Einstein's Miracle Year: Five Papers That Changed the Face of Physics

Author: (USA) Stephen Schiffer
Translator: Fan Dainian / Xu Liangying
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-11-01
Features: This book is edited and written by Stephen Schiffer, Director of the Einstein Research Center at Boston University, and includes an introduction. It compiles five classic papers that revolutionized physics by Einstein, providing background explanations and editorial notes for each paper. The preface features an introduction by Roger Penrose, a renowned contemporary mathematician and theoretical physicist. This book not only holds high documentary value for understanding Einstein's original thoughts in the early 20th century and how they transformed physics but also offers profound inspiration.
Publisher's Note: The five original papers by Einstein included in this book are classics of modern physics. The English edition strives to retain the original style of the texts, leaving all omissions and errors in the original unchanged while adding annotations to explain them. The Chinese edition follows the style and format of the English edition, including the layout of formulas, the use of italics for foreign letters, and the use of units of measurement, all without technical modifications. For example, expressions like dx/dt are printed in italics in the original, and to preserve the authenticity of the classic literature, the Chinese edition retains this style without altering it to dx/dt; similarly, the Chinese edition continues to use ergs as the unit of energy instead of joules. The English edition does not include an index, and the Chinese edition does not compile one separately. All these details are kindly noted by the readers.
Excerpt: Thus, this speed is independent of the motion of the emitting body. From these two postulates, based on Maxwell's theory of stationary bodies, a simple and consistent electrodynamics of moving bodies can be derived. The introduction of the "luminiferous ether" will be shown to be superfluous, because according to the views to be elucidated here, neither the introduction of an "absolutely stationary space" with special properties nor the specification of a velocity vector at each point in empty space for electromagnetic processes is necessary. The theory to be elucidated here—like all other electrodynamics—relies on the kinematics of rigid bodies, because what such a theory deals with is the relationship between rigid bodies (coordinate systems), clocks, and electromagnetic processes. Insufficient consideration of this situation is the root of the difficulties that the electrodynamics of moving bodies must currently overcome.
A. Kinematics Part
1. Definition of Simultaneity
Let there be a coordinate system in which Newtonian mechanics is valid. To make our statement more rigorous and to facilitate distinguishing this coordinate system from others to be introduced later, we call it the "resting system." If a point mass is at rest relative to this coordinate system, its position relative to the latter can be determined by rigid measuring rods using Euclidean geometry and expressed in Cartesian coordinates. If we want to describe the motion of a point mass, we give its coordinate values as functions of time. Now we must remember that such a mathematical description only has physical meaning after we have a clear understanding of what "time" refers to here. We should consider that all our judgments involving time are always about simultaneous events. For example, when I say, "The train arrived here at 7 o'clock," it probably means: "The short hand of my clock pointed to 7 at