HO XIII

THE RELATIVITY OF TIME

One can make a clock from anything that exhibits periodic behavior. To derive directly the equations of relativistic time, we proceed as follows:

Imagine a clock that consists of two mirrors, one on the ceiling and one on the floor of a small room. The mirror on the ceiling is directly above and is facing the mirror on the floor. Now, we point a light source towards

Figure

the ceiling mirror so that a ray of light coming from the light will strike the mirror perpendicularly. If we turn the light on for a brief fraction of a nanosecond and remove it quickly before the light-beam returns from the ceiling mirror, the light-beam will now bounce back and forth continuously between the two mirrors. [See Figure 1] One could (in theory) measure the passage of time in terms of the number of bounces that the beam has made since any arbitrary starting time t₀. The period of the clock (represented by T₀) is merely the time it takes for the light-beam to pass between the two mirrors. The value of T₀ is dependent upon the velocity of light (c) and the distance between the two mirrors (L). In other words, the time taken by the light beam in going from one mirror to the other is merely the vertical distance between the mirrors (represented by L) divided by the velocity of light (c). It follows then that:

Equation 1:~T SUB 0~=~L OVER c

Figure

Now imagine a second clock, identical to the first, but placed on a railroad car capable of traveling at “relativistic velocities” (i.e., velocities that are a significant fraction of the speed of light). From the point of view of a “stationary” observer who is watching from beside the rails, the light beam will now have to travel on a diagonal line when going between mirrors [See Figure 2]. The vertical distance traversed by the light-beam will be unchanged (L). The horizontal distance, however, will be the distance the train has traveled between the time the light-beam leaves the first mirror and the time it reaches the second. In other words, the horizontal distance traversed by the light beam will be the product of the velocity of the train (v) and the period of the second clock (T):

Horizontal Distance = vT

T~=~L OVER c ~CDOT~ 1 OVER {{left ( 1~-~v^2/c^2 right )~}^½}

But since T₀ = L/c (see Equation 1, above):

T~=~T SUB 0 OVER {{left ( 1~-~v^2/c^2 right )~}^½}

What this formula means is that as the velocity of the “moving” clock increases, its period (as measured by the “stationary” observer) grows longer. For example, if the velocity of the moving clock is 3/5 the speed of light, then the value of the denominator in Equation 12 is (1 - 9/25)^½ or 4/5. If it takes one second for a light-beam to pass from one mirror to the other in the stationary clock, then from the “stationary” observer's point of view it takes 5/4 seconds for a light-beam to go from one mirror to the other in the moving clock. As V increases toward c, the divisor grows ever smaller. At the value of c, it becomes 0, and the period of the moving clock (as measured by the “stationary” observer) becomes infinite.

The longer the period of the clock, the slower it goes. When measuring how much time has passed on the moving clock (from the stationary observer's point of view) one must multiply (rather than divide) by the “relativistic factor” [i.e., (1 - v²/c²)^½]. If one hour has passed on the stationary clock, then (from the stationary observer's point of view) only 48 minutes have passed on a clock moving at 3/5c relative to the “stationary” observer. This relation is given by:

t~=~t SUB 0 (1~-~v^2/c^2)^½

HO XIV

ON THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF MOVING BODIES

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

I. Kinematical Part

§l. Definition of Simultaneity

Let us take a system of co-ordinates in which the equations of Newtonian mechanics hold good. In order to render our presentation more precise and to distinguish this system of co-ordinates verbally from others which will be introduced hereafter, we call it the “stationary system.”

If a material point is at rest relatively to this system of co-ordinates, its position can be defined relatively thereto by the employment of rigid standards of measurement and the methods of Euclidean geometry, and can be expressed in Cartesian co-ordinates.

If we wish to describe the motion of a material point, we give the values of its co-ordinates as function of the time. Now we must bear carefully in mind that a mathematical description of this kind has no physical meaning unless we are quite clear as to what we understand by “time.” We have to take into account that all our judgments in which time plays a part are always judgments of simultaneous events. If, for instance, I say, “That train arrives here at 7 o'clock,” I mean something like this: “The pointing of the small hand of my watch to 7 and the arrival of the train are simultaneous events.”^{^[1]}

It might appear possible to overcome all the difficulties attending the definition of “time” by substituting “the position of the small hand of my watch” for “time.” And in fact such a definition is satisfactory when we are concerned with defining a time exclusively for the place where the watch is located; but it is no longer satisfactory when we have to connect in time series of events occurring at different places, or - what comes to the same thing - to evaluate the times of events occurring at places remote from the watch.

We might, of course, content ourselves with time values determined by an observer stationed together with the watch at the origin of the co-ordinates, and co-ordinating the corresponding positions of the hands with light signals, given out by every event to be timed, and reaching him through empty space. But this co-ordination has the disadvantage that it is not independent of the standpoint of the observer with the watch or clock, as we know from experience. We arrive at a much more practical determination along the following line of thought.

If at the point A of space there is a clock, an observer at A can determine the time values of events in the immediate proximity of A by finding the positions of the hands which are simultaneous with these events. If there is at the point B of space another clock in all respects resembling the one at A, it is possible for an observer at B to determine the time values of events in the immediate neighbourhood of B. But it is not possible without further assumption to compare, in respect of time, an event at A with an event at B. We have so far defined only a “A time” and a “B time.” We have not defined a common “time” for A and B. The latter time can now be defined in establishing by definition that the “time” required by light to travel from A to B equals the “time” it requires to travel from B to A. Let a ray of light start at the “A time” t_A from A towards B, let it at the “B time” t_B be reflected at B in the direction of A, and arrive again at A at the “A time” t'_A.

In accordance with definition the two clocks synchronize if

t_B - t_A = t'_A - t_B.

We assume that this definition of synchronism is free from contradictions, and possible for any number of points; and that the following relations are universally valid:

1. If the clock at B synchronizes with the clock at A, the clock at A synchronizes with the clock at B.

2. If the clock at A synchronizes with the clock at B and also with the clock at C, the clocks at B and C also synchronize with each other.

Thus with the help of certain imaginary physical experiments we have settled what is to be understood by synchronous stationary clocks located at different places, and have evidently obtained a definition of “simultaneous,” or “synchronous,” and of "time.” The “time” of an event is that which is given simultaneously with the event by a stationary clock located at the place of the event, this clock being synchronous, and indeed synchronous for all time determinations, with a specific stationary clock.

In agreement with experience we further assume the quantity

{2AB} OVER {{t'} sub a~-~t sub a}~=~C

to be a universal constant - the velocity of light in empty space.

An essential point is that we have defined time by means of stationary clocks in the stationary system, and the time now defined being appropriate to the stationary system we call it “the time of the stationary system.”

§2. On the Relativity of Lengths and Times

The following reflexions are based on the principle of relativity and on the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light. These two principles we define as follows:

1. The laws by which the states of physical systems undergo change are not affected, whether these changes of state be referred to the one or the other of two systems of co-ordinates in uniform translatory motion relative to each other.

2. Any ray of light moves in the “stationary” system of co-ordinates with the determined velocity c, whether the ray be emitted by a stationary or by a moving body. Here

velocity~=~{light~path} OVER {time~interval}

where time interval is to be taken in the sense of the definition in §1.

Let there be given a stationary rigid-rod; and let its length be 1 as measured by a measuring-rod which is also stationary. We now imagine the axis of the rod lying along the axis of x of the stationary system of co-ordinates, and that a uniform motion of parallel translation with velocity v along the axis of x in the direction of increasing x is then imparted to the rod. We now inquire as to the length of the moving rod, and imagine its length to be ascertained by the following two operations:

(a) The observer moves together with the given measuring-rod and the rod to be measured, and measures the length of the rod directly by superposing the measuring-rod, in just the same way as if all three were at rest.

(b) By means of stationary clocks set up in the stationary system and synchronizing in accordance with §1, the observer ascertains at what points of the stationary system the two ends of the rod to be measured are located at a definite time. The distance between these two points, measured by the measuring-rod already employed, which in this case is at rest, is also a length which may be designated “the length of the rod.”

In accordance with the principle of relativity the length to be discovered by the operation (a) - we will call it “the length of the rod in the moving system” - must be equal to the length 1 of the stationary rod.

The length to be discovered by the operation (b) we will call “the length of the (moving) rod in the stationary system.” This we shall determine on the basis of our two principles, and we shall find that it differs from l.

Current kinematics tacitly assumes that the lengths determined by these two operations are precisely equal, or in other words, that a moving rigid body at the epoch t may in geometrical respects be perfectly represented by the same body at rest in a definite position.

We imagine further that at the two ends A and B of the rod, clocks are placed which synchronize with the clocks at the stationary system, that is to say that their indications correspond at any instant to the “time of the stationary system” at the places where they happen to be. These clocks are therefore “synchronous in the stationary system.”

We imagine further that with each clock there is a moving observer, and that these observers apply to both clocks the criterion established in §1 for the synchronization of two clocks. Let a ray of light depart from A at the time^{^[2]} t_A, let it be reflected at B at the time t_B, and reach A again at the time t'_A. Taking into consideration the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light we find that

t_B~-~t_A~=~r_{AB} OVER {c~-~v}~\and~t_A~-~t_B~=~~r_{AB} OVER {c~+~v}

where r_AB denotes the length of the moving rod - measured in the stationary system. Observers moving with the moving rod would thus find that the two clocks were not synchronous, while observers in the stationary system would declare the clocks to be synchronous.

*Göttingen

Leo Szilard (1898-1964)

*Alexander Sachs (1893-1973)

Lise Meitner (1878-1968)

Otto Hahn (1879-1968)

Fission

Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900-1958)

Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956)

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)

U-235, U-238, U-239

Neptunium (Z-93, A-239)

Plutonium (Z-94; A-239)

Ernest O. Lawrence (1901-1958)

Cyclotron

Leslie Groves (1896-1970)

Manhattan Engineering District (MED)

Glenn T. Seaborg (1912-1999)

Metallurgical Laboratory (Chicago)

Nuclear Pile

Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967)

Heavy Water (D₂O)

*Samuel Goudsmit (1902-1978)

*Alsos

Los Alamos

Oak Ridge

Hanford, Washington

Trinity (16 July, 1945)

Hiroshima (6 August, 1945)

Nagasaki (9 August, 1945)

F. D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)

*Potsdam (1945)

Harry S Truman (1884-1972)

HO XVI CLASSICAL GENETICS

Biometrics, Biometricians Chiasma, pl. Chiasmata

Francis Galton (1822-1911) Genotype, Phenotype, Gene

William Bateson (1861-1926) Testable Hypothesis

*Mendel=s Principles of Heredity: A Defense (1902)

Drosophila melanogaster

Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945) Synthetic Theory

T. D. Lysenko (1898-1976)

*Wilhelm Johannsen (1857-1927) *A. H. Sturtevant (1891-1971)

*Theodor Boveri (1862-1916) *H. J. Muller (1890-1968)

*Walter Sutton (1877-1916) *C. B. Bridges (1889-1938)

________________________________________________________________________________

THE DOUBLE HELIX

*Friedrich Miescher (1844-1895) Phage Group

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (1869) *Salvador Luria (1912-1991)

*A. D. Hershey (1908- )

Structuralists *Martha Chase (1927- )

*H. W. Bragg (1862-1942)

*W. L. Bragg (1890-1971) J. D. Watson (1929- )

X-Ray Crystallography (ca. 1912) Francis Crick (1916- )

*Max Perutz (1914- )

*John Kendrew (1917- ) *Erwin Chargaff (1905- )

Maurice Wilkins (1916- ) 1:1 Rule

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)

*King=s College

Linus Pauling (1901-1994)

*ALight and Life@ (1932)

*Max Delbrück (1906-1981) Autocatalysis

*What is Life (1945) Heterocatalysis

*Purines *Pyrimidines

*Adenine *Cytosine

*Guanine *Thymine

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TWENTIETH-CENTURY ASTRONOMY

William Herschel (1738-1822) *Thomas Matthews (1939-...)

Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953) *Martin Schmidt

Einar Herzprung (1873-1967) *Arno Allan. Penzias (1933-...)

Henry Norris Russell (1877-1957) *Robert Wilson (1936-...)

Herzprung-Russell Diagram Big Bang Theory

*Anthony Hewish (1924-...) Quasars

*Jocelyn Bell Pulsars, Neutron Stars

^{^[1]}We shall not here discuss the inexactitude which lurks in the concept of simultaneity to two events at approximately the same place, which can only be removed by an abstraction.

^{^[2]}“Time” here denotes “time of the stationary system” and also “position of hands of the moving clock situated at the place under discussion.”