Relativity in Theory and in Practice
HAYES, E. NELSON
Relativity in Theory and in Practice Einstein By Ronald W. Clark World. 718 pp. $15.00. The Born-Einstein Letters Willi Commentaries by Max Born Walker. 240 pp. $8.50. Reviewed by E....
...Today the dice of quantum mechanics still roll, and most physicists and mathematicians agree that a Unified Field Theory is impossible to formulate because elementary particles do indeed behave differently from macroscopic bodies...
...The biographer, then, becomes a kindly-eccentric apologist...
...The phrasing seems to allow of Clark's interpretation that Leo Szilard was "a combination of stage manager and producer," and Einstein but a puppet...
...During the early years of his life the Jews of Germany finally "made it" into upper intellectual circles...
...As he wrote Born in 1944: "We have become Antipodean in our expectations...
...The classic expositions for the layman continue to be Einstein's own writings, most notably The Evolution of Physics (1938), a work aimed at giving "some idea of the eternal struggle of the inventive human mind for a fuller understanding of the laws governing physical phenomena...
...He perhaps senses his own weakness, for there are numerous repetitions, rather like those of a lecturer who feels he may have lost his audience and so tries a new presentation of what he has already said...
...By 1919, Einstein's scientific originality was virtually at an end...
...Several examples will establish the role...
...If some sensed a little of what was to occur, the usual reaction was to perish the thought, and so to perish...
...Thus we often miss the emotional link between two seemingly contradictory acts or public statements...
...The publication of those letters is both a literary and a scientific event, for they reveal both professional and social concerns: the professional, often in terms the layman can understand, shows how scientists "chew" their ideas...
...The key is deceptively simple...
...In 1913, Einstein accepted a position in Berlin...
...Clark's comment: "His ability to disregard his wartime activity suggests a psychological failing rather than dishonesty," a distinction honest men surely do not make...
...And he viewed the physical universe as governed neither by the rigid mechanisms of Newton nor by the random quanta of Planck and his heirs...
...But he had of course written that famous letter to President Roosevelt in September 1939, and during World War II had done research on explosives for the Naval Bureau of Ordnance...
...It was therefore not uncommon, especially among intellectuals, for Jews to change religion and in other ways seek to become "integrated...
...To an extent the vaccine took, and many came to feel they were German first and Jewish second, if at all...
...Philosophically and politically, he balanced—precariously, as do all such men—between the absolutes of Right and Left...
...National pride overrode misgivings about national policy...
...While rejecting the popular view of Einstein as a kindly eccentric, Clark repeatedly describes him as a man of "weakness in a predatory world," a victim of the machinations and selfish interests of others...
...Reviewed by E. Nelson Hayes RONALD W. CLARK has distinguished himself in a number of biographies, notably of the Huxley family and of Sir Henry Thomas Tizard...
...If the consequence was tragedy, it is the tragedy of all rational men in our time...
...in particular, they had become free to work in science, medicine, law, and aca-demia, and were given full credit...
...These days he would think of himself as practicing situation ethics, knowing that every event is unique, that the pacifism of one moment may necessarily become the belligerence of the next...
...In Berlin, under the conditions provided by Planck and Nernst, Einstein would be unencumbered by money worries, would avoid the disturbing conflicts of a teaching routine...
...He has not done so in his latest book...
...For example, Samuel Langlsy was never a professor at Harvard, and not even there when he invented the bolometer...
...You believe in the God who plays dice, and I in complete law and order in a world which objectively exists and which I, in a wildly speculative way, am trying to capture...
...Einstein abhorred absolutes...
...Although he has adequate access to the record of Einstein's life and offers a mass of detail that cannot be found in the earlier biographies, he is rarely able to fathom Einstein's psychological complexity...
...Bom's lengthy commentaries are also extremely helpful...
...A more likely explanation for Einstein's return from Switzerland is that he had not yet ceased to be German...
...The 1916 paper inspired German physicist Max Born to write: "The theory appeared to me . . . the greatest feat of human thinking about nature, the most amazing combination of philosophical penetration, physical intuition, and mathematical skill...
...Exactly 20 years later, he declared that he had "never worked in the field of applied science, let alone for the military...
...Mors important, in such matters as defining a blackbody or explaining relativity, Clark is simply inadequate...
...Clark sees him as "one of the great tragic figures of our time," a man torn by contradictions and conflicts and beaten down by defeat...
...The biographer adds that in any case, Einstein did not believe such weapons could be manufactured before the end of the War, a demeaning judgment on the physicist's knowledge and foresight...
...Eleven years later, he produced his paper on the General Theory of Relativity, which includes frames of reference that are accelerating or decelerating with respect to each other...
...He attempted to incorporate into the General Theory all other fields of force, and chiefly those of elementary particles...
...Clark writes: "Seventeen years previously he had renounced not only German nationality but what he considered the essential Germanism: reverence for obedience, regimentation of the body, and a rigidity of the spirit...
...Rather, his career was crowned by achievements and triumphs perhaps unmatched in the 20th century...
...In 1905, Einstein published his famous paper on the Special Theory of Relativity, which expresses laws of macroscopic physics in terms of frames of reference at constant velocity relative to each other...
...The rest of his professional career he spent—in his own phrase—as "a genuine old museum piece...
...Concerning that letter—in fact, there were three—Einstein later expressed self-damning regret: "I made one great mistake in my life when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be built...
...a great work of art...
...throwing down an intellectual gauntlet, taking a calculated risk, were actions which not only had led to Einstein's fame but were typical of his mental makeup...
...Socially, they had not achieved so much and were shunned by powerful segments of German society...
...Matching this obtuseness on Clark's part is some considerable difficulty with the science, ranging from detail to explanation of theory...
...There are several minor errors in the presentation of the equation for Planck's constant, too, although these may be instances of the generally poor copy editing and proofreading...
...Born later wrote his own paper on the foundations of relativity and submitted it to Einstein for comment...
...But clearly, Einstein was not a great man brought low through hubris...
...There resulted a correspondence and friendship that lasted until Einstein's death in 1955...
...Otherwise, Einstein's remaining years were devoted to pacifism, Zionism, world government, and a general tolerance of varying behavior among other men of good will...
...the social displays the passion and eloquence of two men of good will...
...Einstein was quickly disillusioned after his arrival in Berlin, particularly by the fervent support that so many intellectuals, including many Jews, were giving to the Prussian cause in World War I. Yet he was not to leave for good until 1932...
Vol. 54 • August 1971 • No. 16
