Relativity - The Special and General Theory - Albert Einstein (e books for reading txt) 📗

like manner with each of these squares until finally the whole marble slab is laid out with squares. The arrangement is such, that each side of a square belongs to two squares and each corner to four squares.

It is a veritable wonder that we can carry out this business without getting into the greatest difficulties. We only need to think of the following. If at any moment three squares meet at a corner, then two sides of the fourth square are already laid, and, as a consequence, the arrangement of the remaining two sides of the square is already completely determined. But I am now no longer able to adjust the quadrilateral so that its diagonals may be equal. If they are equal of their own accord, then this is an especial favour of the marble slab and of the little rods, about which I can only be thankfully surprised. We must experience many such surprises if the construction is to be successful.

If everything has really gone smoothly, then I say that the points of the marble slab constitute a Euclidean continuum with respect to the little rod, which has been used as a ” distance ” (line-interval). By choosing one corner of a square as ” origin” I can characterise every other corner of a square with reference to this origin by means of two numbers. I only need state how many rods I must pass over when, starting from the origin, I proceed towards the ” right ” and then ” upwards,” in order to arrive at the corner of the square under consideration. These two numbers are then the ” Cartesian coordinates ” of this corner with reference to the ” Cartesian coordinate system” which is determined by the arrangement of little rods.

By making use of the following modification of this abstract experiment, we recognise that there must also be cases in which the experiment would be unsuccessful. We shall suppose that the rods ” expand ” by in amount proportional to the increase of temperature. We heat the central part of the marble slab, but not the periphery, in which case two of our little rods can still be brought into coincidence at every position on the table. But our construction of squares must necessarily come into disorder during the heating, because the little rods on the central region of the table expand, whereas those on the outer part do not.

With reference to our little rods — defined as unit lengths — the marble slab is no longer a Euclidean continuum, and we are also no longer in the position of defining Cartesian coordinates directly with their aid, since the above construction can no longer be carried out. But since there are other things which are not influenced in a similar manner to the little rods (or perhaps not at all) by the temperature of the table, it is possible quite naturally to maintain the point of view that the marble slab is a ” Euclidean continuum.” This can be done in a satisfactory manner by making a more subtle stipulation about the measurement or the comparison of lengths.

But if rods of every kind (i.e. of every material) were to behave in the same way as regards the influence of temperature when they are on the variably heated marble slab, and if we had no other means of detecting the effect of temperature than the geometrical behaviour of our rods in experiments analogous to the one described above, then our best plan would be to assign the distance one to two points on the slab, provided that the ends of one of our rods could be made to coincide with these two points ; for how else should we define the distance without our proceeding being in the highest measure grossly arbitrary ? The method of Cartesian coordinates must then be discarded, and replaced by another which does not assume the validity of Euclidean geometry for rigid bodies.* The reader will notice that the situation depicted here corresponds to the one brought about by the general postitlate of relativity (Section 23).

 

Notes

*) Mathematicians have been confronted with our problem in the following form. If we are given a surface (e.g. an ellipsoid) in Euclidean three-dimensional space, then there exists for this surface a two-dimensional geometry, just as much as for a plane surface. Gauss undertook the task of treating this two-dimensional geometry from first principles, without making use of the fact that the surface belongs to a Euclidean continuum of three dimensions. If we imagine constructions to be made with rigid rods in the surface (similar to that above with the marble slab), we should find that different laws hold for these from those resulting on the basis of Euclidean plane geometry. The surface is not a Euclidean continuum with respect to the rods, and we cannot define Cartesian coordinates in the surface. Gauss indicated the principles according to which we can treat the geometrical relationships in the surface, and thus pointed out the way to the method of Riemman of treating multi-dimensional, non-Euclidean continuum. Thus it is that mathematicians long ago solved the formal problems to which we are led by the general postulate of relativity.

 

GAUSSIAN COORDINATES

 

According to Gauss, this combined analytical and geometrical mode of handling the problem can be arrived at in the following way. We imagine a system of arbitrary curves (see Fig. 4) drawn on the surface of the table. These we designate as u-curves, and we indicate each of them by means of a number. The Curves u= 1, u= 2 and u= 3 are drawn in the diagram. Between the curves u= 1 and u= 2 we must imagine an infinitely large number to be drawn, all of which correspond to real numbers lying between 1 and 2. fig. 04 We have then a system of u-curves, and this “infinitely dense” system covers the whole surface of the table. These u-curves must not intersect each other, and through each point of the surface one and only one curve must pass. Thus a perfectly definite value of u belongs to every point on the surface of the marble slab. In like manner we imagine a system of v-curves drawn on the surface. These satisfy the same conditions as the u-curves, they are provided with numbers in a corresponding manner, and they may likewise be of arbitrary shape. It follows that a value of u and a value of v belong to every point on the surface of the table. We call these two numbers the coordinates of the surface of the table (Gaussian coordinates). For example, the point P in the diagram has the Gaussian coordinates u= 3, v= 1. Two neighbouring points P and P1 on the surface then correspond to the coordinates

P: u,v

P1: u + du, v + dv,

where du and dv signify very small numbers. In a similar manner we may indicate the distance (line-interval) between P and P1, as measured with a little rod, by means of the very small number ds. Then according to Gauss we have

ds2 = g[11]du2 + 2g[12]dudv = g[22]dv2

where g[11], g[12], g[22], are magnitudes which depend in a perfectly definite way on u and v. The magnitudes g[11], g[12] and g[22], determine the behaviour of the rods relative to the u-curves and v-curves, and thus also relative to the surface of the table. For the case in which the points of the surface considered form a Euclidean continuum with reference to the measuringrods, but only in this case, it is possible to draw the u-curves and v-curves and to attach numbers to them, in such a manner, that we simply have :

ds2 = du2 + dv2

Under these conditions, the u-curves and v-curves are straight lines in the sense of Euclidean geometry, and they are perpendicular to each other. Here the Gaussian coordinates are samply Cartesian ones. It is clear that Gauss coordinates are nothing more than an association of two sets of numbers with the points of the surface considered, of such a nature that numerical values differing very slightly from each other are associated with neighbouring points ” in space.”

So far, these considerations hold for a continuum of two dimensions. But the Gaussian method can be applied also to a continuum of three, four or more dimensions. If, for instance, a continuum of four dimensions be supposed available, we may represent it in the following way. With every point of the continuum, we associate arbitrarily four numbers, x[1], x[2], x[3], x[4], which are known as ” coordinates.” Adjacent points correspond to adjacent values of the coordinates. If a distance ds is associated with the adjacent points P and P1, this distance being measurable and well defined from a physical point of view, then the following formula holds:

ds2 = g[11]dx[1]^2 + 2g[12]dx[1]dx[2] … . g[44]dx[4]^2,

where the magnitudes g[11], etc., have values which vary with the position in the continuum. Only when the continuum is a Euclidean one is it possible to associate the coordinates x[1] . . x[4]. with the points of the continuum so that we have simply

ds2 = dx[1]^2 + dx[2]^2 + dx[3]^2 + dx[4]^2.

In this case relations hold in the fourdimensional continuum which are analogous to those holding in our three-dimensional measurements.

However, the Gauss treatment for ds2 which we have given above is not always possible. It is only possible when sufficiently small regions of the continuum under consideration may be regarded as Euclidean continua. For example, this obviously holds in the case of the marble slab of the table and local variation of temperature. The temperature is practically constant for a small part of the slab, and thus the geometrical behaviour of the rods is almost as it ought to be according to the rules of Euclidean geometry. Hence the imperfections of the construction of squares in the previous section do not show themselves clearly until this construction is extended over a considerable portion of the surface of the table.

We can sum this up as follows: Gauss invented a method for the mathematical treatment of continua in general, in which ” size-relations ” (” distances ” between neighbouring points) are defined. To every point of a continuum are assigned as many numbers (Gaussian coordinates) as the continuum has dimensions. This is done in such a way, that only one meaning can be attached to the assignment, and that numbers (Gaussian coordinates) which differ by an indefinitely small amount are assigned to adjacent points. The Gaussian coordinate system is a logical generalisation of the Cartesian coordinate system. It is also applicable to non-Euclidean continua, but only when, with respect to the defined “size” or “distance,” small parts of the continuum under consideration behave more nearly like a Euclidean system, the smaller the part of the continuum under our notice.

 

THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM OF THE SPEICAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY CONSIDERED AS A EUCLIDEAN CONTINUUM

 

We are now in a position to formulate more exactly the idea of Minkowski, which was only vaguely indicated in Section 17. In accordance with the special theory of relativity, certain coordinate systems are given preference for the description of the fourdimensional, space-time continuum. We called these ” Galileian coordinate systems.” For these systems, the four coordinates x, y, z, t, which determine an event or — in other words, a point of the fourdimensional continuum — are defined physically in a simple manner, as set forth in detail in the first part of this book. For the transition from one Galileian system to another, which is moving uniformly with reference to the first, the equations of the Lorentz transformation are valid. These last form the basis for the derivation of deductions from the special theory of relativity, and in themselves they are nothing more than the expression of the universal validity of the law of transmission of