Re: [asa] Scientific Mysteries

I'm not sure of the temporal priorities but doubt that Hilbert would have been pursuing the appropriate line of thought if it hadn't been for Einstein's work.

Pauli's note on this in his well known book is interesting. "At the same time as Einstein, and independently, Hilbert, formulated the generally covariant field equations. ... His presentation, though, would not seem to be acceptable to physicists, for two reasons. First, the existence of a variational principle is assumed as an axiom. Secondly, of more importance, the field equations are not derived for an arbitrary system of matter, but are specifically based on Mie's theory of matter." Most theorists today I think would be a bit baffled by the 1st criticism.

BTW, this all helps to show the absurdity of the statement that "only six men in the world understand Einstein," not just today but at the time it was made ~1919. You can just go through the references in Pauli's book & find names of over a dozen people who had published on general relativity by then. (Someone once asked Eddington if it was true that only 3 people in the world undertood relativity & he said - jokingly - "Who is the third?")

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Alexanian, Moorad
  To: George Murphy ; George Cooper ; asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 11:42 AM
  Subject: RE: [asa] Scientific Mysteries

  What was the contribution of David Hilbert to general relativity? I read where Einstein was consulting Hilbert on what Hilbert was doing and, in fact, Hilbert published the equations of general relativity before Einstein did.

  Moorad

  From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of George Murphy
  Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 11:26 AM
  To: George Cooper; asa@calvin.edu
  Subject: Re: [asa] Scientific Mysteries

  "Gravitation is just the universe trying to straighten itself out" (E. Whittaker).

  (Something of an inside joke. The gravitational Lagrangian in Einstein's theory to be used in the principle of stationary action [sometimes inaccurately called "least action"] is the curvature scalar of space-time.)

  Shalom
  George
  http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

    ----- Original Message -----

    From: George Cooper

    To: asa@calvin.edu

    Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 10:53 AM

    Subject: RE: [asa] Scientific Mysteries

    Oh, I almost forgot.

    Gravity, what is it?

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Received on Fri Jun 13 09:38:45 2008