Einstein and Ether Drift Experiments

MAY 01, 1987

Recently discovered letters, written at the turn of the century to his fiancée, shed new light on the origin of the special theory of relativity.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881109

John Stachel

Volume 1 of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, to be published on 22 May, contains a number of previously unpublished lecture notes, examination papers and letters by Einstein. Among the most notable new items are 42 letters written between 1898 and 1902 to his fiancée Mileva Marić, whom he met while they were fellow students of physics at the Swiss Polytechnical School in Zurich, which both entered in 1896.

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References

1. J. Stachel et al., eds., The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein: The Early Years (1879–1902),
Princeton U.P., Princeton, N.J. (1987). All Einstein quotations are translated from this volume with the kind permission of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2. A. Einstein, Ann. Phys. (Leipzig) 17, 891 (1905).https://doi.org/ANPYA2
3. For studies of the relationship of the Michelson‐Morley experiment to Einstein’s work, see the fundamental article by G. Holton, reprinted in G. Holton, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought, Harvard U.P., Cambridge, Mass. (1973), p. 261.
See also J. Stachel, Astron. Nachr. 303, 47 (1982).https://doi.org/ASNAAN
4. R. Kayser [under the pseudonym A. Reiser], Albert Einstein: A Biographical Portrait, Boni, New York (1930), p. 52.
5. J. Ishiwara, Einstein Kyôzyu‐Kôen‐roku [The Record of Professor Einstein’s Lectures], Kabushika Kaisha, Tokyo (1971), p. 79.
Widely differing English translations of the relevant passages on the origins of special relativity have appeared. [See, for example, PHYSICS TODAY, August 1982, p. 45, and the letter by Arthur Miller on page 9 of this issue.] Fortunately, they all agree more or less closely on the passage cited. (I have also consulted a German translation prepared by H. J. Haubold and E. Yasui, whom I thank for making it available to me.)
For the translation used here, see J. Stachel, Astron. Nachr. 303, 47 (1982).https://doi.org/ASNAAN
6. See J. Stachel, Astron. Nachr. 303, 47 (1982) for references and details.https://doi.org/ASNAAN
7. W. Wien, Ann. Phys. (Leipzig) 65(3), Beilage (1898), p. i.https://doi.org/ANPYA2
8. H. A. Lorentz, Versuch einer Theorie der elektrischen und optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten Körpern, Brill, Leiden (1895). Einstein later recalled that this was the only work by Lorentz he read before writing his paper on special relativity.
9. P. Drude, Lehrbuch der Optik, Hirzel, Leipzig (1900). Chapter VIII of section 2 of the part on physical optics is entitled “Bewegte Körper.”
10. See J. Stachel, Astron. Nachr. 303, 47 (1982); and my article to appear in Atti del Convegno Internazionale: L’Opera di Einstein.https://doi.org/ASNAAN

More about the authors

John Stachel, Boston University.