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History 181B:  Modern Physics
Class 18 (2/26/01) 
Einstein's relativity
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Outline Einstein's formulation of the 1905 paper
     Building up the paper:  kinematics, electromagnetics
     Logical structure
          An axiomatic presentation with two postulates
          Keeping an eye out for what changes and what is constant

The background

     Philosophical:  operational definitions and observable consequences
          Principle 1:  Trace everything back to sensations and measurements
          Principle 2:  Avoid postulating things without experimental effects

     Experimental:  attempts to detect the aether
          Light on a planet rushing through the aether
          Michelson's apparatus
          Interpreting a null result

     Theoretical:  Lorentz's electron theory
          Lorentz's results on the electrodynamics of moving bodies
          Einstein's relation to Lorentz and to the aether experiments

     Practical:  Einstein in the patent office

The reception of relativity
     Electromagnetism
     Mechanics
Names and terms 
Primary Secondary
"On the electrodynamics of moving bodies" (1905)
invariance
Ernst Mach (1838-1916)
Albert Michelson (1852-1931), NP 1907
Michelson-Morley experiment
interferometer
H.A. Lorentz (1853-1928), NP 1902
Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction		 David Hume (1711-1776)
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912)
second-order effect:  (v/c)²
 

The pages missing from the reader are available here:  pp.142, 143 (from "Electrodynamics" paper), 36, 37 (from "Autobiographical notes").
Copyright © Cathryn Carson 2001