enormously impressed with the potential for nonviolent political action. In fact Einstein’s admiration for India’s pacifist leader Mohandass K. Gandhi, started long before Gandhi’s success with his non-violent political action vis-a-vis the British. In 1931, Einsteine wrote to Mahatma Gandhi27:

Potsdam
(Germany)
Respected Mr. Gandhi!
I use the presence of your friend in our home to send you these lines. You have shown through your works, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who have not discarded the method of violence. We may hope that your example will spread beyond the borders of your country, and will help to establish an international authority, respected by all, that will take decisions and replace war conflicts.
With sincere admiration,
Yours A. Einstein.
Ps: I hope that I will be able to meet you face to face some day,
That meeting never took place.

After the Second World War, Einstein’s personal ethics again surprised everyone. Evenb though he had declared himself a Zionist, he declined an offer from the Israeli government to be Head of State, and its second President. Einstein felt that the position would compromise his independence as a scientist, and instead chose to continue his collaboration with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in the establishment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.28

Instead of resolving the problems of oppression and dictatorships, the war not only left more than 50 million military and civilian casualties, but dragged the world into yet another Armageddon, the Cold War, which for its peace relied on nuclear deterrence. Einstein hoped that the Gandhian approach of non-violent civil disobedience would convince the superpowers to disarm their nuclear arsenal.29

Towards the end of his life, Einstein had come full circle on his personal ethics.
This time he collaborated with the pacifist mathematician-philosopher Bertrand Russell. One week before his death, he wrote his last letter, it was to Russell in which he agreed that his name should go on a manifesto urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons. It is fitting that one of Einstein’s last acts was to absolve himself tom the signing on to his June 1939 letter to Roosevelt. He was troubled that he was being judged as among the group of scientists responsible for having let the nuclear genie out of the bottle.

In 1955 the famous Russell- Einstein Manifesto was released, it called for the curtailment of nuclear weapons, forming the basis of the First Pugwash Conference, which brought together for the first time concerned scientists around the world to abandon nuclear weapons.30

Einstein on Einstein31 :

“I have never belonged wholeheartedly to a country, a state, nor to a circle of friends, nor even to my own family. When] was still a rather precocious young man, ] already realized most vividly the futility of the hopes and aspirations that most men pursue throughout their lives. Well-being and happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim. I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig.

References
(1) Carl Seeling ed., Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, New York: Dell Publishing Co. 1973
(2) Quoted in Eves, H. Mathematical Circles Adieu. Boston} 977
(3) Nathan, Otto and Norden, Heinz, eds., Einstein on Peace, New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
(4) Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Second Edition, Enlarged, International Encyclopaedia of Unified Science, VII, N.2, University of Chicago Press, 1971, pp.72-74
(5) Ibid., p.72, for further elaboration on theories of space in physics, see also quoted in Kuhn’s work - Jammer, Max, Concepts of Space: The History of Theories of Space in Physics, Mass., Cambridge, 1954, pp.I14-24
(6) Ibid., pp.l01-t02
(7) Ibid., p.149
(8) Popper, Karl R., Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach, London: Oxford University Press, 1974, p.9
(9) Ibid., p.19
(10) Kuhn, op cit. pp. 17-18
(11) Ibid., p.111
(12) Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Berkshire: Bantam Books, 1988, p.62
(13) Ibid., pp.61-63
(14) Popper,op. cit., p214-218; p.220
(15) Kuhn, op cit., p.88
(16) Ibid., p.89
(17) Popper, op.cit., p.25, p54-55 .
(18) Hawking, op. cit, p.l 71, pp.192-193
(19) Ibid. pp.171-193. There are more recent works on cosmos describing potential of cutting-edge work being done on superstring and M-theory. Brian Greene in his The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality, New York: Alfted A. Knopf, 2004 focuses upon the enigma oftime. He argues that nothing in the law of physics insists that time runs in any particular direction and that ‘’time’s arrow” is a relic of the universe’s condition at the time of big bang.
(20) From a lecture “A Particle Physicist’s Perception of God: IT” by Professor emeritus M.K. Sundaresan, Head of Department of Physics, Carleton University, Ottawa to the faculty and students of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning in Prashanti Nilayam, published in Sanathna Sarathi, January 1993, V.36, No.1, pp. 26-28
(21) Ibid.
(22) Popper, op.cit., p.183-184 see also footnote 32- Einstein’s letter is quoted in the original German in Max Born, Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance, 1949, p.122
(23) Ibid., pp.183-84. Popper points to four similarities in “understanding” in sciences and humanities: “(1) As we understand other people owing to our shared humanity, we may understand nature because we are part of it. (2) As we understand me in virtue of some rationality if their thoughts and actions, so we may understand the laws of nature because of some kind of rationality or understandable necessity inherent in them. (3) The reference to God in Einstein’s letter indicates another sense shared with the humanities­the attempt to understand the world of nature in the way we understand a work of art: as a creation. And (4) there is in the natural sciences that consciousness of an ultimate failure of all our attempts to understand which has been much discussed by students of the humanities. “
(24) An interesting perspective is provided by a close relation of Einstein, Mark Abrams on Einstein and God in a two-part article in Sanathna Sarathi, May 1992, pp 108-112.
(25) Singh, Simon, Big Bang: The Creation of Universe, London: Fourth Estate, 2005 ; see also Berger, A., The Big Bang and Georges Lemaitre: Proceedings of a Symposium in Honour of G. Lemaitre, 50 years after his initiation of Big Bang Cosmology, Louva, Dordrecht Holland: D. Reidel, November 1984
(26) The paragraph on Einstein’s public ethics comes ITom an internet source compiled by Dr. D. Parr,
(27) Translated text of the letter from Einstein to Gandhi dated 29 October 1931, see the comprehensive internet website of the web page presents Albert Einstein’s views on Mahatma Gandhi ~d Gandhi’s reply to Einstein - Source: Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 54.
(28) Same as footnote 26
(29) On Gandhi’s assassination in January 1948, Einstein said: “Generations to come, it may be, will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon the earth”. Quoted in Shirer, Wlliam L., Gandhi: A Memoir, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979, p.9
(30) Russell-Einstein Manifesto Issued in London, 9 July 1955, for text see internet website:
(31) C.P. Snow, Variety of Men, (UK: Harmondsworth, 1969) p. 77