Re: [asa] Scientific Mysteries

I think Max Jammer is likely right (in his book Einstein and Religion) that Einstein's interest in a static universe was connected with his belief in Spinoza's pantheism in which God and the universe are different terms for the same thing (deus sive natura). So if God is immutable, the universe must be immutable too. Jammer suggests that this may have been at least part of the reason behind his introduction of the cosmological term.

But it's wrong to describe the cosmological constant as a mere fudge factor. In the first place the cosmological term in the field equations is a logical possibility from the start, & in Einstein's 1915 paper on general relativity there's a footnote effectively stating that. If Einstein hadn't introduced it as he did, someone else would have for some reason. Second, Einstein didn't just put the term in his equations and leave it at that. In his 1921 lectures at Princeton he suggested that the additional term could be related to the "Poincare stresses" that had been added to Maxwell's theory to balance electrostatic repulsion & make a classical electron possible. These have some similarity with "regulator" fields which have been used in quantum field theory, & thus there's some connection with modern attempts to explain dark energy in terms of quantum vacuum fluctuation. (The 1921 lectures are the basis for Einstein's The Meaning of Relativity which is still in print - the relevant material is on pp.105-106.)

Einstein did, as Moorad suggests, have some arrogance. Supposedly when he was asked what he would have done if the results on bending of starlight by the sun agreed with Newton's theory rather than his own, he said, "Then I would have been sorry for the dear Lord." (Of course arrogance is not unknown among other scientists - & for that matter, theologians!)

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: George Cooper
  To: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 2:02 PM
  Subject: RE: [asa] Scientific Mysteries

  Any idea why Einstein originally considered Lemaitre's GR work inferior? Einstein, apparently, stated: "Vos calculs sont corrects, mais votre physique est abominable" (Your math is correct, but your physics is abominable).

  [per Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre]

  [Sometimes it seems people underestimate the Georges of this world. *wink*]

  "Coope"

  From: George Murphy [mailto:GMURPHY10@neo.rr.com]
  Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 8:34 AM
  To: Alexanian, Moorad; George Cooper; asa@calvin.edu
  Subject: 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 15:23:58 2008