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爱因斯坦的创见是如何被科学界接受的?

已有 2445 次阅读 2017-7-1 11:30 |系统分类:科研笔记

The reactions of modern and contemporary scientists to Einstein’sstudies were a mixture of doubts and enthusiasm. Einstein changed our mostbasic concepts of space and time. In 1905, Einstein published his paper “On theElectrodynamics of Moving Bodies.” That was such a special paper that therewere no references or quotations! It was a creation from the greatest genius.Before Einstein, the fundamental and intuitive concepts of space and time have neverbeen defined. They were mistakenly taken for granted. Not only layman but alsothe classical physicists regarded the time as being absolute, and that themoving clock does not change its rhythm. They were common sense that nobodydoubts, and the doubts were thrown into the face of relativity theory. Yetcommon sense can be misleading and scientific prejudice are difficult to die. Einstein’sstudy contradicted our traditional notions of absolute time, and theconclusions deduced from the relativity theory were regarded as being absurdand nonsensical at the very beginning.

It sure took a longer time for Einstein’s articles to be recognizedby the scientific societies. The recognition started from a few top physicists.Professor Witkowski read Einstein’s paper with eyes wide open, “A newCopernicus has been born! Read Einstein’s paper.” He said. Later, Professor MaxBorn read the paper and recognized its greatness and also made his owncontributions to the relativity theory. And, very importantly, it was the greatmathematician Herman Minkowski’s enthusiasm that helped the relativity theorywidely disseminated. Minkowski gave the lecture, “Space and Time,” in 1908,said, “From now on, space in itself and time in itself should descend into ashadow and only a union of both should retain its independence.” He also putEinstein’s ideas into a new geometrical form so that scientists can understandthem better by the beauty of math. “Between 1908 and 1918, relativity theorybecame known to physicists and mathematicians. Many of them became aware that arevolution had taken place. But the enthusiasm and doubts were subdued. Onlylater were both reactions voiced more loudly than ever before in the history ofscience.” (L. Infeld, 1978)

As for Einstein’s interest in developing a unified field theory, thereactions of modern and contemporary scientists were not that enthusiastic.Most of them believed that it was a waste of effort. “The Einstein that may emerge from seriouslyacknowledging the philosophical dimension of his unified field theory programmay well be that of an intellectual whose belief in the viability of a unifiedtheory of the gravitational and electromagnetic field was intimately connectedto a historically outdated belief in the ability of a single human mind tograsp the mysteries of nature in simple terms…The futility of his scientificunification endeavours in the face of developments in theoretical physics, bothduring and after his life, suggests that the specific form of this belief inthe power of the human mind belongs to a tradition of enlightenment whose daysare gone.” (Tilman Sauer, 2007)

In conclusion, not only had Einstein’s studyrevolutionized the modern physics, but also it has influenced our philosophicalviews on space and time and actually our whole modern life. He is one of thegreatest in the history of science and deserves our respect forever.  




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