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The Dissemination of Einstein's Theory of Time Through THE DISSEMINATION OF EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF TIME THROUGH PRINT, 1905-1979 A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Lonny Young August, 2007 THE DIS SEMINATION OF EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF TIME THROUGH PRINT, 1905-1979 Lonny Young Thesis Approved: Accepted: _________________________________ _________________________________ Advisor Dean of the College Dr. Kevin Kern Dr. Ronald F. Levant _________________________________ _________________________________ Faculty Reader Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Elizabeth Mancke Dr. George R. Newkome _________________________________ _________________________________ Department Chair Date Dr. Walter Hixson ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................v CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 The Physics Behind Time ........................................................................................2 Newton’s Absolute Time .........................................................................................3 The Establishment and Crisis of the Ether ...............................................................4 Special Relativity .....................................................................................................7 General Relativity ..................................................................................................12 The Resistance to Einstein and Relativity .............................................................15 General Overview ..................................................................................................17 Limitations .............................................................................................................21 II. COLLEGE PHYSICS TEXTBOOKS AND POPULAR BOOKS ..............................23 Textbooks for Physical Science Majors .................................................................27 Textbooks for Non-Physical Science Majors ........................................................37 General Analysis ....................................................................................................45 Popular Books........................................................................................................52 Conclusion .............................................................................................................56 III. MAGAZINES .............................................................................................................58 Science ...................................................................................................................62 Time ........................................................................................................................73 iii General Analysis ....................................................................................................82 IV. NEWSPAPERS ..........................................................................................................86 Letters to the Editor ...............................................................................................90 General Articles .....................................................................................................97 Book Reviews ......................................................................................................105 Editorials ..............................................................................................................109 General Analysis ..................................................................................................109 V. CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................................114 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................122 APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................128 iv LIST OF F IGURES Figure Page 1-1 View of laser from on board train ..........................................................................10 1-2 View of laser on train from ground........................................................................10 1-3 Time dilation equation ...........................................................................................12 1-4 The Equivalence Principle .....................................................................................13 1-5 Clocks on a rotating plane ......................................................................................14 2-1 Chart for the Analysis of Textbooks for Physical Science Majors ........................36 2-2 Chart for the Analysis of Textbooks for Non-Physical Science Majors ................44 3-1 Analysis of Magazine Articles in Science and Time ..............................................83 4-1 Appearances of Relativity in the New York Times .................................................88 4-2 Number of Expressions of Difficulty, Support, Resistance, Explanation, and Combinations Thereof in Letters to the Editor in the New York Times, 1910-1979 ..............................................................................................................91 4-3 The Number of Letters to the Editor That Discussed Time ...................................96 4-4 The Number of General Articles That Discussed Time .........................................99 4-5 Number of Expressi ons of Difficulty, Support, Resistance, Explanation, and Combinations Thereof in News Articles in the New York Times, 1910-1979 ............................................................................................................102 4-6 Number of Expressions of Difficulty, Support, Resistance, Explanation, and Interest in Book Reviews in the New York Ti mes, 1910-1979......................107 4-7 The Number of Book Reviews That Discussed Time .........................................108 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION For what is time? Who can readily and briefly e xplain this? Who can even in thought comprehend it, so as to utter a word about it? But what in discourse do we me ntion more familiarly and knowingly, than time? And, we understand, when we speak of it; we u nderstand also, when we hear it spoken of by another. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not: yet I say boldly that I know, that if nothing passed away, time past were not; and if nothing were coming, a time to come were not; and if nothing were, time present were not. 1 “For what is time?” This question was posed by St. Augustine of Hippo over 1,500 years ago, yet many still struggle to find the answer. Natural philosophers and sc i- entists have also struggled to find an answer for many years. Some have used the hea v- ens as a way of answering this question, while others have turned to philosophy. Many of the current theories about time come from the realm of physics, and in these theories, time can behave strangely. Despite widespread publication of the latest theories and co n- ceptions of time in textbooks, magazine and newspaper articles, a nd popular books, few people know of them, much less understand them. Instead, most people u nderstand time as they experience it; uniform and u nstoppable. In other words, time is absolute. Time does not begin, end, or change for man or god. It is infin ite, yet flee ting, fast but slow. Above all, time simply is. 1 St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessi ons , trans. E. B. Pusey (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1907), 262. 1 The concept of absolute time ruled science for over 2,200 years. Even now, abso- lute time “is what most people would take to be the common sense view.” 2 The reason that so many people hold ab solute time to be the common sense view is that it approxi- mates everyday experience so well. In fact, even the most extreme circu mstances –such as space flight–in which humans can currently place themselves, absolute time still a p- pears to hold. Currently , it is only in the realm of particle physics, in which particles travel near the speed of light, that scientists begin to o bserve time behaving in ways that do not seem to be normal. The Physics Behind Time While the Greek philosopher Aristotle was the fi rst to put forth the idea of abso- lute time, Sir Isaac Newton best and most completely developed the view that “one could unamb iguously measure the interval of time between two events and that this time would be the same whoever measured it provided the per son used a good clock.”3 Many scie n- tists up to the twentieth century considered the Newtonian view of absolute time as d e- finitive b ecause it corresponded so well with everyday experience. No one could a rgue that time was anything other than constant b eca use of the complete inability to challenge the convention established by Aristotle and c emented by Newton. The tec hnology to confirm or refute a bsolute time did not exist until the invention of the atomic clock nearly 250 years after Newton published his Principia . Fu rthermore, since no person could travel at speeds that would cause a measurable time dilation, no one could seriously co n- template or defend the idea that time was anything but absolute; the experience necessary 2 Stephen Hawking and Leonard
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