Ptak Science Books

The Only Photograph of Einstein's Derivation of the Mass-Energy Equivalence?

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

[The equation in question is at bottom-left; full explanation here.]

I came across an article while researching a work by H.P. Robertson--Lectures on Relativity (Princeton 1935)--and it is much more interesting than what I was actually looking for.  It seems that in the history of Einstein working his famous E = mc² on blackboards around the world that there are no surviving pictures of the man and the chalk and the equation. 

In their article "Einstein's 1934 Two-Blackboard Derivation of Energy-Mass Equivalence" (found in the American Journal of Physics, 75 (11), November 2007, pp 978-983) David Topper and Dwight Vincent of the University of Winnipeg sort it out and reproduce a not-sharp (but essential!) halftone newspaper file photo clipping showing Einstein doing just this, using two blackboards for the derivation of the equivalence of mass and energy during a public lecture in Pittsburgh in 1934. 

In their short excellent article they do a fine job of discussing the history of these sorts of images as well as provide a nice description of what's ont he blackboard.  I urge a reading of the full article found here. 

Einstein--(A) List of Complete Publications; (B) Most Often Cited Papers, & (C) Contemporary Reviews (D) In the Annalen der Physik

JF Ptak Science Books   Reference Post

• Below are three quck reference lists regading publications of Albert Einstein. Section A is a complete list of his works; Section B, a list of hi smost ofte-cited papers; Section C is a collection of some contemporary reviews of papers published 1904-1920; Section D is a listing of Einstein papers in the Annalen der Physik

A) Quick Complete Publications of Albert Einstein, Listed Chronologically.

[Titles are in English]

1901 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 4(3):513-523
Conclusions from the capillarity occurrences       

1902 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 8(8):798-814
The thermodynamic theory of the potential differences between metals and complete dissociation solutions of their salts and a electrical method towards the probing of molecular power      

Reference Tool: a Short and Handy Timeline of Quantum Mechanics, 1900-1962

A Short Timeline of Quantum Mechanics, 1900-1962

1900 Johannes Rydberg refines the expression for observed hydrogen line wavelengths.

1900 Max Planck states his quantum hypothesis and blackbody radiation law1902 Philipp Lenard observes that maximum photoelectron energies are independent of illuminating intensity but depend on frequency.

1902 Theodor Svedberg suggests that fluctuations in molecular bombardment cause the Brownian motion.

1905 Albert Einstein explains the photoelectric effect.

Reference Tool: Handy List of Nobel Prizes Awarded in Physics

(For some reason I couldn't find a simple listing of Nobel Prize winners listed alphabetically--so here one is. This is linked to the Nobel site which of course has an exhaustive listing of winners and reasons for the award; this list is a simple thumbnail of the winners.)

Note: about halfway down is a descending list of recipients with the Nobel Foundation's reasons for the awards.  All text in the descrption for the award is from the Nobel Foundation site.  (This ends/begins in 1997--I'll get this up to date shortly.) 

For videos of the recipients' Nobel lectures, see here.

Abrikosov, Alexei A. 2003
Alferov, Zhores I. 2000
Alfven, Hannes 1970
Alvarez, Luis W. 1968
Anderson, Carl David 1936
Anderson, Philip W. 1977

Index of the Scientific Papers of Albert Einstein, 1901-1955

 

JF Ptak Science Books LLC

1901 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 4(3):513-523
Conclusions from the capillarity occurrences       

1902 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 8(8):798-814
The thermodynamic theory of the potential differences between metals and complete dissociation solutions of their salts and a electrical method towards the probing of molecular power      

1902 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 9(10):417-433
Kinetic theory of the heat equilibrium and the second fundamental theorem of the thermodynamics      

1903 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 11(5):170-187
A theory on the basics of thermodynamics      

Inside Looking Out: Ernst Mach vs. the Hudson River

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1913

I cannot think of another illustration by a scientist or philosopher who attempts to explain their own, literal, view of the world and then offer what this looks like to the reader from inside his own head, looking out through his own eye.  That's exactly what Ernst Mach is doing right here on page 15 of his influential book Die Analyse der Empfindungen,  the fourth German edition ("The Analysis of Sensations and the Relation of the Physical to the Pyschical", published in Jena in 1903).

There is nothing in this world for Mach that is not admissible to the human brain that is not empirically verifiable--that is, the world is nothing but awash in sensation and that sensation itself forms part of the experience of, well, experience. I've actually never been interested in the philosophy of science, and this is one of the reasons why.  Nevertheless I boldly break through my own prejudices to enjoy this phenomenally original image, drawn from the inside of Mach's working mind, looking out through his eye socket, over his mustache, under his eyebrow, around his nose, out across his body and then leaping into the rest of the world.  I think he does make his point about the essential nature of the observer. And much like the classic Steinberg New Yorker cartoon of the world view of the New Yorker (of course this includes only Manhattan), I know some number of people who have transposed their bodies much like Herr Mach into the Steinberg map--except that their worldview ends basically at the Hudson River (Mach's feet) with the rest of the world being the sliver out there beyond the river (Mach's window) until you go 359 degrees around the world to get back to the East River (and back inside Mach's noggin).  It is an unusual world view to have, but someone has to have it so that we can at least identify it so. 

I just like the picture.   

(Section 10, describing this image,  with translation by C M Williams and Sydney Waterlow from the blessed Dover people in 1959):

"The considerations just advanced, expressed as they have been in an abstract form, will gain in strength and vividness if we consider the concrete facts from which they flow. Thus, I lie upon my sofa. If I close my right eye, the picture represented in the accompanying cut is presented to my left eye In a frame formed by the ridge of my eyebrow, by my nose, and by my moustache, appears a part of my body, so far as visible, with its environment. My body differs from other human bodies - beyond the fact that every intense motor idea is immediately expressed by a movement of it, and that, if it is touched, more striking changes are determined than if other bodies are touched - by the circumstance, that it is only seen piecemeal, and, especially, is seen without a head. If I observe an element A within my field of vision, and investigate its connexion with another element B within the same field, I step out of the domain of physics into that of physiology or psychology, provided B, to use the apposite expression of a friend of mine made upon seeing this drawing, passes through my skin. Reflexions like that for the field of vision may be made with regard to the province of touch and the perceptual domains of the other senses."

Index of the Scientific Papers of Erwin Schroedinger, 1914-1955

1914 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 44 (14): 916-934
Schrodinger E
The dynamics of elastically coupled point systems

1914 PHYSIKALISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT 15: 79-86
Schrodinger E
Acidity which produces interference patterns with x-rays.

Index of the Scientific Papers of Niels Bohr, 1909-1955

Niels Bohr Works, 1909-1955.  This list is assembled from the data from the HistCite of the Garfield Library of the University of Pennsylvania. 

1909 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON SERIES A-CONTAINING PAPERS OF A MATHEMATICAL OR PHYSICAL CHARACTER 209: 281-317
Bohr N
Determination of the surface-tension of water by the method of jet vibration

1910 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON SERIES A-CONTAINING PAPERS OF A MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTER 89 (572): 395-403
Bohr N
On the determination of the tension of a recently formed water-surface.

Index of the Scientific Papers of Ernest Rutherford, 1900-1942

JF Ptak Science Books  

1900 PHYSIKALISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT 1: 347-348
Rutherford, E
Concerning radioactive thorium compounds

1900 PHYSIKALISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT 2: 53-55
Rutherford E; Kling RKM
The energy of the becquerel-and x-rays and the necessary energy for the production of ions in gases.

Index of the Scientific Papers of Max Planck (1900-1949)

Scientific Papers of Max Planck, 1900-1949

Arranged from the tremendous data haul at the HiteCite index at the University of Pennsylvania

1900 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 1 (1): 69-122
Planck M    Irreversible radiation procedures

1900 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 1 (3): 621-U11

Planck M    Comments on an essay on thermodynamics by Mr K Wesendonck

50-Year Single-Line Timeline of Physics, 1950-2000

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

PHYSICS Timeline, 1950-2000 (adapted from the weburbia.com site)

1950: Paul Dirac, first suggestion of string theory
1950: Seaborg, Ghiorso, Street, Thompson, element 98, californium
1950: Jan Oort, theory of comet origins
1950: Bjorklund, Crandall, Moyer, York, Neutral pion
1950: Albert Einstein, Einstein's failed unified theory
1951: Smith and Baade, identify a radio galaxy
1951: Petermann, Stueckelberg, renormalisation group
1952: Courant, Livingston, Snyder, Strong focusing principle for particle accelerators

Descartes--Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD OF RIGHTLY CONDUCTING THE REASON, AND SEEKING TRUTH IN THE SCIENCES  by Rene Descarte. 

Descartes contributed a towering amount in the history of science and in establishing modern Western philosophy, all accomplished in a relatively short period of time, as Descartes for all of his massive output only lived to be 54 (1596-1650)...and most of that was completed between 1630 and 1650.  Twenty years. Outstanding. 

René Descartes. Engraving by Jacques Lubin, after Frans Hals (via Houghton Library blog, here).

"PREFATORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR

If this Discourse appear too long
to be read at once, it may be divided into six Parts: and, in the first, will
be found various considerations touching the Sciences; in the second, the
principal rules of the Method which the Author has discovered, in the third,
certain of the rules of Morals which he has deduced from this Method; in the
fourth, the reasonings by which he establishes the existence of God and of the
Human Soul, which are the foundations of his Metaphysic; in the fifth, the
order of the Physical questions which he has investigated, and, in particular,
the explication of the motion of the heart and of some other difficulties
pertaining to Medicine, as also the difference between the soul of man and that
of the brutes; and, in the last, what the Author believes to be required in order
to greater advancement in the investigation of Nature than has yet been made,
with the reasons that have induced him to write.

"Where Light is declared to be not Similar"--Isaac Newton's First Publication, 1672

JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1907

Next:  on Intitutionalized Nonthinking: the "Negro Pencil" 1938

"...Where Light is declared to be not Similar..."--from the "abstract" of Newton's experimentum crucis

There were four main contributors to the 19 February 1672 issue of the yet-young Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, (No. 80,  pp. 3075-3087). One original papers and three reviews of recently published books:  the first book was a description of the coast of eastern India by Phil. Baldeus; the second, a work on the philosophy of "Renati Des Cartes"; and third, "an essay on the advancement of MUSICK, by Thomas Salmon¹.  These three have a common trait in that they are mostly entirely forgotten though the works seem interesting to me.  The scientific paper was written by Isasac Newton:  "New Theory about Light and Colors".  Though it was his very first publication² (coming at age 29), it was already the result of years' worth of hard thought and experimentation³. It also among the most important things he ever published, and was a direct link to his superlative and iconic work published as Opticks in 1704.

(It is interesting to note that the date on the title page is given as "February 19, 1671/72". This refers to a bubble int he calendar system at the time, where in some quarters the old first day of the year was celebrated on March 25, a practice which didn't firmly disappear until 1752.  So th e"1671/72" bit refers to the year being 1671 according to the Old System and 1672 according to the New.)

Newton was simply the most important person in the history of science.  Aside from all of his many iconic and revolutionary accomplishments, one thing that sands out over the collective of greatness is that he applied a sameness in investigation of different fields, a constant standard of scientific method across the disciplines, which was not necessarily the case with science folks, even extending back into the dimness of the great ancient philosophers.  This in itself was a most major accomplishment.

Einstein at 10: School Photograph

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

 

There is a reminder on our refrigerator for class pictures being made for our younger daughter's elementary school this Friday.  It never fails to remind me of simpler times for not-so-simple people, time that would soon be overtaken by the complex time of the rest-of-their-lives.  One of my favorite images of this impending wave of life is this:

This shows Albert Einstein in Munich at the Luitpold Gymnasium in 1889, when he was 10. (The source for his image, Ronald Clark's illustrated biography of Einstein, says that it is from the 1890's, which is just wrong. Einstein is third from right, front row. In many reproductions of this photographs the boy on the far right of the front row is usually lopped off--I've imagiend a rich life for him from time to time, excised as he was from one of the most famous schoolboy photographs of the last 125 years.)

It was a fiction or fairy tale that Einstein was an average student when he was young--he was in fact a prodigy, and tested out so long as he was somewhat interested, tested out in all areas save one:  French.  Latin and Greek were good.  French, not so.  It was a main stumbling block for him throughout his young academic career.  And that's a pity.  More so, really, when you consider the amount of interest French scientific publications gave to Einstein in the early years, 1905-1908; and conversely, how much time and effort Einstein gave to the French, which was very little, and almost no attention at all when the greatest mathematician of the day, Henri Poincare, especially whe the great man died (in 1911). It has little to do with the actual language part--but that's another story.)

 It was a time of big discovery for the little man, though not so much of that discovery took place in school, and the school itself was a trial. But at least right at this point, when this photo was made, he looked happy.

New Page Announcement: Contemporary Abstracts of Einstein, 1905-1920

I've established a new page (column at left) to accompany the other Einstein pages, this on abstracts and reviews of Einstein's work (1905-1920) appearing in Science Abstracts (London, Institute for Electrical Engineers).