NEWS AND VIEWS Stefan Marinov's seasonal puzzle

With yet another holiday season brewing up in the Northern Hemispehere, readers may wish to brood on a conundrum devised by an anti-relativist. No prizes are offered for a solution.

STEFAN Marinov, the exiled Bulgarian ductors arranged as two concentric circles. cuit is rotated about its centre? Relativity now living in in , is Equal electrical currents are circulated in theory naturally predicts that the voltage himself a puzzle. He is indefatigable in the each, but in opposite directions. The across the sliding conductor would be the prosecution of what seems to be his only simplest way of creating this arrangement same as in the first experiment, and with cause, which is to prove that Einstein's is to cut through the concentric pair at the same polarity. On the other hand, theory of relativity is a pack of lies. some point and to join the loose ends in questions may be raised about the degree Marinov claims, among other things, to pairs by short lengths of straight conduc­ to which the pattern of magnetic forces have shown by direct measurement that tor. An electromotive force applied any­ generated by the current is dragged the velocity of light differs according to where along the conductor will engender a around the ring by its rotation. Maybe the direction of its travel along a fixed current which must be everywhere uni­ there is a smaller voltage, but with the path. He has also partly developed what form. At the bridged gap, there will be same polarity. What, asks Marinov, is the he says is a perpetual motion machine, a equal currents flowing in opposite direc­ answer? kind of Wimshurst machine driven by an tions, so their influence on the magnetic The second conundrum is superficially electric motor which, when last inspected fields in the concentric gap will be zero. simpler: simply rotate the apparatus in its at this journal's London office, was said to The device is thus a means of arranging own plane, about the centre of the con­ require a car battery for its operation. that there is a uniform magnetic field in centric circles. (There will be a small vol­ But most of Marinov's work is theoret­ the space between the concentric circles in tage due to the Earth's magnetic field, but ical. Over the years, he has bombarded a direction perpendicular to their plane this may safely be neglected.) Is there now this and other journals with a series of (downwards into the plane of the paper a voltage, and with what polarity? If the papers with titles such as "The myths in when the current in the circuit flows in the answer to the first question is "Yes" the " and "Violations of the laws of direction indicated). The sensor in the answer to the second must be "No", and conservation of angular momentum and experiment is a conductor long enough vice versa. Readers are invited to make up energy". Details of his correspondence just to bridge the gap between the con­ their minds before reading on. with several editors may be found in his centric circles and mounted on thin insul­ Marinov's own answers are unambigu­ series of volumes called The Thorny Way ating supports in such a way that it can be ous. Vice versa wins the day. When the of Truth, of which seven volumes have made to slide around the circle. The underlying concentric circuit is rotated now been published by International objective is to measure the voltage across and the slider is kept fixed, there is no Publishers (East-West) at Graz, of which the sliding conductor, either by a standard voltage across the movable conductor. Marinov appears to be the sole owner. voltmeter or by a condenser whose But when the whole apparatus is rotated (From time to time, Marinov threatens accumulated charge will be a measure of about its centre, the voltage across the to immolate himself in front of a British the voltage in a steady state. now-moving sliding conductor is identical embassy or consulate if he cannot get an with that obtained when the slider is mov­ answer to a question about the publication ing relative to the concentric circuit. of one of his papers. Some years ago, The implications are evidently impor­ when embarked on such an enterprise tant. The null answer to Marinov's first outside the British consulate at Genoa, question implies that relativity has vanished Marinov ran away when the police through the window, the affirmative approached. Afterwards he explained answer to the second implies that an that he had done so because he was in Italy isolated apparatus carrying a circulating illegally, without a visa. Mercifully, he has current will generate a voltage when not threatened to immolate himself on rotated, which raises forbidden questions 's account for many months.) about absolute space. Indeed, Marinov Part of everybody's difficulty is that has devised a gedanken measurement of too little is said about the details of the The simplest case is when the sliding the Earth's velocity through space by experiments whose results are said to conductor is at rest. Then there is no vol­ stretching his concentric circuit into a contradict common expectation for even tage. Right? Next comes the case in which linear version of it. He also claims that sympathetic critics to be able to provide the sliding conductor moves at uniform these violations of simple expectation are constructive statements of how they and speed around the concentric gap, always the basis on which his perpetual motion Marinov part company. Another is that pointing along a radius of the concentric machine is built. Marinov's single-minded zeal for his own circles. As the slider moves, it will cut What is the truth? Nobody is quite sure, conviction considerably outstrips the zeal through magnetic lines of force at a con­ for nobody has done the experiments - of those who may disagree. But from time stant rate, so there will be a constant vol­ not even Marinov. Indeed, one's confi­ to time, in Marinov's copious writings, tage across the ends. The polarity of the dence in the whole enterprise is somewhat there are relatively simple arguments that slider will depend only on the direction of undermined by Marinov's flat statement appear accessible even to those still at high the current in the concentric circuit, and that he does not bother to repeat exper­ school. Here is one series of gedanken not on whether the slider moves clockwise iments whose outcome must be obvious. experiments presented as if it were a or anticlockwise. Right again? For one whose confidence in his own het­ Christmas puzzle (the original intention), Now comes the tricky part, at least so erodoxy appears to be sustained only with some helpful (or misleading) hints for far as Marinov is concerned. What hap­ by his confidence that experiments will its solution. pens if the sliding conductor is fixed in prove him right, Marinov seems curiously The figure shows a pair of circular con- space, but the underlying concentric cir- passive in the business. NATURE · VOL 346 · 12 JULY 1990 103 © 1990 Nature Publishing Group