Book
No shadow of a doubt : the 1919 eclipse that confirmed Einstein's theory of relativity
Published 2019 by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey,
ISBN 9780691183862
Bib Id 2258810
Copyright 2019
Description viii, 403 pages : illustrations, portraits, facsimiles ; 23 cm.
More Details
Leader
03021cam a2200445Ii 4500
LCCN
2019-930002
ISBN
9780691183862 (hardcover) $29.95
0691183864
9780691217154 (paperback) $19.95
0691217157
Call #
530.11 K
Title
No shadow of a doubt : the 1919 eclipse that confirmed Einstein's theory of relativity
Publication Information
2019 by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey,
Copyright Date
©2019
Description
viii, 403 pages : illustrations, portraits, facsimiles ; 23 cm.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-385) and index.
Contents
Prologue: May 29, 1919 -- The experiment that weighed light -- Eclipses -- Two pacifists, Einstein and Eddington -- Europe in its madness -- Preparations in time of war -- The opportunity of the century? -- Tools of the trade -- The improvised expedition -- Outward bound -- Through cloud, hopefully -- Not only because of theory -- Lights all askew in the heavens -- Theories and experiments -- The unbearable heaviness of light -- The problem of scientific bias -- Epilogue: where are they now?
Summary
In 1919, British scientists led extraordinary expeditions to Brazil and Africa to test Albert Einstein's revolutionary new theory of general relativity in what became the century's most celebrated scientific experiment. The result ushered in a new era and made Einstein a global celebrity by confirming his dramatic prediction that the path of light rays would be bent by gravity. Today, Einstein's theory is scientific fact. Yet the effort to "weigh light" by measuring the gravitational deflection of starlight during the May 29, 1919, solar eclipse has become clouded by myth and skepticism. Could Arthur Eddington and Frank Dyson have gotten the results they claimed? Did the pacifist Eddington falsify evidence to foster peace after a horrific war by validating the theory of a German antiwar campaigner?
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