Einstein's Complete Works, Volume 2: The Swiss Period (1900-1909)

Author: Edited by John Stachel
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2002-12-01
Features: This volume is one of the most important in the entire series. It collects 62 papers and letters written by Einstein from 1901 to 1912, including his three groundbreaking early works: the theory of special relativity, the photon hypothesis, and Brownian motion and statistical physics. In his 1909 Salzburg lecture, he further clarified the intrinsic connections among these three works. The preface, editorial notes, and annotations written by the editor provide detailed introductions to the historical context in which Einstein's works were produced, his thought processes and methods, the significance and impact of these works, the reactions they received, and related debates, along with extensive bibliographical references. For the study of Einstein and the history of 20th-century physics, this volume is indeed a highly valuable historical document. In our translation, we have strived to remain faithful to the original text. Even where minor errors exist in the original, we have retained them as they appeared. However, in the editor's footnotes, almost all such errors have been pointed out and corrected. We hope readers will take note. The original book has two types of page numbers: one is the page number of this volume, which has been marked as marginal notes in the Chinese translation. The other is the page number of the original published version, which is indicated only on the first page of each paper in the Chinese translation and no marginal notes are provided. The page numbers of quoted passages in the annotations refer to the original version, i.e., the marginal notes. For the convenience of readers, all papers in this volume are marked with the page numbers of this volume in the Chinese translation.